Colleges and universities are often a good example of these conflicting tendencies of diversity and conformity. On a college campus a cry is often heard to make the school more diverse in all possible ways: "we need more female staff because...; a person of color is needed to fill that history position because no European person could understand...; the only reason we don't have more lesbians is because they feel threatened by...". And on and on it goes.
One place that I fondly remember was the work lunch table that I enjoyed for a number of years. There was little diversity of age or sex. Two of the four of us were white Christians, one was a cultural Jew and the other was a Japanese American who I assume is an agnostic. But no topic was "off limits". There was a real diversity of opinions and discussed topics. The only thing we all agreed on was our strong dislike of "political correctness". Many items discussed could have gotten us disciplined or even fired if heard by the wrong person.
When there is a great diversity of sexes, cultures, religions and ages I don't think there usually is much diversity of opinion. Everyone is afraid of offending someone else or, depending on the environment they are in, getting in trouble with the thought police. As a result, in these diverse environments there is a stifling conformity where things are talked about only from the viewpoint of the current dominant paradigm.
I would match the real diversity of my previous lunch group with just about any other group of people out there. So, what is really more diverse, a group of 50 - 60 year old guys who don't look all that different from one another or a group of people, with different sexes, ages and backgrounds, all afraid to say what they really feel?
