WRESTLING WITH DIVERSITY

Vol. 13 No. 12 (December 2003)

WRESTLING WITH DIVERSITY, by Sanford Levinson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 352 pp. Paperback $21.95 ISBN: 0-8223-3239-6.

Reviewed by Mark Kessler, Department of Political Science, Bates College. Email: mkessler@bates.edu

In this highly engaging, beautifully written, and provocative volume, Sanford Levinson "wrestles with" the meaning, significance, and consequences of diversity in multicultural societies. Nine essays (two produced with co-authors, one with his daughter Meira, the other with daughter Rachel) written and published during the past thirteen years (only one essay has not previously appeared in print) seek to, in Levinson's words, "examine the various ways that we attempt to come to terms with-to 'wrestle' with-the complex issues presented by contemporary life in a decidedly diverse, multicultural and culturally pluralistic society" (p.2). Levinson frames the central question guiding analyses of topics in this volume in a useful introductory chapter as "how we should approach the manifold, almost protean, notions of diversity that structure so much contemporary public debate" (p.5).

An insightful opening essay probes the theoretical underpinnings of the concept "diversity," especially from the perspective of United States Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action. Another essay explores the question of whether societies may or should legitimately require citizenship for entry into the legal profession and the consequences of such a requirement for ethnic diversity. A third essay, a previously published review of Yael Tamir's LIBERAL NATIONALISM (1993), extends this analysis to explore, more generally, relationships between diversity and such nationalistic sentiments as loyalty, belonging, and cultural affiliation. The remaining essays focus on some aspect of religious diversity, examining the many and varied issues raised by religion and religiosity for discussions of multiculturalism. Specifically, these latter essays-essays that form the book's core-explore the contributions of religious traditions and affiliations to diversity in public schools and on the judicial bench. In large part the book seems motivated by the author's belief that religion ought to be added to race and ethnicity in discussions of diversity and multiculturalism. Levinson explores religion's place in such discussions intelligently and creatively through subtle and nuanced examinations of such concrete topics as the implications of school voucher programs for religious diversity in public schools, the question of whether there are distinctive qualities and a "different voice" of a "Jewish lawyer" and/or a "Catholic judge," and whether or not aspects of legal professional identity, such as beliefs in legal formalism that seek to separate personal background from legal practices, diminish or override personal religious and ethnic identities.

Although the author is careful to state in the introduction that "[i]t would be misleading to describe" the volume's essays "as 'chapters' in a tightly woven book developing a fully argued thesis reflecting a general theory of diversity," they fit together coherently and serve to deepen the questions asked and alternative answers considered on closely related issues that are productively explored through consideration of multiple case studies. Levinson first presented many of these essays as invited lectures or presentations and they retain, for the most part, a personal, somewhat informal, and thoroughly engaging manner of presentation. Several essays make especially good use of Levinson's personal experiences growing up Jewish in Hendersonville, North Carolina, a small, predominantly Christian community. Among other things, the author engagingly relates the many lessons learned from friends and classmates with different religious affiliations and the internal conflicts produced by his experiences performing in Christmas concerts and memorizing New Testament passages for a state-sponsored competition, including the one he appears to remember most vividly, John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in him shall be granted everlasting life"), "the quintessential summary of Christian belief" (p.63). Levinson employs such personal anecdotes to illustrate some of the positive and negative consequences of religious pluralism and the dilemmas and opportunities afforded one with a minority religious identity.

Throughout the collection, Levinson asks important questions about diversity and explores answers in materials that are themselves diverse. These materials include decisions of the United States Supreme Court, arguments of political theorists, research findings of social scientists regarding the benefits of diversity, questions asked about religion and religious identity and answers provided in Senate confirmation hearings for United States Supreme Court justices, personal experiences of both himself and his daughter Meira, who teaches in the Boston public schools, and positions on questions of halacha, Jewish law, by such rabbinical luminaries as Maimonides, Nachmanides, and Moshe Feinstein. Indeed, for me, Levinson's discussion of halachic issues, disputes, and dilemmas and their connection to the question of whether Jewish lawyers act in distinctive ways because of their religious affiliation and background are among the most fascinating explorations of diversity in legal settings that I have read in a volume on legal and political theory. And this from a scholar who is careful to characterize himself as "secular"!

Although Levinson expresses skepticism about the precision and utility of the concept "diversity," and provides a powerful critique of the concept's explication and use by the Supreme Court, he also seems a strong advocate for its benefits throughout this volume. Diversity, we learn, promotes such important liberal values as civic tolerance, virtue, and respect, as well as assisting individuals to develop the capacity for autonomy. Levinson does not explicitly examine the relationship between diversity and integration, but does seem to connect them throughout his exploration of schools. Levinson makes a persuasive case that members of the majority community benefit from exposure to those from minority religious groups and that students of faith and more secular students may learn from each other. He seems so focused on the benefits of diversity in integrated public schools that he assesses policy options, such as voucher programs, for their impact on such diversity in public schools. At times, he seems well aware of the concerns from some minorities, and seems concerned himself, about how integrated institutions may not themselves produce true multiculturalism, where each group retains what makes it distinctive and where such distinctive qualities are celebrated by all, but rather may contribute to assimilation to majority practices and norms. But, by and large, he pays too little attention in these otherwise nuanced and multifaceted essays to the question of integration's relationship to diversity and its potentially assimilationist consequences.

Thus, the essays focusing on diversity in public schools would have been enhanced with more attention to, or "wrestling with," the most serious counter-arguments against integration and for separate space for minority groups. Critical race scholars, such as Derrick Bell (1976) and Gary Peller (1990) make important arguments that African-American students, for example, are more likely to flourish, both academically and culturally, in one-race schools controlled and operated by African-Americans. And social scientists like Beverly Daniel Tatum (1997), a psychologist who presently serves as president of Spelman College, explore the ways that separate spaces within integrated institutions help form and solidify positive minority racial identities.

Levinson's focus in this volume on religious diversity and his implicit preference for integrated schools leads him to raise critical questions about schools open exclusively to members of a single religion. In this regard, he shows quite well the benefits of learning about other points of view from those religiously different from oneself. In one essay, Levinson appears to portray Alan Dershowitz, professor of law at Harvard, as a prototype of the "Jewish lawyer," or perhaps more precisely the "Jewish law professor," whose religious background, if not current religious practice, leads him to refuse to teach on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, a refusal that not only helps him to identify with his religious heritage, but teaches the institution an important lesson about religious difference. However, in the context of religion, and following along lines similar to those argued by Bell, Peller, and Tatum, an argument might be made that one contributes most fully to diversity and multiculturalism when one knows most thoroughly the traditions, practices, rituals, texts, and theological positions underlying one's religious heritage and when one feels enough pride and identification to use that knowledge when appropriate. Indeed, it might well be the case that the pride and identification underlying Alan Dershowitz's propensity to advocate for respect for Jewish causes and traditional Jewish practices were formed in the yeshivas he attended prior to college. If that is the case more generally, then perhaps Levinson must give more credit to parochial educational institutions for their contribution to multicultural diversity, even if in some of these institutions the lessons taught may not reinforce the values of tolerance and respect for other traditions that Levinson advocates. But if the students that help create religious diversity have not learned these lessons, particularly if they are central tenets of the faith, then it is not clear what aspects of religion Levinson wants represented among students in public schools. For me, this is the fundamental tension in his admirable call for religious diversity.

Throughout this volume, Levinson demonstrates the ambiguities, difficulties, and dilemmas associated with diversity and encourages, even inspires, readers to join him in thinking through, or "wrestling with," some of the most significant questions. His goals, by his own account, are modest, seeking to initiate, provoke, and stimulate conversations. He accomplishes these goals beautifully and concludes by seeming to suggest that the most fundamental questions surrounding diversity must continue to be discussed and debated, even if they may not be answered definitively. Extending the metaphor of "wrestling" that runs throughout the book, he argues that it is impossible to "'pin' the dilemmas posed by 'diversity'. . . so that we can not simply declare one side of an argument as the winner." Rather, he writes, "as with other existential questions, the wrestling is a permanent condition" (p.317). This volume contributes importantly to the struggle to understand more fully the many complexities, subtleties, and nuances of the contemporary world that we all inhabit. It asks novel and politically significant questions that force it readers to think.

REFERENCES:

Bell, Derrick. 1976. "Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation." 85 YALE LAW JOURNAL 470.

Peller, Gary. 1990. "Race Consciousness." 1990 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 758.

Tamir, Yael. 1993. LIBERAL NATIONALISM. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. 1997. WHY ARE ALL THE BLACK KIDS SITTING TOGETHER IN THE CAFETERIA? AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE. NY: Basic Books.

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