Diversity makes Idaho better and stronger. We should encourage it, not fight it | Opinion

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

Learning to live together as brothers is a lesson that we all, daily, have to struggle with. At the end of every day, can we look in the mirror and ask: How did I do in living the golden rule with all of God’s children, no matter how different they may be? Even if they look, dress, believe or love differently than me?

Dr. King’s statement is a recognition that we are diverse. There is no way around it. Now, what are we going to do with that diversity? Is it, as some these days may try to claim, a thing to be derided? I mean after all, isn’t it unity we are after? Or exceptionalism?

My answer is: diversity, unity and exceptionalism are not opposites. In fact, they can work together, to powerful effect.

When we don’t proactively experience differences first-hand, we have a harder time finding true and powerful unity. When I don’t know you, I am more likely to be hostile to you or reject your ways or your ideas. Progress is harder when we are unwilling to learn from people from diverse backgrounds and histories. Both intranational and international violence is more likely between two different people who are unwilling to know each other and learn from each other.

I broke out of my eastern Idaho bubble when I served a mission in South Korea, went to law school in Connecticut, served in the military, and lived and worked in the South Pacific after school. Experiencing diversity in these ways opened my eyes to the limits of my prior worldview.

We are a diverse nation. We cannot, however, allow the word “diversity” to be divisive.

Diversity of expertise leads to better outcomes. What good would the interior designer of a building be without the engineer, the architect, the contractors, framers, electricians, HVAC specialists? Individually they cannot build a building, but together their wealth and diversity of experience, working together, allows them to create something beautiful.

But what about diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation? Research has shown that we can reach better outcomes and come to better decisions when we have diversity.

In a 2014 article in Scientific American, Dr. Katherine Phillips described several studies of the impact of diversity on individuals.

In the first study, she and her colleague gave several different groups of students — some which consisted of only one race and others which consisted of several — a murder mystery exercise. These groups were given the same set of information and asked to find out “who done it.” She found that the groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed the groups no racial diversity. Dr. Phillips concluded: “Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective,” which “hinders creativity and innovation.”

In another study, more than 350 students were put in groups to discuss a prevailing social issue like the death penalty, gun violence or abortion. Students gave opinion speeches on these topics to their fellow students. The study found that when a student from one race presented to a student from a different race, the perspective given was perceived as more novel and led to broader thinking and consideration of alternatives than when students from the same race introduced that same perspective. According to Dr. Phillips, “when we hear opinions from someone who is different from us, it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us.”

These results were not only limited to race and gender. Dr. Phillips and several researchers conducted a similar study using people who identified as Democrats or Republicans. They gave group members the task of preparing an essay communicating a perspective on a particular topic. Some presenters were told that they would be presenting to members of their same political party who disagreed with them on the issue. Other presenters were told that they would be presenting to members of the opposing political party.

Democrats who were told that they were presenting to a fellow Democrat who disagreed with them prepared less well for the discussion than Democrats who were told that a Republican disagreed with them, and Republicans showed the same pattern. According to Dr. Phillips, “When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.”

Schools, organizations, state and national governments, social media circles suffer when they insulate themselves in echo chambers not only of ideas, but also when they do not seek out diverse backgrounds, races, genders, ethnicities, nationalities, etc.

A team or company can experience the benefits of diversity and have a unified goal to succeed. A school can appreciate diversity and have a unified goal for students to learn and grow. Our nation can cultivate diversity under the unifying, guiding principles of the Declaration of Independence that “all men and women are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, such as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

A brotherhood of humankind, or an understanding that we are all God’s children, can have a unifying force and allow us to appreciate the differences person to person that arise from diversity.

And if we can see each other’s differences as contributing to a greater whole than any of us could have created alone, then diversity can contribute to dynamic, vibrant, powerful unity.