Our Values Are

Historical Context

The principle that "Diversity Makes Us Stronger" represents a powerful counterpoint to historical forces of segregation, homogeneity, and exclusion. While this phrase has gained prominence in recent decades, the concept that human differences contribute to collective strength has roots in various philosophical, scientific, and social justice traditions.

Early articulations of diversity's value can be found in biological science, where biodiversity has long been recognized as crucial for ecosystem resilience. Charles Darwin observed in his studies of natural selection that diverse populations were better able to adapt to environmental changes and survive over time.1 This biological principle—that variety within species and ecosystems creates stability and adaptability—would later influence thinking about human social systems.

In the American context, discussions of diversity's value emerged alongside struggles against various forms of exclusion and segregation. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned a society where people of all races could contribute their unique perspectives and talents. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech invoked the image of a "beautiful symphony of brotherhood" created by Americans from diverse backgrounds.2

The concept of diversity as an organizational and societal strength gained formal academic attention in the late 20th century. In 1978, the landmark Supreme Court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke established diversity as a compelling interest in higher education.3 Justice Lewis Powell's opinion introduced the concept that diversity in the student body contributed to a robust exchange of ideas and better educational outcomes for all students.

Building on this foundation, research throughout the 1980s and 1990s began documenting concrete benefits of diversity in various contexts. Social psychologist Patricia Gurin's influential research demonstrated that interaction with diverse peers in college settings led to improved critical thinking skills, greater intellectual engagement, and better preparation for citizenship in a diverse democracy.4

In the business world, diversity's value gained recognition as globalization expanded markets and workforces became increasingly international. In 1987, the Hudson Institute published "Workforce 2000," a report predicting major demographic shifts in the American workforce and urging businesses to adapt by embracing diversity.5 This report, coupled with growing research showing connections between diversity and innovation, helped launch the corporate diversity and inclusion movement.

The early diversity frameworks often focused primarily on demographic representation—counting the number of people from different racial, gender, and other identity groups. However, as understanding evolved, the concept expanded to include the importance of inclusion (ensuring diverse individuals could fully participate) and equity (addressing systemic barriers to participation).6

By the early 21st century, research from fields ranging from organizational psychology to political science had established multiple mechanisms through which diversity strengthens teams, organizations, and societies. These included enhanced problem-solving through different perspectives, increased innovation through cognitive diversity, improved decision-making through challenging groupthink, and better representation of diverse stakeholder needs.7

The phrase "Diversity Makes Us Stronger" emerged as a succinct expression of these accumulated insights—a statement that diversity is not merely a matter of fairness or representation but a pragmatic approach to building more resilient, innovative, and effective groups at every level from small teams to entire societies.

In recent years, this principle has faced both increasing validation from research and increasing challenges from political movements promoting nationalism, isolation, and homogeneity. In this context, affirming that "Diversity Makes Us Stronger" represents both an evidence-based observation and a value statement about the kind of society we aspire to build.

Current Challenges

Despite growing evidence for diversity's benefits, several significant challenges impede its full realization:

Persistent Structural Barriers to Inclusion

While many organizations and institutions verbally commit to diversity, structural barriers often prevent full participation of marginalized groups. These barriers include:

• Economic inequality that limits educational and professional opportunities for many communities. The racial wealth gap in the United States, for example, means the typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times that of the typical Hispanic family.8

• Segregation in housing and education that limits interaction between different groups. Despite decades of legal desegregation, American schools remain highly segregated by race and socioeconomic status, with over 40% of Black and Hispanic students attending schools that are 90-100% non-white.9

• Accessibility barriers that exclude people with disabilities from full participation in physical spaces, digital environments, and social institutions.

• Credential requirements and hiring practices that disproportionately screen out qualified candidates from non-traditional backgrounds or marginalized groups.

These structural barriers mean that even well-intentioned diversity efforts often fail to achieve meaningful inclusion or capture diversity's full benefits.

Backlash and Polarization

Recent years have seen growing backlash against diversity initiatives, often framed around concepts like "anti-wokeness" or opposition to "identity politics." This backlash manifests in various ways:

• Political movements promoting nationalism, border restrictions, and cultural homogeneity as sources of societal strength rather than diversity.

• Legal challenges to affirmative action and other diversity-promoting policies, culminating in the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which effectively ended race-conscious admissions in higher education.10

• Corporate retreat from diversity commitments in response to political pressure, consumer boycotts, or leadership changes.

• Media ecosystems that promote fear of demographic change and frame diversity as a threat to national or cultural identity.

This polarization makes it increasingly difficult to build consensus around diversity's value and to implement effective policies to promote inclusion.

Superficial Implementation

Many diversity efforts fail to achieve meaningful results because they remain superficial or performative. Common limitations include:

• Focusing solely on representation without addressing inclusion, belonging, or systemic barriers to participation.

• One-time trainings or initiatives without sustained commitment or structural changes.

• Emphasizing visible diversity dimensions (like race and gender) while neglecting less visible aspects like socioeconomic background, neurodiversity, or ideological diversity.

• Placing responsibility on marginalized groups to educate others or adapt to existing cultures rather than changing institutional practices and norms.

• Failing to address power dynamics that determine whose voices are heard and valued within supposedly diverse spaces.

Such superficial approaches often create cynicism about diversity efforts while failing to deliver diversity's promised benefits.

Globalization Challenges

While globalization has increased awareness of global diversity, it has also created new tensions and challenges:

• Cultural appropriation concerns about how elements of marginalized cultures are adopted, modified, or commercialized by dominant groups.

• Language barriers and communication challenges in increasingly international workplaces and communities.

• Immigration debates that often frame newcomers as economic or cultural threats rather than sources of strength and renewal.

• Global economic inequalities that create power imbalances in cross-cultural interactions and collaborations.

These tensions highlight that merely bringing diverse groups together is insufficient without addressing underlying power dynamics and historical contexts.

Measurement and ROI Challenges

Organizations often struggle to measure diversity's impacts and justify investments in inclusion initiatives:

• Complex causality makes it difficult to isolate diversity's specific contributions to success from other factors.

• Long-term benefits may not appear in short-term metrics or quarterly reports.

• Intangible outcomes like improved innovation or decision quality can be harder to quantify than traditional performance measures.

• Inadequate metrics that focus on representation percentages rather than inclusion experiences or concrete outcomes.

These measurement challenges can make diversity initiatives vulnerable to budget cuts and skepticism, particularly in results-oriented organizational cultures.

Intersectionality and Complexity

As understanding of diversity has evolved, the recognition of intersectionality—how different aspects of identity combine to create unique experiences of privilege or marginalization—has highlighted the complexity of truly inclusive practices:

• Competing priorities between different marginalized groups can create tensions within diversity efforts.

• One-size-fits-all approaches often fail to address the specific needs of people with multiple marginalized identities.

• Tokenism risks when individuals are expected to represent entire demographic groups.

• Complex personal identities that don't fit neatly into diversity reporting categories or initiatives.

This complexity can make diversity work challenging to implement effectively, particularly for organizations with limited resources or expertise.

What We Can Do

Advancing the principle that "Diversity Makes Us Stronger" requires action at multiple levels:

Individual Actions

• Expand your personal network to include people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. Intentionally seek out voices and viewpoints different from your own.

• Develop cultural humility through ongoing learning about different cultures, identities, and experiences while remaining open to having your assumptions challenged.

• Address your own biases by taking implicit bias tests, reflecting on your assumptions, and actively questioning stereotypes when they arise in your thinking.

• Amplify diverse voices by sharing, citing, and promoting work by people from underrepresented groups in your field or community.

• Practice inclusive behaviors in everyday interactions, such as ensuring everyone has a chance to speak in meetings, learning correct pronunciation of names, and respecting different communication styles.

Organizational Actions

• Implement comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies that address recruitment, retention, advancement, culture, and accountability rather than isolated initiatives.

• Establish clear goals and metrics for diversity initiatives, tracking both representation and inclusion measures like belonging, advancement rates, and retention across different demographic groups.

• Create formal sponsorship and mentorship programs that help underrepresented employees navigate organizational structures and advance in their careers.

• Review policies and practices for unintended barriers or exclusionary impacts, from job requirements to performance evaluation criteria to social events.

• Invest in inclusive leadership development that equips managers with skills to leverage diversity, mitigate bias in decision-making, and create psychologically safe environments where all team members can contribute.

Educational Actions

• Promote inclusive curriculum that reflects diverse histories, perspectives, and contributions across disciplines and grade levels.

• Support integrated schools and diverse learning environments that prepare students to thrive in diverse societies and workplaces.

• Implement universal design for learning principles that accommodate different learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds.

• Develop critical thinking skills that help students evaluate information from multiple perspectives and recognize the value of diverse viewpoints.

• Create pipeline programs that connect underrepresented students with opportunities in fields where certain groups remain underrepresented.

Community Actions

• Support businesses and organizations owned or led by people from underrepresented groups through your purchasing, donation, and volunteering decisions.

• Participate in cultural exchange events that promote genuine understanding and appreciation across different communities.

• Advocate for inclusive urban planning that creates mixed-income housing, accessible public spaces, and infrastructure that connects rather than separates different communities.

• Build coalitions across different identity groups to address shared challenges while respecting unique needs and perspectives.

• Establish community dialogue programs that bring together diverse residents to discuss local issues and build relationships across difference.

Policy Actions

• Support evidence-based diversity policies like inclusive zoning, equitable school funding formulas, and workplace non-discrimination protections.

• Address systemic inequalities through policies that close wealth gaps, improve educational access, and remove barriers to full participation for all community members.

• Expand accessibility requirements to ensure physical spaces, digital environments, and public services are usable by people with diverse abilities and needs.

• Protect and expand voting rights to ensure diverse voices are represented in democratic processes and decision-making.

• Implement immigration policies that recognize immigrants' contributions to cultural, economic, and social strength while providing pathways to full civic participation.

Organizations Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

If you're looking to support or learn more about diversity and inclusion initiatives, these organizations are doing important work:

Workplace Diversity Organizations

• Paradigm - Provides data-driven strategies for building diverse and inclusive organizations

• Catalyst - Global nonprofit working with companies to build workplaces that work for women

• Project Include - Uses data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry

• DisabilityIN - Global organization driving disability inclusion in business

• Out & Equal - Works on LGBTQ+ workplace equality through education and advocacy

Educational and Research Organizations

• National Equity Project - Supports educational leaders to create more equitable systems

• Center for the Study of Diversity in Higher Education - Research institute examining diversity in postsecondary education

• Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity - Research organization working to create a just and inclusive society

• Perception Institute - Consortium of researchers, advocates, and strategists translating mind science research on identity differences

• National Association for Multicultural Education - Advocates for equity and social justice through multicultural education

Community and Advocacy Organizations

• National Urban League - Historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment and social justice

• PolicyLink - National research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Works to advance civil and human rights for Asian Americans

• UnidosUS - Advocates for Latinos in the areas of civic engagement, education, health, housing, and more

• National LGBTQ Task Force - Advances full freedom, justice, and equality for LGBTQ people

Conclusion

The principle that "Diversity Makes Us Stronger" represents both an evidence-based observation and an aspirational value. Research across multiple disciplines has consistently demonstrated that diverse teams, organizations, and societies benefit from enhanced problem-solving capabilities, increased innovation, improved decision-making, and greater resilience—provided that diversity is accompanied by true inclusion and equity.

Yet the path to realizing diversity's benefits remains challenging. Structural barriers, political polarization, superficial implementation, and measurement difficulties all impede progress. These challenges should not discourage us, but rather highlight the need for nuanced, sustained, and comprehensive approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion work.

As we display the Our Values Are image with its affirmation that "DIVERSITY MAKES US STRONGER," we acknowledge both the promise of this principle and the ongoing work required to fulfill it. We recognize that meaningful diversity goes beyond demographic representation to include the full participation and contribution of people with different backgrounds, identities, experiences, and perspectives.

By understanding diversity's historical context, recognizing current challenges, and taking concrete actions at multiple levels, each of us can contribute to building environments where diversity truly becomes a source of collective strength. This work isn't just about fairness or representation—though these are important values in themselves—but about creating more innovative, adaptive, and resilient communities capable of addressing complex challenges.

In a world facing unprecedented global challenges that cross boundaries of geography, culture, and discipline, the ability to leverage diverse perspectives may be more important than ever. By affirming that diversity makes us stronger and working to create truly inclusive environments, we invest not just in social justice but in our collective capacity to thrive in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.

References

1. Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray.

2. King, M. L., Jr. (1963, August 28). I Have a Dream [Speech]. Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

3. Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978).

4. Gurin, P., Dey, E. L., Hurtado, S., & Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and Impact on Educational Outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3), 330-367.

5. Johnston, W. B., & Packer, A. E. (1987). Workforce 2000: Work and Workers for the Twenty-first Century. Hudson Institute.

6. Winters, M. F. (2014). From Diversity to Inclusion: An Inclusion Equation. In B. M. Ferdman & B. R. Deane (Eds.), Diversity at Work: The Practice of Inclusion (pp. 205-228). Jossey-Bass.

7. Page, S. E. (2007). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton University Press.

8. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2023). Survey of Consumer Finances. Retrieved from https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm

9. Reardon, S. F., & Owens, A. (2014). 60 Years After Brown: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 199-218.

10. Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. ___ (2023).