Is there a problem with the current idea of diversity? Has our cultural focus on identity allowed economic inequality to flourish? Walter Benn Michaels, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, argues (among other things) that affirmative action in schools has not made them more open, it’s just guaranteed that the rich kids come in the appropriate colors. Walter Benn Michaels, whose new book is “The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality” (Metropolitan Books, 2006), will join us for the hour.
