NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY How Diversity Transforms the Project of Racial Equality A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Sociology By Ellen C. Berrey EVANSTON, ILLINOIS December 2008 2 © Copyright by Ellen Berrey 2008 All Rights Reserved 3 ABSTRACT How Diversity Transforms the Project of Racial Equality Ellen C. Berrey Over the last 35 years, “diversity” has become the orthodox, color-conscious ideology of race and inclusion in many U.S. institutions. My research interrogates diversity as a racialized political project, focusing on the organizational uses of diversity rhetoric. My analysis is based on case studies of a public university, a Fortune 500 company, and a city neighborhood, documented through six years of ethnographic, interview, and archival data. Administrators, executives, and political leaders in these disparate sites rely on a similar ideology of diversity: they present inclusion and difference as both morally good and institutionally beneficial. Their diversity discourse and related organizational initiatives affirm racial identity but downplay problems of racial and class disadvantage. Building on racial formation theory and cultural analyses of law and inequality, my findings demonstrate how decision-makers have adapted the meaning of race and the terms of institutional inclusion to fit better the political and organizational demands of the neoliberal, post-civil rights context. I show that the diversity project supports a wide range of agendas. Only a few of these agendas are concerned with remedying racial or economic inequality, and many of them replace, discredit, and otherwise diminish such remedies. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first want to thank the many people in Rogers Park, at the University of Michigan, and at Starr Corporation who welcomed me into their organizations and participated in this research. My ability to write this dissertation depended foremost on your openness and cooperation. A handful of people in each of these sites became friends and colleagues, provided checks on my findings, and even read my work. I am very grateful. Four wise mentors—Melinda Kanner, Christina Zarcadoolas, Barbara Blum, and Mary Clare Lennon—initially set me on this path. I am so thankful that you saw the sociologist in me and urged me to pursue a PhD. I was very lucky to complete this dissertation in the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University, which is full of generous, smart people who appreciate creative qualitative research. Wendy Griswold, my dissertation chair, shaped the course of this project with her kind and critical advice. She helped me to prioritize and focus on what mattered most. Wendy and the other participants in Northwestern University’s Culture Workshop provided brutally honest reactions that sharpened my work at numerous stages. Mary Pattillo shared her time, resources, keen eye for detail, and enthusiasm. With Dan Lewis, she supported my fieldwork in Rogers Park. She gave meticulous feedback on multiple drafts of chapters, article manuscripts, and talks, and she offered crucial input on my theoretical framework. Eric Klinenberg shared my vision of this project from the beginning. He asked tough questions and encouraged me to think broadly and creatively about my research design and my sources of evidence. Micaela di Leonardo was a welcome thorn in my side, pushing me to 5 consider political economy and neoliberalism in ways I would not have pursued without her. Wendy Espeland gave me thoughtful advice along the way and provided critical suggestions that will push this dissertation to the next stage. Nicki Beisel and Aldon Morris also posed tough questions at key turning points in the project. I was determined to finish my dissertation no matter what, but it would have been a much lonelier, more difficult, and less satisfying experience if not for Bob Nelson and Laura Beth Nielsen. I am not exaggerating when I say that you profoundly changed my time in graduate school. Thank you for the many ways you have supported me. The advice and reactions of Lauren Edelman, Christopher Mele, Christopher Schmidt, Susan Silbey, Sudhir Venkatesh, Kim Weeden, and Christopher Winship ultimately influenced my dissertation in fundamental ways, whether these scholars knew it or not. Mitch Berbrier, Jomillls Braddock, Robert Emerson, Jeremy Freese, Brian Rubineau, Mitchell Stevens, and Mariana Valverde gave me important feedback and encouragement. I benefited as well from the feedback I received from my colleagues at the American Bar Foundation, notably Traci Burch, John Comaroff, Stephen Engel, and Chris Tomlins. A number of old family friends, colleagues, and a former student helped me as I pursued different companies for my corporate case. Gary Gebhardt provided advice and document templates that proved invaluable when I negotiated access to Starr Corporation. My ability to do fieldwork in Ann Arbor, Michigan depended on the kindness of two strangers, Wroksie Jackson and Noelle Goodin, who generously opened their homes to me. This research was possible with the generous funding of the Law and Social Science Program of the National Science Foundation and the Graduate School, Department of Sociology, 6 and Center for Legal Studies of Northwestern University. Fellowships from Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research and Joint Center for Poverty Research supported my data collection in Rogers Park. Two fellowships, the Northwestern University Dissertation Year Fellowship and the ABF Doctoral Fellowship, enabled me to devote time and attention to writing my dissertation, and the ABF provided a wonderful intellectual home. Thanks to Murielle Harris, Julia Harris-Sacony, and Lucinda Underwood for excellent administrative support and to the transcriptionists at DataShop, Inc., who helped me turn sound into data. Amin Ghaziani was an emotional and intellectual companion, responding to text messages in the middle of the night and coaching me at many critical junctures. Michelle Boyd, Gabrielle Ferrales, Anna Lappé, Wenona Rymond-Richmond, and Heather Schoenfeld buoyed me through this process. Thank you for being wonderful friends, for cheering enthusiastically for me, and for commenting on my work along the way. My aunt, Emily Meyer-Siegel, as our family’s first female PhD, and my grandmother, Ruth Meyer, as a female academic of an earlier generation, forged the path for me. I follow your luminous footsteps. Robert and Becky Berrey provided encouragement and financial support that enabled me to focus on my work in good conscious. Thank you, Dad, for pushing me to achieve, quietly and kindly. My mom, Betsy Berrey, provided companionship, cheerleading, intellectual enthusiasm, and terrific copyediting. Kevin Berrey, Adam Berrey, and Shana Siegel kept me afloat and made me laugh. My son, Eli, does not understand yet why his mom is always so spacey, but I hope he knows that he comes first in my heart. And my deepest thanks goes to my husband and life 7 partner, Steve Hoffman, who held my hand and kept my back covered at each step of this journey. I am so grateful that we are in this together. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES page 9 CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 11 CHAPTER TWO. The Diversity Project and How It Transforms the Project of 34 Racial Equality UNIVERSITY CASE: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CHAPTER THREE. From Opportunities for the Disadvantaged to the Benefits 85 of Diversity CHAPTER FOUR. Gratz, Grutter, and the Legal Politics of Affirmative 132 Admissions CHAPTER FIVE. The Politics of Recruiting and Supporting a Diverse Class 173 CORPORATE CASE: STARR CORPORATION CHAPTER SIX. From Affirmative Action for Minorities to the Business Case 231 for Diversity CHAPTER SEVEN. The Politics of Diversity Management 290 NEIGHBORHOOD CASE: ROGERS PARK CHAPTER EIGHT. From Fair and Subsidized Housing to Community Diversity 354 CHAPTER NINE. The Politics of Neighborhood Gentrification and Mixed- 385 Income Housing CHAPTER TEN. Political Activism in the Diversity Era 247 441 CONCLUSION 489 METHODOLOGICAL APPENDIX 514 REFERENCES 531 9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Percentage of undergraduates at the University of Michigan by race, page 111 1965-2007 Figure 2 Percentage of first year students enrolled in Comprehensive Studies 192 Program, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, by race, 1993-2005 Figure 3. 1966 Starr Corporation conference in Europe 241 Figure 4. Percentage of women and people of color in employee, 243 managerial/official, and professional positions at Starr Corporation, 1965- 1987 Figure 5. Black manager, 1973 253 Figure 6. Women and people of color at Starr Corporation, as a percentage of 298 the U.S. exempt workforce, 1989-2005 Figure 7. Starr Diversity Logo 315 Figure 8. Comparison of workforce affirmative action and corporate diversity 331 management programs at Starr Corporation Figure 9. Maps of Rogers Park and the city of Chicago 362 Figure 10. Demographic representation in Rogers Park by race and total 370 population, 1960-2000 Figure 11. Neighborhood banner 403 Figure 12. Lakefront mural 403 Figure 13. Web page banner for Rogers Park Alderman 403 Figure 14. Builders Group brochure 406 Figure 15. Comparison of eligibility requirements for a city affordable 424 housing program and median household income in Chicago and Rogers Park, 2000 Figure 16. SSAA M-Justice t-shirt 453 10 Figure 17. RPCAN t-shirt 457 Figure 18. YAF counterprotester 463 Figure 19. Participants at a BAMN rally, reciting the BAMN pledge 468 Figure 20. BAMN march in Ann Arbor 473 11 CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION In the history of the United States, organizational and political leaders have relied on different strategies to manage issues of race, difference, and inclusion, ranging from violent repression to state-monitored integration to inaction. These strategies have changed markedly over the past thirty years, following an influential period of civil rights activism and political reform. Organizational leaders now negotiate issues of racial inclusion in the contexts of a powerful neo- conservative political movement, the institutionalization of economic neoliberalism, an upsurge in immigration, and growing cultural tolerance.