African Americans grappled with Jim Crow segregation until it was legally overturned in the 1960s. In subsequent decades, the country witnessed a new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America—forever changing the face of American society and making it more racially diverse than ever before. In The Diversity Paradox, authors Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean take these two poles of American collective identity—the legacy of slavery and immigration—and ask if today’s immigrants are destined to become racialized minorities akin to African Americans or if their incorporation into U.S. society will more closely resemble that of their European predecessors. They also tackle the vexing question of whether America’s new racial diversity is helping to erode the tenacious black/white color line. The Diversity Paradox uses population-based analyses and in-depth interviews to examine patterns of intermarriage and multiracial identification among Asians, Latinos, and African Americans. Lee and Bean analyze where the color line—and the economic and social advantage it demarcates—is drawn today and on what side these new arrivals fall. They show that Asians and Latinos with mixed ancestry are not constrained by strict racial categories. Racial status often shifts according to situation. Individuals can choose to identify along ethnic lines or as white, and their decisions are rarely questioned by outsiders or institutions. These groups also intermarry at higher rates, which is viewed as part of the process of becoming “American” and a form of upward social mobility. African Americans, in contrast, intermarry at significantly lower rates than Asians and Latinos. Further, multiracial blacks often choose not to identify as such and are typically perceived as being black only—underscoring the stigma attached to being African American and the entrenchment of the “one-drop” rule. Asians and Latinos are successfully disengaging their national origins from the concept of race—like European immigrants before them—and these patterns are most evident in racially diverse parts of the country. For the first time in 2000, the U.S. Census enabled multiracial Americans to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. Eight years later, multiracial Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. For many, these events give credibility to the claim that the death knell has been sounded for institutionalized racial exclusion. The Diversity Paradox is an extensive and eloquent examination of how contemporary immigration and the country’s new diversity are redefining the boundaries of race. The book also lays bare the powerful reality that as the old black/white color line fades a new one may well be emerging—with many African Americans still on the other side.

In legislatures, group dynamics affect how the legislature operates, who is valued enough to play a critical decision-making role, and what voices matter in determining policy outcomes. An increase in a minority group's size within democratically-elected legislatures actually leads to the devaluation of individual minority group members. The authors assert that representative institutions such as legislatures face a 'diversity paradox': when the size of a minority group increases beyond mere 'tokenism' in representative institutions, it tends to create an unintended backlash toward the minority group's members that emanates from both majority and fellow minority group members. The inclusion of minority group voices in representative institutions is critical in a wide range of political decisions, ranging from legislative gender quotas in the new Iraqi constitution to attempts in the U.S. to increase minority representation through redistricting.

The authors assert that representative institutions such as legislatures face a 'diversity paradox': when the size of a minority group increases beyond mere 'tokenism' in representative institutions, it tends to create an unintended backlash toward the minority group's members.

In recent years, a sense of community has declined throughout the United States. This trend is especially evident among younger generations, whether measured by civic participation, political involvement, or religious affiliation. Central Community Church—an intercultural congregation located in Tampa Bay’s urban corridor—has responded to this trend by promoting “community” as an organizational metaphor. The Diversity Paradox: Seeking Community in an Intercultural Church explores the ways in which that metaphor was co-constructed by Central Community’s racially/ethnically diverse leaders and members, as well as limitations and tensions that emerged from those efforts. After surveying the three prevailing views of community: community as physical space, community as disembodied concept, and community as communicative process, Jenkins builds upon four years of ethnographic fieldwork in order to fully understand this community. He concludes by introducing an original theoretical concept called the “diversity paradox”: an emphasis placed upon one potential understanding of diversity which, paradoxically, limits opportunities for alternative expressions of difference.

In this book, the authors assert that representative institutions such as legislatures face a 'diversity paradox': when the size of a minority group increases beyond mere 'tokenism' in representative institutions, it tends to create an unintended backlash toward the minority group's members that emanates from both majority and fellow minority group members. The inclusion of minority group voices in representative institutions is critical in a wide range of political decisions, ranging from legislative gender quotas in the new Iraqi constitution to attempts in the U.S. to increase minority representation through redistricting.

Does the word "diversity" conjure up any feeling for you? Have you been on the receiving or giving end of the persistent lying, crying and denying associated with traditional diversity and inclusion efforts? If so, then Lively Paradox is the book for you. This book provides practical advice and tools for improving your personal and professional relationships with all the "different" people in your life.