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Generically, the usage of this term is applicable to both nature (e.g. when describing ecosystems) and to human societies; however, for our purposes, it is the latter usage that is of obvious relevance but here one must concede that this term has become so politicized that it probably has as many definitions as those willing to offer one. Be that as it may, diversity, from the standpoint of a capitalist democracy, may be defined as a conscious programmatic effort, from the perspective of both personal (individual) agency and institutional structures, at the levels of both ideology and practice, for universal inclusion—be it in terms of race, ethnicity or gender—in the democratic project where democracy is understood, at once, as a work in progress and as a dyadic concept (in the sense of procedural democracy and authentic democracy). Diversity, then, challenges oppression.
Having defined this term thusly, I must draw your attention to the fact that in this definition, glaringly missing, with respect to the matter of inclusion, is any reference to class. This very serious omission must be corrected. Why? Because class is intrinsic to all capitalist societies; that is you cannot have one without the other. In other words, in capitalist societies, what diversity really implies is not the absence of class-based oppression (classism) but proportional representation of races, ethnicities and sexes at all class levels in the sense of the identical replication of the pyramidal capitalist class structure (the wealthy at the top, the poor at the bottom, and the rest in the middle) across all races, ethnicities, and sexes. In simplest terms, then, diversity is about challenging racism and patriarchy but within the confines of a capitalist democracy. However, this immediately brings up the question of whether freedom from oppression for all, that is true justice for all, is possible under such a circumstance because it fails to address the fundamental problem of all capitalist societies: classism. (Two important points to note: when race and racism is the only subject of attention, then one can substitute the term diversity with multiculturalism; and identity politics negates diversity.)
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