A perfect example is Mayor Nutter's newly reconstituted Human Relations Commission. Hizzoner appointed eight new commissioners to the HRC, leaving only chairman James S. Allen as a holdover. The new commission is a potpourri of diversity, including the agency's first Muslim, first female rabbi, first disabled person, first set of "out" commissioners.
According to Nutter, "We have Muslims, physically challenged people, in Philadelphia . . . blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians. That's our city."
Indeed it is. We're a municipal rainbow. But, I wonder, where is everyone else, the people who aren't "minority" or "special needs" or "culturally distinct" but who still make up a core contingent of the population? They all belong in this family snapshot, but they didn't seem to make the cut.
I have a problem with picking people based on their identities in the first place. It's as if we're saying that just because I'm straight, I can't support gay causes, or just because I'm white, I can't empathize with black concerns, or just because I'm a man, I wouldn't fight for the rights of abused women.
That aside, if you're going to pick people based on the way their name sounds or who they're likely to fall in love with or what their physical capabilities are, you're inevitably going to leave someone out of the mix.
That's the problem with diversity by design. When we set out to pick one from each group, the picker is usually motivated by his own preferences. Instead of creating something truly representative of society as it is, we end up with what the picker thinks society should look like. So Philly's new HRC looks a lot like a "Free to Be You and Me" poster and less a reflection of the reality that fills our neighborhoods.
