This approach is mostly associated with academics like Robert Putnam and Ashutosh Varshney. This is the approach that is especially prevalent in higher ed and intellectual circles. More recent writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Major scholars/intellectuals of this approach include Audre Lorde, bell hooks and Gloria Anzaldua. Everything is plotted along a power, privilege and oppression chart. This is the “Let’s sing ‘Ebony and Ivory,’ put up ‘Diversity Is Our Strength’ bumper stickers and share the games we play during our different religious holidays” approach.Įverything is about race, gender and sexuality. Would love feedback on what resonates, what I’m missing and what I got wrong. I don’t think these approaches are necessarily mutually exclusive, but I do think some people within each of these approaches are fiercely committed to their own paradigms in a way that dismisses others. My goal here is to be descriptive, not judgmental. I’ve been trying to organize them into approaches. There are all kinds of ways that people talk about identity and diversity these days.
