David Brooks's People Like Us

David Brook’s essay, “People Like Us, describes about the tolerance and diversity in the United States. Since the great immigration of the late 19th century, America has been cited as one of the most diverse countries in the world. The United States is home to individuals from many different races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, political views, interests, personalities, and income levels. However, according to Brook’s, instead of the population of the country uniting in its diversity and using it as a strength, individuals are trying to distance themselves from others who are not like themselves, rather, band themselves together with those who are like them. Brook’s notes that, even though most of Americans are doing the right thing by finding locations where they are most comfortable and where they believe they can succeed. Their decisions make them achieve their goals often lead towards their own ethnic or racial extractions. For instance, Brook’s himself confesses that he has in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could pursue his identity. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to

“We don’t really care about diversity all that much in America” (132). In “People Like us” David Brooks takes a logical approach through examining the demographics of our neighborhoods, our educational institutions, and he touches on an emotional approach by having his audience examine their values; he does this with hopes of having his audience question their word choice for the American value diversity, and question if the way they are living their lives invites diversity.

Diversity can mean many things- people from different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs systems, traditions, and opinions. In today’s world, there is often a melting pot of diversity around every corner, work, school, church, and in the community. In the essay “Is He One of Us? Reflections on Identity and Authenticity” by Glenn Loury, he challenges us who are you when it comes to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, political stance, social influence, geography and intellectual viewpoint. (Goshgarian, 2015) However, the question is what evidence does Glenn Loury used in his argument? Where is the evidence from, and is the evidence effective?

Many individuals interpret diversity differently specifically in the United States because of its melting pot of distinct cultures and lifestyles. In his essay “People Like Us”, David Brooks’ argues that although the United States is a diverse nation as a whole, it is homogeneous in specific aspects like interactions between people. To some extent, his observation is true; people tend to stick to what or who they are comfortable with. There are also exceptions where the American people attempt to establish relationships with others because of their desire to expand out of their norm. For instance, Brooks excludes the

For two days, I observed the first ten individuals entering the Jones-Sampson building located on the JSU campus. Observing these individuals allowed me the opportunity to explore how diversity is perceived from a small sample of the campus. I believe, a college campus is the perfect setting to view the hop topic called diversity. The population at JSU includes people from various countries, social economic backgrounds, class, gender, occupations, and sexual-orientation. According to the Webster dictionary, diversity entails the quality or state of having different forms, types, and ideas about something. For the purpose of this observation, the first ten individuals encountered were evaluated based on both their similarities and differences. The factors observed

Kottak, Conrad Phillip and Kayhryn Kozaitis 2012 On Being Different, Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream, 4th edition, McGraw Hill Press, New York: Chapter 8. (textbook)

Diversity does not simply refer to race or even culture; it’s everywhere. We are all diverse, meaning we are all different from one another. The book The Other Wes Moore we see two kids with the same name, but very different lives that they live. Wes and Wes are similar in ways, but in the end turn out nothing like each other. One chose to lead his life in a better path, while the other sticks with a path that ultimately destructs his life. In this paper, I will discuss what diversity means to me, messages that I learned about various minorities or majorities when I was a child, if my views have changed, when diversity influenced my life, and the situation when it influenced me. Some other things that I will discuss also are the main characters of the book, examples of diversity involving the main characters, and which character I related with the most in this book.

In the essay, "People Like us" by the author, David Brooks, the main focus is the diversity in America. The United states has a label as being a country that is very diverse. Our country has many different types of ethnic groups, religions, personalities, interest, etc. so in that case, you really can justify the United states as diverse. Brooks mostly uses logic in his essay to prove that, once you look at the United States with a more magnified view, you might realize that technicalities come into play and change the previous statement to, unfortunately, the complete opposite, a corrupt society with no diversity.

In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist.

“People Like Us” by David Brooks examines diversity in America and argues that even though society tends to idealize diversity in a way, most of us don’t really care too much about it as long as we are happy. In the first paragraph Brooks states “ what I have seen all around the country is people making strenuous efforts to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves”. This is something that most of us notice on some scale, but what does it say about the need for diversity in America? Brooks explains “The United States might be a diverse nation when considered as a whole, but block by block and institution by institution it is a relatively homogenous nation” This is an irrefutable truth, we all know that cities like Laredo Texas and Lincoln Nebraska are predominantly white and in cities like Detroit Michigan and Jackson Mississippi the population is predominantly black. However, what we fail to realize is the extreme racial separation that is taking place naturally at a much smaller scale, not even city to city but neighborhood to neighborhood and house to house. Brooks backs up his claim with the following example, “In Manhattan the owner of a three million dollar SoHo loft would feel out of place moving into a three million dollar Fifth Avenue apartment”. Politics, religion, income, lifestyle and general outlook on life can change in a matter of blocks. This may all seem

David Brooks write is pis of the article on the progress magazine addressing the diversity issues in American. As we know it the progressive tent to talk more about the diversity then conservative. Here is this article he analyzes how the diversity that the progressive claim to have

To be united in the United States of America is to be united in spite of being of a different gender, race, religion, or political opinion. Which both Brooks and Martin Luther King Jr. recognize, but do not express in the same way. Brooks’ argument regarding socio-political beliefs in both Red and Blue America creates even more difference between the two. In the article, Brooks describes Red America as dominated by churches and the people in these areas are more concerned about being part of the community. Brooks states, “America is divided between two moral systems. Red America is traditional, religious, self-disciplined, and patriotic. Blue America is modern, secular, self-expressive, and discomfited by blatant displays of patriotism,” (537).

Studies have shown that several people are of the view that politicians set diversity agendas to coincide with their own interests. Consequently, when politicians advocate for the importance of diversity, citizens feel that they are only doing this to gain political mileage. Volgy presents an accurate analysis of what goes on surreptitiously during political-administration undertakings. These revelations indicate that the suspicions on politicians can be based on mere speculation. One school of thought argues that increased diversity is associated with high civic engagement while another group believes that the opposite is true.

Diversity is an ongoing discussion in day-to-day life. Not many situations occur without diversity having a role. There are a multitude of topics that introduces or involves diversity, to include age, sex, race, gender, ethnicity and so on. Prior to participating in this Diversity Awareness class, I’ve always thought diversity was more geared around discrimination and racism. Through weekly readings and discussions, I have discovered that diversity is much broader than that. There are many countries that are mixed culturally

Diversity is an important and beautiful concept in our society and this essay will prove why. Reasons to support this are it makes each individual life worthwhile, it helps us evolve and become better and it can build closer relationships.