In the politically correct world of textbook publishing, faked photos of handicapped kids are just one of the ways in which truth is sacrificed on the altar of diversity. The cofounder of PhotoEdit Inc., a commercial archive that specializes in pictures of what it calls "ethnic and minority people in all walks of life," advises publishers that images of Chicanos can be passed off as American Indians from the Southwest, because they "look very similar." Similarly, Golden notes, a textbook photographer tells clients that since the "facial features" of some Asians resemble Indians from Mexico, "there are some times where you can flip-flop."
It's important to judge people by appearance see, because the best way to defend against stereotypes is to make damn sure no one ever, ever, ever forgets them.
By reducing "diversity" to something as shallow and meaningless as appearance, they reinforce the most dehumanizing stereotypes of all -- those that treat people first and foremost as members of racial, ethnic, or social groups. Far from acknowledging the genuine complexity and variety of human life, the diversity dogmatists deny it. Is it any wonder that their methods so often lead to unhappy and unhealthy results?When did we get all these races anyway? In my day, Sonny (she says, replacing her dentures), there were only three races: caucasoid, negroid and mongoloid, and everyone either fit into one of those three or was a mix of 'em. "Hispanic" is not a race at all, but a language group --and even that is my concession to usage. "Hispanic" actually refers to people of Spanish heritage. But let's not confuse people with facts.
pictures of authentic Hispanics who happen to have blond hair or blue eyes don't count toward the Hispanic quota "because their background would not be apparent to readers." In other words, rather than expose schoolchildren to the fact that "Hispanic" is an artificial classification that encompasses people of every color, publishers promote the fiction that all Hispanics look the same -- and that looks, not language or lineage, are the essence of Hispanic identity.
This is all the more irritating because the whole race question is another of those issues that only Baby Boomers care about. Gang members excepted, I don't know anyone of any race who is my age or younger who has the slightest interest in classifying anyone by color. What they are is sick of hearing about it. Watch your kids at school and you'll see it's not something they naturally think about. Little kids don't describe people by race, make no judgments about race with respect to who their friends are. It's "helpful" adults who introduce the idea that race is significant. Like the aging hippies who hope to attract young people to their liturgies by playing music that was popular when they were kids, these textbook authors are hopelessly out of touch.
