Why Diversity In Literature Is Such a Hot Button, and What To Do?

 
Diversity in Literature?
The word “diversity” is a hot button in today’s society, and it is so for several reasons.
Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you’re on, I think the vast majority of people have no issues with differing cultures, religions, and racial profiles of people.
Given that, why is diversity in literature a hot button nowadays?
Simple – it depends on what diversity means to you.
Oftentimes (conservative viewpoints), people see forcing diversity as inherently being unfair because it is an attempt to compensate or balance the scales in an inorganic manner. An example in the real world would be that there is a lawsuit against Harvard by a group of Asian students who find that they needed SAT scores that were about 140 points higher than white students. Diversity leads to bias. Bias leads to racist behaviors.
While others (liberal viewpoints), feel that we must value our diversity in order to work together for the common good of our society/world. Diversity makes a better world by ensuring that everyone is exposed to a wide variety of types of people.
So in one view, diversity yields a racist outcome. The other sees diversity as a means to improve society.
It doesn’t help when you have people trying to force diversity by excluding sets of authors or types of books. http://www.xojane.com/entertainment/reading-challenge-stop-reading-white-straight-cis-male-authors-for-one-year
Hard to imagine two views more separated by a giant chasm, is it?
Given that most people have no issues with the vast majority of the world’s population and the different types it contains, it would seem a reasonable first step to include different types of people in our books. Sometimes, authors don’t give the race or background of their characters much thought. It isn’t overt, but it’s akin to not bothering to mention what kind of clothes they’re wearing. Maybe it didn’t dawn on them to describe it or it wasn’t important in that context.
If you typically write anglo characters without thinking much about it, maybe toss in a few other types, just because. Or if you typically write characters of color, there almost certainly should be some variety in your writing too.
Again, nothing forced – but it’s like paprika. Not a strong seasoning, but adds a little something.
As authors, it wouldn’t hurt to add a little seasoning to our writing. It is a baby step to mitigate some of the nonsense happening in the literary circles. Let’s face it, some of these diversity advocates are rabid (see the above-referenced URL). They need to tone down the rhetoric. However we can make an homage as well.
As readers who are sensitive to diversity issues, it might make a bit more sense to focus on the story and maybe send a nudge/hint to authors containing a message something like, “Gee, I’d love to be able to see more characters in SF/Fantasy that are clearly from the Indian subcontinent. That way, I could identify more with them.” When some subset of readers get overly agitated about certain things, I’d remind them about the old adage that says, “You get more flies with honey than vinegar.” It applies here as well.
Most people who know me would never expect me to write this, but it does reflect my beliefs.
“Why the hell not?” I say.