Efforts to “celebrate diversity” in CHAZ/CHOP appear to have degenerated into outright segregation by race.

In addition to creating a “blacks-only space,” literature has also circulated in CHAZ/CHOP asking white people to vacate the space at certain pre-planned times.

Efforts to segregate CHAZ/CHOP would come as no surprise to Dr. Robert Putnam of Harvard University, who argued in his seminal work “Bowling Alone” that increased diversity in a community leads to a breakdown of trust and social cohesion. The Financial Times has more:

A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists.

His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.

…

The core message of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”

…

When the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, they showed that the more people of different races lived in the same community, the greater the loss of trust. “They don’t trust the local mayor, they don’t trust the local paper, they don’t trust other people and they don’t trust institutions,” said Prof Putnam. “The only thing there’s more of is protest marches and TV watching.” [Financial Times] [Archive Link]