As if the problem of poverty would be solved if we just appreciated the poor

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"[W]e love race - we love identity - because we don't love class. We love thinking that the differences that divide us are not the differences between those of us who have money and those who don't but are instead the differences between those of us who are black and those who are white or Asian or Latino or whatever. A world where some of us don't have enough money is a world where the differences between us present a problem: the need to get rid of inequality or to justify it. A world where some of us are black and some of us are white - or biracial or Native American or transgendered - is a world where the differences between us present a solution: appreciating our diversity. So we like to talk about the differences we can appreciate, and we don't like to talk about the ones we can't. [...] Contrasting the obligations of diversity (being nice to each other) with the obligations of equality (giving up our money) [this book] focuses in particular on how the commitment to diversity has turned liberalism into a program for making rich people of different skin colors and sexual orientations more 'comfortable' while leaving intact the thing that makes them most comfortable of all: their wealth."

Walter Benn Michaels (2006), The Trouble With Diversity. How we learned to love identity and ignore inequality, New York, Holt: 6-7 & 17-18.

Which makes me think of:

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