Cool Cleveland Commentary

Our Future is in the Mix

I greatly enjoyed the recent CoolCleveland.com article Building a Bridge to Our Future authored by Roxanne Ravenel. Ravenel rightly argues that one of the most potent barriers to Greater Cleveland’s development and growth in a global economy is its entrenched racial and ethnic divides.

She states: “Segregated cities are the slowest-growing cities in the nation….the cost of this slow growth is quite devastating in terms of lost opportunities, brain drain, stagnancy on a social and political level and lost potential.”

Cultural and racial diversity are sources of innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, and global connectivity. Cleveland, while rich in diversity assets, has struggled in harnessing this precious resource. Rather than accelerating our connections with each other and the world, we are retreating into zones of comfort (discomfort), sameness, and lethargy.

The key to unleashing the energy and resources that are hibernating within Cleveland’s diversity assets is to promote an intercultural approach to proactively stimulate the mixing and cross-fertilization across all cultural boundaries as the source of economic, political, social, and cultural innovation.

If indeed diversity is our strength, then we must build intercultural partnerships throughout all levels of business, political, civic, and social arenas in Greater Cleveland.

In a global economy, its globally-minded and intercultural citizens will prosper. Those individuals, companies and cities that are able to transcend narrow definitions of self, race, and place, but instead embrace a more international and “blended” sense of self, will be better positioned to harvest and equitably share the fruits of a global economy.

Let the MIX begin! In his writing, author Gregg Pascal Zachary howls, “Mighty is the Mongrel!”

The following is one suggested program to help move Cleveland forward in building the intercultural city as a pathway to shared prosperity in the global economy.

The Mix Factory

Educational and civic partner institutions should acquire a building in urban Cleveland, name it the “Mix Factory,” and use it as an intercultural town hall and education center.
The Mix Factory could house numerous ethnic, minority, and international organizations and programs, with a focus on intercultural diversity training and community education, international/ethnic arts, minority business training, immigrant integration assistance (English as a Second Language, civic and citizenship training), as well as foreign language training (Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, etc.) for all in earlier childhood, high school, and adult levels.
Because the window of opportunity for acquiring fluent foreign language skills is quite narrow (usually age three to twelve), early foreign language training is key for our children’s future. Globalization will require a multilingual labor force.
The Mix Factory could be the "safe place" for groups, which wouldn't normally interact, to intersect and join forces for educational projects, community volunteer work, business training, etc.
The Mix Factory would be a place that is color, language, and culture friendly!
The end goal of the Mix Factory would be not only to teach the economic, spiritual, and community benefits of diversity and life skills, but to facilitate the actual MIXING of people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
The Mix Factory would be a bold response to the clichéd use of “diversity” and the accompanying platitudes that attempt to conceal the fact that we are a segregated community.
The Mix Factory would be a catalyst for innovative, people-based economic development. Promoting the mix, the mongrel, and the hybrid! The Mix Factory would take the lead in engaging the community on innovative discussions on Race, Identity, and Globalization.
More Importantly, the Mix Factory could be the social and economic incubator for Cleveland’s diverse people to find ways to work together.

It is critical that Northeast Ohio's leadership and institutions commit to promoting intercultural development, collaboration, and networking. The concepts of “diversity” and “inclusion” mandate an intercultural approach that fosters inter-racial bridge-building and partnerships. Traditional thinking about multiculturalism is being seriously re-evaluated around the world in favor of an “intercultural approach to proactively stimulate the mixing and cross-fertilization across all cultural boundaries, between 'majority' and 'minorities', 'dominant' and 'sub' cultures, localities, classes, faiths, disciplines and genres, as the source of cultural, social, political and economic innovation.” See “Intercultural City Project” founded by the London think tank, Comedia, at http://www.interculturalcity.com

Traditional multicultural approaches (analogous to a street fair with individual exhibitors from Asian, African American, Hispanic, Arab groups, etc.) tend to accentuate “separateness” and promote the segregation of minorities from each other, rather than support the building of intercultural networks and partnerships.

The Intercultural City Project states:

The terms 'multiculturalism' and 'interculturalism' are often used interchangeably, but the way in which they are used in this letter attempt to make clear that they are two quite different approaches to managing and building on the potential of ethnic and cultural diversity in a city. The intercultural approach goes beyond equal opportunities and respect for existing cultural differences, to the pluralist transformation of public space, civic culture and institutions. So it does not recognize cultural boundaries as fixed but as in a state of flux and remaking.
An intercultural approach aims to facilitate dialogue, exchange and reciprocal understanding between people of different cultural backgrounds. Advocates of this approach argue that cities need to develop policies which prioritize funding for projects where different cultures intersect, 'contaminate' each other and hybridize. This contrasts with the multiculturalism model, where funding is directed within the well-defined boundaries of recognized cultural communities.
It starts by putting forward the argument for the intercultural city, and by evaluating different approaches to dealing with cultural diversity. It then highlights problematic urban trends, including the needs to address socio-economic inequalities, the spatial segregation of ethnic minority groups and ethnic segregation in public life. It discusses the challenge of creating a cosmopolitan civic identity and culture, and offers exemplary initiatives which adopt an intercultural approach

Racial and ethnic isolationism, as painfully exposed in the recent tragedies of New Orleans and the riots in France, can not work.

Being able to straddle multiple cultures simultaneously is not a handicap in the new world, it is a precious skill and commodity. This is the future developing before our eyes.

Just look at the inter-racial marriages in the U.S. (1990--1 out of 23 marriages; 2000 --1 out of 15 marriages). Census 2000 expanded racial classifications from five to sixty three.

The Mix is already on!

The time is ripe for Cleveland to have this dialogue and proactively encourage the mix, as immigrant and minority demographics in Cleveland continue to increase.

Ravenel cites the very important report The Untapped Potential by Cleveland-based PolicyBridge which suggests that Cleveland can not be competitive in the world economy without embracing diversity and inclusion in a meaningful way.

Without this giant step, the disadvantaged and disenfranchised will continue to suffer, and Northeast Ohio will continue to decline.

The Mix Factory, and other tools, should be used to make the case that economic development is about people -- and that “equitable and shared” prosperity can not happen unless ideas, talent, capital, and labor are able to flow unimpeded across, and ultimately blur, the artificial lines of color, race, culture, language, and nationality.

From Cool Cleveland reader Richard Herman hidden-email:urezna@nfxynjlre.arg? 

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