A Wise Latina, Black Girls Rock, and Black Lives Matter: Situating the Aspirational Race-Conscious Statements of Historically Marginalized Peoples in the Socio-Economics of Diversity Discursive

In the U.S., the pursuit of racial diversity in representative governance and cultural projection has made great strides through the legislating of equality, vigilant enforcement of civil rights, and greater profit-driven liberalism in the entertainment industry. This ethnographic comparative case study looks at recent aspirational race-conscious commentary from individuals and groups amidst clear shifts towards greater diversity. Historic advances have changed how we see and know ourselves as people, including: the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the SCOTUS, the debut of Leontyne Price at the Metropolitan Opera, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington’s Best Actor Oscar wins, and the elections of Barrack Obama as POTUS, and Bobby Jindal as the first Indian-American US state governor. Further, the confirmation of Sonya Sotomayor as the first Latina Justice of the SCOTUS, along with numerous other milestones indicate, arguably, seismic shifts in societal comfort with greater diversity in all socio-cultural spaces. A discourse on diversity cannot ignore the impacts of group socio-economics on the demand for greater diversity, and reciprocally, the impacts of greater diversity on the access of historically marginalized groups to opportunity, resources, and wealth. This investigation is made more relevant by the rising sound of voices criticizing Affirmative Action and any institutions specifically mandated to promote diversity. Evidence from this study points to the need of a more nuanced and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the tensions of unresolved social justice disparities.