The art of diversity

There’s nothing wrong and plenty right about city government determining how diverse the workforces are at the cultural institutions it subsidizes and nudging those institutions to better represent the communities they serve. Blacks and Latinos, a new city-sponsored study shows, are broadly underrepresented at such institutions. While about 22% of the city’s population is black, only about 10% of cultural workers are; for Hispanics, the numbers are 29% and 11%.

All things being equal, entities that receive public dollars, dedicated to serving the people of a metropolis with all kinds of people, should aspire to reflect that metropolis.

But all things are rarely equal, which is one reason why racial and ethnic representation gaps persist in professions throughout the city. Such as in the city’s public schools, where 41% of students are Latino and 27% are black, but just 15% and 18% of teachers are.

A too-rigid push in cultural institutions would demand slashing the number of gays and lesbian staff — 15% of the cultural institutions workforce, and 26% of their executive

leadership, as compared to about 5% of the city as a whole. It would call for winnowing the ranks of women — 65% of the arts workforce, but half the general population.

It would not make special allowances for museums whose missions revolve around particular ethnic and religious groups — Museo del Barrio, the Museum of the Chinese in America, the Brooklyn Jewish Children’s Museum — for whom diversity means something different.

It would ignore the fact that boards of directors are often charged with cultivating private donors, which means, by definition, they skew rich and white.

The city’s cultural affairs boss, Tom Finkelpearl, says he gets all this, and that the institutions are simply being asked to set goals for themselves, not aim for hard targets. They will only risk losing some city funding if they fail to make good-faith efforts.

That better be true, unless the city intends to sanction itself for maintaining a teaching workforce that doesn’t come close to reflecting the racial and ethnic makeup of its student population.