Well I finally finished reading and marking up E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the 21st Century by Robert Putnam, and yeah, I’m low on trust. According to his article, diverse communities like ours people are less likely to trust people different from them as well as people like them. Equal opportunity lack of trust. Well, that’s how I read it.
Putnam does recognize the good thing about diversity in that it does foster tolerance in the other. However tolerance is not love, or even like. There is ‘bridging’ between communities but little in the way of ‘bonding’.
One of the things I was worried about before reading the article was lack of city services and amenities due to a neighborhood’s diversity. That wasn’t so much an issue and what was all included in as an amenity was too wide of a net (religious institutions, day care facilities, schools, etc). Things like schools and churches could have been in an area long before the place got diverse and are just holding on. Anyway, Putnam writes “If anything, such community resources turn out to be positively correlated with ethnic diversity….” The negative is in the low trust people, who are withdrawn from actively participating in the surrounding community.
A few other negatives of a diverse community is that there is a higher turnover. Well that just describes Washington DC right there. Someone who is a close friend of mine is moving away to the Midwest because of her career and as far as friends go she’ll be irreplaceable. The specter of someone you’re close to up and moving away is always there in this town, and it does not inspire you to form those deep strong bonds, knowing that there is a chance that bond will have to be ripped apart. There is turnover in Shaw too, and I know that neighbors you grow close to may up and move with the next best career opportunity or when their kids get to a certain age.
8 thoughts on “I don’t trust you”
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i think you need to look at this as a “long term – short term” thing. diversity, in the short term (imho) can be a reason for greater trust in those around you. i don’t mean really short term – like your friend going to the midwest isn’t going to plop down in ohio or wherever and trust whomever she meets. i’m talking about the short term where you get to know folks and rely/depend on them because of the diversity of your community/surroundings. you have to sort of trust people even more than you would in a totally no diverse community, where people take things for granted and can be more fickle cuz they can get away with it.
just a thought.
but… ummm… just thinking here….
your friend may be leaving to the midwest, but didn’t you two develop a trust? is that trust in her, and her trust in you going to vanish now that she’s leaving?
probably not, no?
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
Trust as in leaving yourself vunerable to your neighbors… say like leaving your door unlocked, letting down your guard, willingness to take people at their word and truly believe them.
Low trust is not the same as no trust. Of course, it would have helped if I had written a different post title. I didn’t do myself any favors there.
The friend moving to Chicago was touching on the high turnover concept. Diverse areas have high turnover or higher turnover, says Putnam. Many of the folks I meet around here are from somewhere else. So the ties to this place aren’t strong enough to keep one from pulling up stakes and moving on.
Are trust and turnover related? I don’t know.
eh, i dunno.
i grew up in brasil (i’m a swedish-american guy), and completely understand what you’re saying on many levels.
brasil is the ultimate of mixing bowls, and many folks come and go -particularly the rich euro-african-asian (near and far)-latinos (from all over the western hemisphere).
there are also locals (from all races) that never leave their 3 mile radius.
rio de janeiro aside (that’s really messed up because of drug lords), the rest of brasil sort of takes diversity as … normal.
i didn’t realize that people were so racist/classist until i came here for college.
that’s a long story.
anyway, i happen to think that the more diverse a society/community is, the more trust you *have* to instill in others. some of my best and most trusting friendships are people that live thousands of miles away. some of the the best friendships i have are also next door.
i’m an optimist by nature, so i tend to think that you get back whatever it is you put ‘in’.
dc is a transient city, yes.
but does that mean that you don’t trust folks that are here at this time. you’re lucky to know them. they’re lucky to know you.
the parochial thing about leaving doors open, and such, is not really about diversity. it’s about education and economics.
that holds true for DC and countless other places across the american landscape.
it’s funny. my american grandmother lives in the western part of the u.s.
she thinks that latinos are taking over her village (town), and actually is very resentful of that.
she’s old, and from another era. but…. i think if you can tie things together in a bigger context, a little light starts to shine.
i live in NE dc. i work in SW dc.
some of the coolest moments for me living here is meeting my neighbors (white, black, green, yellow, brown…) and creating a sense of trust. a sense of community.
i have no idea where i’m going with this, but your thoughts are pretty on target about the stuff that we all encounter in dc.
i think your posts spark something in people that either they don’t really address, or don’t want to admit.
i was with some neighbors the other week, some “old” guys that have been here forever. they were saying how they were seeing the neighborhood change, and how they didn’t know if it was good or bad, but they liked hanging out with me….
whatever. we hung out. it was cool. we actually hang out on many weekends. they’re very cool, and have a history of this area that NO ONE could ever document.
and i have a perspective that i share freely with them, and they appreciate it (i think so anyway.. maybe they’re just laughing at me…)
tangent: we have kids around here too. kids are kids and goof off. my solution?
hang out with them. i’m their official photographer, and take pix of them doing stuff, and give them photos.
they are the best kids around. they just need/want a little attention. who doesn’t. directed attention is the best of all.
ok.
i’ll shut up. i’m starting to ramble.
anyway, excellent post!
Sounds like bridging.
Did you read the article? The study asked people did they trust certain people (same race, diff. race) and looked at the census data to determine diversity. I guess if you were captured in the survey you’d be the few on the end while your neighbors would indicate lower trust. Of course, you’d have to look at the article’s endnotes to get a sense of how the author defines trust.
His hypothesis is disturbing, that “immigration and ethnic diversity challenge social solidarity and inhibit social capital” in the short- to medium- term.
Glad there are other forces shaping where and how people live than a wish for universal social solidarity.
After one has lived in more than one town or city or region, one realizes what it’s like to be new and different, and sometimes to find a region with more congruent values that the region of one’s birth
Maybe you have a higher turn-over rate because more diverse places are often in cities and if they are “happening” neighborhoods you may have lots of younger residents, who tend, on the whole, to move around a lot more than older folks.
I would definitely have to look at what the guy means by trust. I think that transitional neighborhoods can lead to building trust between neighbors that far exceeds the norm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you leave your door unlocked at night. Another factor might be why the neighborhoods are diverse, & how long they have been that way. Also, I think it matters whether you mean just racially or ethinically diverse, or socio-economically diverse as well.
On immigration (and everything else), I think the silver lining I read was the idea of focusing on ‘shared’ identities and dare I right it, assimilation programs. Supporting more ESL for adults and children may help integrate the immigrant population, providing more aid on the local level and encouraging faith based communities (or other agencies that work with people on a personal one-on-one level) that help people become Americans and get those populations involved in civic life.
One of the trust examples the author brought up was carpools. I guess a better example of trust ’round here would be letting a neighbor hold a set of your house keys. I guess I am trusting as someone in the hood does have a set of my keys. And come to think of it, I need to give someone else a set, because the key holder is gone alot. Another deep trust activity I’ve noticed is unpaid babysitting. Less often observed, but involving trust and liability is loaning your car. So the trust, or level of trust involves something (or one) that is highly valued and could be damaged. Not the trust given for the sake of politeness.
I guess a better example of trust ’round here would be letting a neighbor hold a set of your house keys. I guess I am trusting as someone in the hood does have a set of my keys. And come to think of it, I need to give someone else a set, because the key holder is gone alot. Another deep trust activity I’ve noticed is unpaid babysitting. Less often observed, but involving trust and liability is loaning your car. So the trust, or level of trust involves something (or one) that is highly valued and could be damaged. Not the trust given for the sake of politeness.
Wanna swap keys? Really? We would absolutely trust you with our house-keys! And we’d likewise trust you with the car! FWIW, I’d never dream of unpaid baby-sitting though: but I hope you’d never think that’s about lack of trust. That’s about me thinking it’s just an imposition one doesn’t make barring an emergency. The only people I feel comfortable about conscripting into babysitting service are my parents.
😉 bl
P.S. Just got back from a holiday weekend christening in Michigan and got your message. Thanks for thinking of us, however we have no black umbrella.