"Diversity gives our city a competitive edge"
About this Quote
“Diversity gives our city a competitive edge” is the kind of civic sermon that hides its hard math in a warm coat. Coming from Thomas Menino, Boston’s long-serving, street-level mayor, the line isn’t a poetic celebration of pluralism so much as a political translation device: it reframes a moral claim (inclusion matters) into a market claim (inclusion pays). That pivot is the intent. In a city where “diversity” can trigger reflexive fights over schools, neighborhoods, policing, and who gets to feel at home, Menino offers an argument designed to disarm skeptics: you don’t have to like difference to benefit from it.
The subtext is quietly transactional. Diversity isn’t presented as a right; it’s presented as an asset. The phrase “competitive edge” borrows the language of business and urban branding, implying that cities now compete like firms for talent, investment, students, and prestige. It’s boosterism with a conscience - or, depending on your cynicism, conscience dressed up as boosterism. Menino’s formulation also nudges residents to see immigrants, Black and brown Bostonians, and newcomers not as a cultural challenge but as a growth strategy, a way to keep Boston from ossifying into a museum of its own history.
Context matters: Menino governed through the 1990s and 2000s, when cities were being recast as innovation hubs and “creative class” magnets, and Boston was trying to square its cosmopolitan economy with its reputation for parochial, sometimes ugly racial politics. The line works because it’s pragmatic enough to pass in City Hall and pointed enough to signal which future Boston is choosing.
The subtext is quietly transactional. Diversity isn’t presented as a right; it’s presented as an asset. The phrase “competitive edge” borrows the language of business and urban branding, implying that cities now compete like firms for talent, investment, students, and prestige. It’s boosterism with a conscience - or, depending on your cynicism, conscience dressed up as boosterism. Menino’s formulation also nudges residents to see immigrants, Black and brown Bostonians, and newcomers not as a cultural challenge but as a growth strategy, a way to keep Boston from ossifying into a museum of its own history.
Context matters: Menino governed through the 1990s and 2000s, when cities were being recast as innovation hubs and “creative class” magnets, and Boston was trying to square its cosmopolitan economy with its reputation for parochial, sometimes ugly racial politics. The line works because it’s pragmatic enough to pass in City Hall and pointed enough to signal which future Boston is choosing.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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