[spintreebob]

re: Somewhere in the 1980s, “diversity is our strength” made its debut.

I heard that phrase in high school in the 50s, at Wheaton College in the early 60s. When I came back from Vietnam it had gone from academic circles to Main Street.

The author’s ignorance of history is embarrassing. I thought maybe he was a millenial which would explain his ignorance of history. But his photo looks like he is 10 years older than I am.

[Sans-Culotte]

I heard that phrase in high school in the 50s, at Wheaton College in the early 60s. When I came back from Vietnam it had gone from academic circles to Main Street. The author’s ignorance of history is embarrassing. I thought maybe he was a millenial which would explain his ignorance of history. But his photo looks like he is 10 years older than I am.

Just because you heard the phrase back then does not mean it had become mainstream. It may have become mainstream in your high school and college, but it probably became mainstream nationally around the time the author suggests. I was in college in the 70's, and I did not hear it as any sort of mantra. The 80's is the time in which colleges created departments of diversity and when they started using the phrase as a motto. I don't think the "author's knowledge of history is embarrassing" just because he missed some anecdotal evidence from scattered sources.