Diversity is Strength... No, Really

It would have been better, for Luis Martinez, had he been named Horace, Sven or Ngogodo instead. But, as with so many of the arrivals from Latin America, he's got a first and last name that appear and reappear with tiresome regularity, and apparently more often than in the Anglo world (and as a David Wilson, I should know). See They put wrong Luis in prison | [Bronx] man's 9-day ordeal as he's mistaken for robber[ By Chrisena Coleman And Leo Standora Daily News April 24th 2007. }This sort of thing has happened before in New York, and likely will again.

In saner cultural settings, it might have been resolved more quickly: smoother communication, keener senses of difference by police and bureaucrats, etc. But in outsize, polyglot, grind 'em-up- and-spit-'em out New York, no dice.

And if anyone's tempted to think that the foreign names flooding us really add "diversity," check out the civil and criminal files in New York for subjects named "Amadou Diallo" -- and see just how often, besides the famous one, a fellow with this particular name shows up.

Bigger question: is all this (non)diversity really making America a better place to live?