Disney's Demographic Fantasia & the 'Underrepresentation' Con

Anyone over 30 probably remembers a refrain, common among influential people in business, politics, and media at the end of the 20th century: “We need a [fill in the blank] that looks like America!” That blank could be filled in any number of ways: We need a Congress that “looks like America,” or TV sitcoms that “look like America,” or a student body that “looks like America.” 

Always implicit in this assertion was a condemnation and corrective to the nation’s history of discrimination. That history, we were told, ensured certain groups were “underrepresented” in many of the country’s institutions. The assumption was that in a just society, the demographic composition of every organization would mirror the make-up of the American population.

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