Over the past few years, it has, in a striking number of cases, been the most privileged and progressive institutions—from Smith College to the Guggenheim Museum—that experienced the greatest difficulties with mutual tolerance and comprehension. That might, at first sight, look puzzling. Why do people at ethnically diverse campuses like Yale and Oxford struggle to get along while ethnically diverse employees at McDonald’s or Burger King tend to do just fine? Allport’s intergroup contact theory helps to provide part of the answer: it is because many ordinary businesses and institutions still
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