Are we living the dream?

This week, as you’ve probably heard, The Daily Beast ranked Durham the most “tolerant” city in the United States. Raleigh also made the top 20, coming in at number 18. Of course, this is great news. We want our state to have a reputation as a place where all people are welcome. We want to continue to be known as the most progressive place in the Southeast. This kind of press keeps North Carolina strong. At the same time,  these kinds of rankings shouldn’t make those of us who live and work in the Triangle feel that our work is done.

I looked a little more closely at the rankings today, and they are based primarily on simple measures of how diverse the population was in each city, how many hate crimes were reported in 2010 and surveys about attitudes towards same-sex marriage and religious tolerance. It’s wonderful that the Triangle is diverse, has a low rate of hate crimes and progressive attitudes toward people of other faiths and sexual orientations. But these things are not enough to sit back and gloat about. These numbers say nothing about how  diverse populations relate to one another. Durham may be the most racially and religiously diverse city in America, but do all these diverse people interact as equals? Do they know each other’s stories? Are they comfortable having their children attend the same schools? They also include no measures of attitudes toward immigrants. Is the Triangle immune from the fear and distrust of immigrants that has become prevalent across North Carolina and the nation?

Just the comments on the Daily Beast article are enough to show that these rankings don’t give the full picture. All of us who live in the Triangle know there is still a long way to go before we can declare victory over intolerance. And for Uniting NC, “tolerance” isn’t good enough. We don’t want North Carolinians to simply tolerate people of different backgrounds and ethnicities. We want them to see a diverse population as a strength, and to see how much we all have in common, even with people who seem foreign. We want to live in a state where a few billboards promoting inclusive communities wouldn’t be seen as controversial news, but rather as innocuous messages that most everyone can agree with. That’s our dream, and we’ll keep fighting for it.