ABSTRACT
The diversity machine shifted gears at the Second Annual National Diversity Conference, held at Washington, D.C.'s Sheraton Hotel in early May 1992. The 1991 recession had lingered longer than anyone expected and was deepening sharply in the diversity laboratory of southern California. R. Roosevelt Thomas predicted that total quality management and diversity techniques would merge in a shared emphasis on empowerment, employee commitment, and efficiency in a downsized environment. The 1992 Los Angeles riots were possibly the single most searing, traumatic event endured by the diversity machine, largely because the urban violence had to be suffered in relative silence. The immediate aftermath of the riot gave temporary lift to the mission of civil rights moralists who felt that the riots confirmed their worst visions of institutional racism and oppression. Michael Mobley and Tamara Payne admitted that affirmative action efforts and some diversity training had sowed seeds of discord by putting the burden of change on white males.
