To make sense of a moment in which Latino men and white women voted for Donald Trump, and the Conservative party is on its second non-white leader in a row - all at a time of escalating inequality and intense racial animus - we must interrogate what we want both from diversity and representation. These lessons go beyond electoral politics. The aim should be to change the way a system works not simply the way that it looks; so we must recognise that it is possible for organisations to appear different and still act the same. Only then can we understand that diversity's essential value is not as a goal in itself but as a route towards greater equality that must be tied to thoroughgoing institutional change and collective uplift. In the absence of such change perceived advances are symbolic, but rarely substantial, and benefit individuals but not groups. This cosmetic progress leaves both the dominant and the underrepresented cynical about the need and prospects for both equity and equality.
