Haywood Burns, a dean and professor at CUNY School of Queens College, from the Empire State Report, April 1994:

In meeting the challenge of diversity, New Yorkers must neither accentuate nor submerge our differences. We need to learn to accept and respect them, with an acceptance and respect that goes beyond mere tolerance, to an appreciation and even a celebration of both the riches and strength we all bring to another, and of the great unity that is possible in diversity.

†