Multiculturalism and Its Discontents

[rumbleph1$h]

Multiculturalism and Its Discontents

by Bruce S. Thornton

The New Individualist

November 10, 2005

England's multicultural delusions were literally exploded this past summer when British citizens, children of Islamic immigrants, turned out to be the murderers whose bombs killed more than fifty Londoners. Yet no one should be surprised that young men enjoying a political freedom and prosperity rare in the lands of their parents' birth should turn so violently against the culture that provides these goods. Having accepted the questionable ideals of multiculturalism, British policy for years has nurtured and even financially subsidized a separatist identity politics predicated on the crimes, guilt, and cultural inferiority of the West.

For that in fact is what multiculturalism is really about ? not respecting or celebrating cultural diversity, but indicting Western civilization for its imperial, colonial, racist, and sexist sins. Abetted by Western intellectuals who, like Susan Sontag, consider the white race the "cancer of history," multiculturalism idealizes non-Western cultures and ignores their various crimes and dysfunctions, while it relentlessly attacks the West as a predatory, soulless, exploitative, war-mongering villain responsible for all the world's ills.

Worse still, the identity politics at the heart of multiculturalism ? the notion that membership in a group shapes the individual in terms of non-negotiable differences from other groups ? directly contradicts the core assumption of our liberal democracy. Our form of government is predicated on the principle of individual, inalienable rights that each of us possess no matter what group or sect we belong to. Those rights trump the accidents of race or religion or any other group characteristic. But multiculturalism confines the individual in the prison of his race or culture?the latter often simplistically defined in terms of clich?s and stereotypes ? and then demands rights and considerations for that group, a special treatment usually based on the assumption that the group has been victimized in the past and so deserves some form of reparations.

This multiculturalist melodrama is, of course, a distortion of the facts of history. No civilization has conferred as much freedom and prosperity on such large numbers of ordinary people as has the West, which is why millions of non-Westerners risk their lives to reach Europe and the United States. And that is where multiculturalism has had its most pernicious effects ? immigration. Though we in America have not yet suffered consequences as dramatic as those experienced by Europeans, we too have bought into the multicultural delusions and compromised the old immigrant model that for decades worked so well.

That model was based on assimilation. Having voted with his feet for the superiority of America, the immigrant was required to become American, to learn the language, history, political principles, and civic customs that identified an American as American. The immigrant, of course, was free not to assimilate, but in that case, he and his children would not be able to take full advantage of all the economic and political opportunities open to those who did become American.

For a native Californian like me, these issues of immigration and assimilation are not questions of abstract philosophy or think-tank speculation. I was born and raised and still live in immigration's ground zero?the San Joaquin Valley of California. Long before white intellectuals hungry for noble-savage authenticity discovered the exotic "other," we in the rural Valley were living the "diversity" so many academics and pundits tout from their upscale neighborhoods. Around our ranch, maybe two out of ten people were white, and nine out of ten were poor. Yet "white" and "non-white" do not even begin to communicate the complex diversity we lived with.

Back then most of our neighbors were Mexicans, but there were also sizable numbers of black people, most of them from the South. There were also Chinese, Japanese, Sikhs, Punjabis, and Filipinos. The people a university admissions officer would call "white" were diverse to a degree to make that adjective meaningless: Italians (like my maternal grandparents), Portuguese from the Azores, Basques, Armenians, Volga Germans, Swedes, and Dust Bowl migrants from the South, like my father, who came to California from Texas on a freight train during the Depression. The crudely defined "cultures" that multiculturalists trade in are meaningless abstractions compared to this intricate variety.

Most of these immigrants were proud about their origins, as evidenced by fraternal organizations, religious guilds, holiday celebrations, festivals, recipes, native costumes, and scores of other ways of honoring their homelands. Yet most realized and acknowledged a fundamental truth: that whatever affection they had for their old homes, those cultures had in some significant way failed them. And so they had made a difficult, costly choice: to leave their homes and find a new one, to leave their old identities and become Americans.

How they negotiated the conflicts and trade-offs between their new and old identities was up to them, and that negotiation was one of the most important functions of those organizations and clubs and festivals. True to the American creed of individual freedom, each immigrant had to make his own choice about how much of the old country to keep and pass on to his children, and how much of the new to embrace. Some kept their native tongues; others (most, eventually) lost them. Some, like my wife's grandfather, a Volga German, never even became citizens. But over time, most became Americans, the vestiges of their old cultures enriching the American identity but never supplanting its fundamental values and ideals.

The critical point, however, is that the negotiation and the choice, the decision about how much to keep and how much to lose, were the business of individuals. The public culture of schools and government was American, its language was English, and the price of full participation in this country was the acceptance of those core American values. Those who didn't want to make that sacrifice of the old ways were free to return to their old countries.

The choice was hard, at times even brutal, but back then people understood that to have an unum from such various pluribus, there had to be a unifying common culture of political values and ideals that in the public square trumped any others. That meant that if some custom, value, or belief of the old country conflicted with those core values, then that old way had to be modified or discarded. The immigrant had to adjust, not the larger culture, and no one demanded the reverse: that the majority culture modify its values to accommodate the immigrant. There was simply too great a variety of immigrant cultures to do this without balkanizing American culture.

In the old assimilationist model, transmitting that common culture ? its history and heroes, its values and ideals?was the job of the public schools. There it was that the immigrant learned how to be what he or his parents had freely chosen to become ? an American. And that process involved learning English and recognizing that it was the tongue of American public life. Was the process difficult? Of course. Racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice all at times made the work of becoming American brutally hard. But over time, the process worked.

But something has happened in the last forty years to compromise this process. The ideology of multiculturalism colonized the schools and popular culture, and its message is precisely the wrong one for those trying to forge a common national identity out of a multitude of cultures. The immigrant "other" (excluding, of course, Europeans) now is a privileged victim who is entitled to public acknowledgement of his victim status and obeisance to the superiority of his native culture, equally a victim of Western historical malfeasance.

Now immigrants are taught to embrace a sense of entitlement and grievance that leads to demands that the public culture of schools and government acknowledge those sins and atone for them. The effect is to divide, not unify, to pit group against group as each tries to out-victim the other. School curricula now degenerate into ethnic cheerleading and feel-good symbolism. The essence of being an American is now reduced to a flabby "tolerance" that in fact masks a profound intolerance and anti-Americanism, for the groups multiculturalism celebrates are all defined in terms of their victimization by a sinful America.

The result is the bizarre spectacle we see every day, one that would not be tolerated in non-Western countries for five seconds ? people who have risked life and limb to come to America, some illegally, publicly chastising this country and asserting the superiority of their native lands. The dysfunctional aspects of their cultures that led them to abandon them in the first place are ignored in multi-cult's cultural relativism and boutique "diversity." Meanwhile, the average American is mystified and angered at this ingratitude and hypocrisy, not to mention the denigration of his country and its history, yet if he expresses his dissatisfaction the liberal elite, few of whom are on the front lines of immigration, chastise him as "racist" or "xenophobic" or "nativist."

One can already see in California the future of this fragmentation ? increasing inter-ethnic conflict, as equally celebrated cultural values collide in the public square, and more and more ignorance about what constitutes America and its political ideals and values. Meanwhile the vacuum left by the abandonment of that common fund of ideals and history is being filled by a crass popular culture and consumerism, which increasingly constitute the common ground of being American. I'm not sure a sound national identity can be based on a shared appreciation of fast food and vulgar rap.

Worse still, the war against Islamic terrorism is compromised because talking about a culture's dysfunctions is taboo in a public discourse dominated by multicultural ideology, particularly when aggressive lobbying organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations aggressively punish anybody who dares to suggest that some cultures endorse oppressive and intolerant values. We see the effects of this mindset every day in our airports, where octogenarians and children are wanded just so an Islamic or Arabic immigrant doesn't get his feelings hurt because his wonderful culture has been besmirched.

Immigration can work, and has worked in this country. But in order for it to work, the schools and government must commit to teaching and reinforcing the common culture that immigrants must learn and accept to be Americans, leaving it up to individual immigrants themselves to preserve and transmit the ways of the old country, and making it clear that any of those ways that contradict core American values must be changed or abandoned. For the brutal reality always remains: if the price of becoming American is too great, then don't come here.

[LispyGlitter2]

Who writes this stuff?! lol "Islamic immigrants" would anyone like to tell me where Muslims are from? ALL OVER THE WORLD! This article is nothing if they can't get that right in the first few sentences.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I would argue that Europe and the United States do not practice multiculturalism (or if they do it is some watered-down version of it). I would say that Canada does respect and celebrate cultural diversity and that is probably why we don't have anywhere near the racial problems that others have.

[Boffa Jones Veteran]

I would argue that Europe and the United States do not practice multiculturalism (or if they do it is some watered-down version of it). I would say that Canada does respect and celebrate cultural diversity and that is probably why we don't have anywhere near the racial problems that others have.

586798542[/snapback]

I completely agree with that.

[Sandor]

I would argue that Europe and the United States do not practice multiculturalism (or if they do it is some watered-down version of it). I would say that Canada does respect and celebrate cultural diversity and that is probably why we don't have anywhere near the racial problems that others have.

586798542[/snapback]

a lot of british people dont want it.

[curme]

Whoa! For a second I thought I stumbled onto Strormfront. Let me guess, the culture that is in danger, the culture that every one should be following is the white/western, one, right? Wow, how American. Three cheers for the red, white, and blue.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

What does the identity of the British bombers have to do with mutliculturism? Did we fail in assimilating Timothy McVeigh, was it through some fault of our own?

Damn this article is stupid. Multiculturism is a pain in the ass however, as it's perfectly fine to throw a brown pride sticker on your car if you're hispanic or say that everyone want's to be black if you're african-american but I'd be a racist if I had a white pride sticker on my car and probably get the **** kicked out of me.

To say there's some core American values or culture is pretty absurd in my opinion, so I fail to see how anyone could erode something that never existed. We've always been a melting pot and our core value's have changed every generation anyways.

But anyways, multiculturism is a buzzword, propaganda so to speak, as there really isn't anything of the sort. It's some fantasy invented by people so they can feel enriched about thier country for no reason at all. Yippie, you have a bunch of disjointed people living in your country, go you. Why is that special? And why does the government need to acknowledge your individuality and culture? Do you need some kind of reinforcement? Are you going to forget where you came from if your government doesn't throw a parade and name a month in your ethnicities honor? The idea of multiculturism, is one that exists to actually make a single culture so it pretty much negates whatever it's trying to do, and why it would try and do it hardly makes any sense as having many cultures seperate yet in the same country really poses no benefit at all to anyone. Unless you get wood celebrating 20 different New Years celebrations in the course of a single year.

Political correctness regarding Islam isn't hurting the war on terror, that's absurd. Bull**** peddled by the right for the same reasons that they claim homosexuality marraige will lead to legal bestiality and pedophelia and it's to give you one of two avenues. Either support this action or support terrorists. Either you're against gay marraige or you think a 40yr old should be able to marry a 6yr old. I'm so tired of this stuff clouding the real issues and really fear that so many of whom I used to consider my peers think in such small terms.

But political correctness is absurd, in this country you're special unless you're a white male, then all of a sudden you're an ###### who gets everything handed to him on a silver platter even if you're from some poor Alabama family. you have the right to think your race or color(I prefer color since I'm hesitant to call each color a race) is superior or cool unless you're white, in which case you should still be making amends for slavery, maybe hand a black person a whip and let him flog you a few times on your way to work next time. If you want to set up a scholarship for poor hispanic children that's great, admirable even, however set up the same scholarship but this time just for white kids and you're a closet KKK member.

Now even if true multiculturism could be achieved why would anyone want it? I think that anyone who has to wear thier nationality or ethnicity on thier sleeve like some badge of honor is a pretty weak minded individual, and to demand that everyone recognize that is selfish. I could care about thier culture and bending over backwards to appease it just as well as they care about mine, or my lack of one, so why don't we call it a tie and leave the culture bit at home? So even though I'm a white english speaking male, the only culture/ethnicity not allowed to celebrate itself, I could care less about that and am left dumbfounded why so many others feel that what they have is still not enough.

[MadFerIt]

I do agree with many of your points, and I also agree that those who have pride for their race aside from whites are typically accepted. However you must understand "white pride" has always been associated with groups such as the KKK, stormfront, and also racist organizations. Also I can't say I've ever seen someone with a sticker/t-shirt/banner/ect claiming their racial pride. Maybe it's just my city here in Canada but.. Usually pride is associated with a culture/nation not race. There's nothing to be proud of when it comes to your skin in reality.

Now the idea of multiculturalism. The truth is in some nations and some communities it truly is just a buzzword and full of crap.. But there "is" such a thing. Let me give you an example.. In my city as you are growing up in schools/ect they do what's called "culture sharing". This is when as a child you get to meet other children/people in other cultures and share with them your customs and individuality and experience the other's as well. What does this do?? It's the opposite of what people see as integration (blending into the most common language/culture and giving up your own), but rather integrating while retaining what makes you different/culturally unique.

Now I'm not an expert or anything, and honestly there's always going to be conflict associated with culture/religion/race/nationality. No matter what you do the simple fact remains, it is human nature to either fear or dislike what you cannot understand, or rather refuse to understand.

But please listen to me when I say this.. There is a MAJOR difference between "Political Correctness" and multiculturalism. Avoiding the issue of culture and ignoring the conflicts results in a society of multiple culture's that are so divided and isolated from each other, and well we know what happens then.. France anyone?

Is there more danger from one culture then another? Of course. Right now because Islamic Extremism is on a rise and many feel there is "justification" for it (War in Iraq for example), it does become a much greater danger. But what we fail to see is that we aren't fixing anything.. Blaming an entire culture is obviously ignorant and stupid, and won't lead to any resolution. The truth is, people in the future looking at how people thought "Muslims were evil, or culturally weak" will look at us as disgusting and primitive.. That is, unless things get worse..

I sure as hell don't want things to get worse, but what are we doing to truly stop that from happening?

What does the identity of the British bombers have to do with mutliculturism?  Did we fail in assimilating Timothy McVeigh, was it through some fault of our own?

Damn this article is stupid.  Multiculturism is a pain in the ass however, as it's perfectly fine to throw a brown pride sticker on your car if you're hispanic or say that everyone want's to be black if you're african-american but I'd be a racist if I had a white pride sticker on my car and probably get the **** kicked out of me.

To say there's some core American values or culture is pretty absurd in my opinion, so I fail to see how anyone could erode something that never existed.  We've always been a melting pot and our core value's have changed every generation anyways.

But anyways, multiculturism is a buzzword, propaganda so to speak, as there really isn't anything of the sort.  It's some fantasy invented by people so they can feel enriched about thier country for no reason at all.  Yippie, you have a bunch of disjointed people living in your country, go you.  Why is that special? And why does the government need to acknowledge your individuality and culture?  Do you need some kind of reinforcement?  Are you going to forget where you came from if your government doesn't throw a parade and name a month in your ethnicities honor?  The idea of multiculturism, is one that exists to actually make a single culture so it pretty much negates whatever it's trying to do, and why it would try and do it hardly makes any sense as having many cultures seperate yet in the same country really poses no benefit at all to anyone.  Unless you get wood celebrating 20 different New Years celebrations in the course of a single year.

Political correctness regarding Islam isn't hurting the war on terror, that's absurd.  Bull**** peddled by the right for the same reasons that they claim homosexuality marraige will lead to legal bestiality and pedophelia and it's to give you one of two avenues.  Either support this action or support terrorists.  Either you're against gay marraige or you think a 40yr old should be able to marry a 6yr old.  I'm so tired of this stuff clouding the real issues and really fear that so many of whom I used to consider my peers think in such small terms.

But political correctness is absurd, in this country you're special unless you're a white male, then all of a sudden you're an ###### who gets everything handed to him on a silver platter even if you're from some poor Alabama family.  you have the right to think your race or color(I prefer color since I'm hesitant to call each color a race) is superior or cool unless you're white, in which case you should still be making amends for slavery, maybe hand a black person a whip and let him flog you a few times on your way to work next time.  If you want to set up a scholarship for poor hispanic children that's great, admirable even, however set up the same scholarship but this time just for white kids and you're a closet KKK member. 

Now even if true multiculturism could be achieved why would anyone want it?  I think that anyone who has to wear thier nationality or ethnicity on thier sleeve like some badge of honor is a pretty weak minded individual, and to demand that everyone recognize that is selfish.  I could care about thier culture and bending over backwards to appease it just as well as they care about mine, or my lack of one, so why don't we call it a tie and leave the culture bit at home?  So even though I'm a white english speaking male, the only culture/ethnicity not allowed to celebrate itself, I could care less about that and am left dumbfounded why so many others feel that what they have is still not enough.

586838853[/snapback]

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

Well "brown pride" is a color, so some people obviousely celebrate thier color. Now I really don't care, so even though my post was long I have no desire to have a "white pride" sticker on my car or anything of the sort. My take on the whole thing is your nationality, culture, color they're all meaningless because you're born into it. You're not any more special being born in the United States than if you were born in Puerto Rico nor does the color of your skin warrent any kind of celebration.

I also don't think your example of culture sharing is multiculturism, more-so a more ingenious method of integration. Even in Canada there's going to be parts of a persons past culture that they just can't do or isn't accepted so it will get left behind, all culture sharing show and tell at school does is help relieve some of the tensions between them since everyone will have a slightly better understanding of each other, but to pretend that because you can show your culture that you keep it fully, I think that's a lie.

Further while the US is called the melting pot and supposedly we're do nothing to allow people to keep thier old culture I'm really at a loss to see how we are somehow doing that. The only thing that really poses any kind of problem is language and quite frankly I think each country should have a primary official language including Canada. I honestly can not thing of a single benefit from not having a common language in a country, not one, nor do I see how asking one to learn the primary common language is somehow asking them to give up thier culture as some people see it here.

I think political correctness and "multiculturism" go hand in hand however because they all do not mix. Especially if you're trying to celebrate all cultures because in reality it isn't possible without stepping on someone's toes. Further I don't think blaming an entire culture for something is stupid, in the case of Islamic extremism I would think it is, but that's because you have friendly Muslim nations as well as the radical ones and you also have alot of moderate Muslims around the world as well that never seem to get any love from westerners.

But something I think that's important to point out is that without a kind of cultural diffusion would there be any moderate muslims now? Christianity had to undergo many changes from it's beginning form to survive and thrive and it was only after centuries of influence from other people, countries, and ideas that we have what we have now. Had the Christian culture merely been allowed to co-exist with everything else without being required to change with the present conditions of each country and culture it spread to what would it be today? As for Islam, had no-one immigrated from the middle east and settled in western countries and had to temper thier own religion what would it look like now? Would there really be any moderate Islamic nations or Muslims?

Allowing something to exist unchallenged is very dangerous, and while I don't think western civilization is necessarilly the best there is or was, since at one point the middle east was the only part of the world not in the dark ages, I think what it brought about in free speech is very important. So I'm against multiculturism as an idea, I think it's impossible to do, and moronic to want.

[vincent]

I'm just proud im human. Hell for all i know i could've been born a sloth or some other wild animal who's chance at life depends on how well they can physically defend themselves. I'm hispanic and never agreed with the whole "chicano-pride" crap nor do i even like being called "chicano" screw racial pride.

[b3n]

"Having accepted the questionable ideals of multiculturalism"

what is questionable about accepting other cultures, isnt the oposite of "multiculturalism" racism?

you realy have to put this into perspective, im English and i live in London and im sure more than 50 people have been killed by white/black/purple people in the UK. Not to mention rapes/assults/abuse and other crimes. Aulthough terrorists attacks are disturbing and obviosly tragic, there are so many worse things in our world.

[Hitman2000]

rumbleph1sh you seem to find something negative to say about muslims every week you seem to be posting some article that is written by some racist guy.

[rumbleph1$h]

rumbleph1sh  you seem to find something negative to say about muslims every week you seem to be posting some article that is written by some racist guy.

586850767[/snapback]

you know what your problem is man? i'm just to real for you. yeah that's right. too real!

[Black Hawk]

:huh:

[raid517]

And your problem is that you know nothing but hate.

I come from the UK - (flame bait snipped).

On the whole we all get along pretty well - but in any society there are always extremists. No doubt if you were to come to this country and express views like those expressed above - you would be considered an extremist too - and would be regarded with just as much suspicion as we would regard any Muslim extremists.

Neo-fascism (which is the opposite of multi-culturism) is not the way to go. We already tried that in the 20th century - and we all remember how that little experiment ended...

GJ

Edited November 25, 2005 by fred666

[raid517]

Thanks fred! I never knew ignorant and Yank had benn redefined as offesive terminology. We have ignorant Brits, in this country too. Is the new rule that we pretend that they don't exist either?

GJ

[vincent]

you know what your problem is man? i'm just to real for you. yeah that's right. too real!

586851012[/snapback]

Riiight, if stereotypes and generalizations are a way of "realness" then i feel sorry for you.

[n3wt]

Riiight, if stereotypes and generalizations are a way of "realness" then i feel sorry for you.

Well, to be fair, stereotypes and generelizations happen in the mind as part of the learning process, whether you want them to or not. Without the ability to stereotype and generalize a person would have to know everything about everything to function, but I digress.

Generalizations generally apply to the general population (thats a lot of generals) in this case, most muslims are regular people like you and me, so this is an improper generalization.