Can't we all just get along?: Part 5 - Just accept all the different cutlures

Now we come to the solution most accepted by educated progressives. That is the solution of multiculturalism, which is the idea that we must learn to accept the different cultures of various racial and ethnic groups. Therefore, we do not judge people of color on the basis of European-American culture. Instead we learn to accept people of color for their own values and cultures. Multiculturalism challenges us to respect people who have traditionally been disrespected by the larger society because they are not acting "white" enough.
Multiculturalism is based upon the well-established fact that we have historically paid homage to European-Americans and European-American culture. Doing so indicates that we value whites more than people of other races. When we practice multiculturalism we are doing more than accepting the cultures of non-whites. We are learning to accept non-whites on their own terms and not on the terms of whites.
In essence, multiculturalism is about learning to accept people different than us. We talk about accepting different cultures, but really it is about accepting different racial/ethnic groups. This is obviously a powerful message and an important one if we are going to deal with our racialized society.
But how far does cultural acceptance go? If a culture normalizes female genital mutilation do I have to accept that as well. What about infanticide, polygamy, euthanasia, or just plain mean behavior? Do I have to accept anything in the name of multiculturalism.
Here is where we begin to run into problems with multiculturalism. The honest truth is that some cultures do have better values than others. We may disagree on which values are better than others, but it is clearly the case that some are better than others. Is the culture of Nazi Germany as good as societies based upon egalitarianism. At the very least am I not allowed to say that the racism and oppression in that culture is bad? What about cultures that creates terrorists or those that motivate street gangs. Multiculturalism encourages us not to judge these cultures but it is so clear that there are better cultures than these ones, that we are foolish not to judge. And once I acknowledge that some cultures are better than others, then I can not completely accept the tolerance preached by multiculturalist. Eventually I have to make value judgements about which cultures are better than others and by their very nature such judgements are subjective.
Even multiculturalists wind up making judgements. The academic movement of "Black Athena" is roughly based on multiculturalism with its arguments that the accomplishments of the Greeks were really the achievements of the Europeans. In that way European based cultures are denigrated all in the name of multicultural "tolerance." And many contemporary multiculturalists can be caught putting down uneducated whites, or people of faith. People who are seen as religious conservatives have been described by Micheal Weisskopf as "largely poor, uneducated and easy to command." Trouble-Maker bets that Weisskopf probably extols the virtues of multiculturalism. But if you are really going to be multiculturalist then you can not just support the cultures you like. You have to accept the cultures you disagree with as well. Trouble-Maker is not convinced that those who claim the label of being multiculturalist really live up to that expectation.
Ironically, multiculturalism can become a tool that allows certain people to elevate their own culture, and like-minded cultures, while they denigrate the cultures of those they do not like. Multiculturalists can look down upon cultures that are not seen as sufficiently "tolerant" and judge them for being judgemental. For this reason multicutluralism is good in theory, but it can not be fully implemented. We must have more than multiculturalism if we are going to have racial peace in our society.
The last few posts have been downers. Like any good social scientist, I have been critical of the current ideas enunciated about racial issues. That is the easy part. The hard part is coming up with solutions myself. It would be great to do just the easy part but it is in proposing solid solutions that there is a chance to make a real difference in society. So in my last couple of posts in this series I will talk about solutions. That way some other good social scientists can come along and poke holes in my solutions as well.



Sincerely,



Trouble-Maker