Multiculturalism is Wrong, Even if You Aren't a White Male
A brief note: this is unrelated to my Arabic class, but is a general note, and one of the reasons Residence Life is evil.
The supposed goal of multiculturalism is to celebrate diversity of people and create unity. In my experience, it does the exact opposite. By making people realize that they are different, it separates people into groups easily identified and stereotyped, whether stereotypes are positive are negative.
Furthermore, by segregating people like that, it would be counter-intuitive for this to create a sense of equality. Different, yet equal, (or separate but equal) is a concept not intrinsically grasped by human beings in the same way that labeling things as the same are. As an American white male, I endure the most of this top down inequality. Because fortune has favored me to be born as who I am now, I pay for the mistakes of my ancestors. Since white males wrote western history from the dawn of Rome up until about 1960, it must be wrong. Thus, since white males were favored under the "old" system, we must be "unfavored" as much under the new system. Anything America, which is run by white males, must be inherently wrong.
Rather than proposing that people should be seperated into groups, I think a better approach to the spirit of diversity or multicuturalism would be to keep people together and celebrate individiual diversity. Take me and a friend of mine. We are both the same age, the same height (hard to believe, I know, but he exists, trust me), and are from the same geographic region (the Philadelphia area). He is very liberal, I am conservative, and we listen to very different types of music, and our majors are in different colleges. That being the obvious, we both have very different experiences, even if they are more similar than some. This also applies to any two people. Even twins raised apart can be very different people.
Now, I am not saying we celebrate differences, on the contrary, I am saying that I recognize that everyone is equal just for existing as a human being. Very unlike Kant, I know, but that is my belief. Forcing people to recognize their differences can only lead to suffering. This is my basic problem with organizations such as the NAACP (now practically as marginal as the Ku Klux Klan) and the gay pride movement. A white straight male parade would be characterized as racsist and intolerant. In the same way, gay pride parades and NAACP rallys make me feel marginalized. I do not walk around advertising I am straight, why should those who live an alternative lifestyle do the same?
The supposed goal of multiculturalism is to celebrate diversity of people and create unity. In my experience, it does the exact opposite. By making people realize that they are different, it separates people into groups easily identified and stereotyped, whether stereotypes are positive are negative.
Furthermore, by segregating people like that, it would be counter-intuitive for this to create a sense of equality. Different, yet equal, (or separate but equal) is a concept not intrinsically grasped by human beings in the same way that labeling things as the same are. As an American white male, I endure the most of this top down inequality. Because fortune has favored me to be born as who I am now, I pay for the mistakes of my ancestors. Since white males wrote western history from the dawn of Rome up until about 1960, it must be wrong. Thus, since white males were favored under the "old" system, we must be "unfavored" as much under the new system. Anything America, which is run by white males, must be inherently wrong.
Rather than proposing that people should be seperated into groups, I think a better approach to the spirit of diversity or multicuturalism would be to keep people together and celebrate individiual diversity. Take me and a friend of mine. We are both the same age, the same height (hard to believe, I know, but he exists, trust me), and are from the same geographic region (the Philadelphia area). He is very liberal, I am conservative, and we listen to very different types of music, and our majors are in different colleges. That being the obvious, we both have very different experiences, even if they are more similar than some. This also applies to any two people. Even twins raised apart can be very different people.
Now, I am not saying we celebrate differences, on the contrary, I am saying that I recognize that everyone is equal just for existing as a human being. Very unlike Kant, I know, but that is my belief. Forcing people to recognize their differences can only lead to suffering. This is my basic problem with organizations such as the NAACP (now practically as marginal as the Ku Klux Klan) and the gay pride movement. A white straight male parade would be characterized as racsist and intolerant. In the same way, gay pride parades and NAACP rallys make me feel marginalized. I do not walk around advertising I am straight, why should those who live an alternative lifestyle do the same?
| Permalink | 
