Not a good thing

[A_Wanderer]

Multiculturalism is supremely racist in nature because it expects different values and different standards of morality and civilisation from people according to their race and ethnic background. It stops treating people as individuals and starts to accord rights because of ethnicity and culture.

Discuss.

 

[foray]

What sort of "rights" are you talking about? Other than indigenous rights, which is a different kettle of fish, I can't think of anything accorded to a particular ethnic group.

foray

 

[A_Wanderer]

For example allowing groups within a country to have their own seperate tribunals in accordance to their religious beliefs. Different treatment due to religious belief. I am simply putting this one out there for discussion, I found it in an interview and I thought that it was interesting, hence the discuss.

 

[foray]

Oh, you mean like the Amish or something...

 

[all_i_want]

i get the point but which country in the world does that? all citizens of a country must be equal before law, and no one can be treated differently because of their ethnicity or religion, thats what i believe.
so, yes, if you take multiculturalism that way, it is racist.
i have always thought of it as being tolerant of differences.

also, i did learn quite a bit about ottoman empire and they had a system like what you mentioned. muslims and non-muslims paid different taxes, had different courts of law, had different rights about military service.. a lot of the minorities lived very comfortably in such a system. these minorities have the jews, serbians, the greek, bulgarians, arabs, egyptians and armenians, along with some other christian communities. now that was a multicultural country. maybe that was applicable at the time but today? i dont think so.

so, i dont see how that applies to today's world.

 

[verte76]

I don't know, it seems to me the term "multiculturalism" is a huge word and can mean different things. In some ways, yes, it's evil. The controversy over Cleopatra's ethnic background is a good case of this. There were claims that the academics were racist for thinking that she was Greek rather than African. The black nationalists, for whatever reason, thought she absolutely had to be one of them. If you're going to assign various traits to different ethnic backgrounds, and assume people are all the same because of a shared ethnic background, it's a mistake. The right thing to do is to acknowledge the individual and his or her talents, capabilities, values, etc, etc, and accept them.

 

[deep]

I think he is referring to the Aboriginals of Australia


or native peoples in Canada or the U S



but isn't the prevailing culture in these countries Christian/ European influenced

The power brokers put their culture first and just consider it neutral/ benign.

 

[LoveTown]

ok....here's a topic I know a bit about. In my social work courses in college we had to learn allll about this. Actually had to take a class called Ethnicity and Multiculturalism. In the true form of the word multifulturalism is just the belief that all people are different, have the right to be that way, that it's a good thing and should be respected and celebrated....as well as all people of all backgrounds have EQUAL rights....notice I said EQUAL and not different.

now on the other hand, the concept of a "melting pot" is soooooo wrong. Because in a melting pot all cultures bleed into one and become one culture....well this means that all the individual cultures must give up or lose what makes them special in order to become part of the mix.

So class, multiculturalism = good! melting pot = baaaad.

 

[foray]

That's why I brought up indigenous rights, because that's the only eg I can think of. However, the indigenous rights varies from nation to nation and you really have to look at each one individually to see whether it is "justified" or not, or whether it is doable in the short term.

foray

 

[A_Wanderer]

Isn't the idea of a melting pot the exchange of ideas and practices to create a more harmonious society? It allows for nations to have a more dynamic national character that is built through waves of immigration and that is a very good thing.

The idea of having and respecting different ways of life without integration is dangerous. For example the rise of Islamic populations in Europe is not in itself a bad thing, but the tollerance for bigoted and racist beliefs among those immigrant communities is wrong.

People have the right to indidual expression or cultural expression - however such means of expression should fall within the framework of the laws and conventions of their new country. Cutting and pasting societies from one place to another without having an exchange of ideas and culture is not a good thing, it creates a rigid and divided nation where ethnic violence is a definite risk.

For examples of melting pot in action I suggest the immigration into Australia first by the English and then the Irish during the famine then Chinese during the gold rushes all the way up to the Greeks, Italians, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Indians, Sri Lankans in the last 50 years. All these groups live in Australia in a more or less harmonious fashion because we have allowed there to be a melting pot. People retain their cultural individuality but with a bit more give e.g. second generation speaking English. It is a system that works and makes immigration a good thing.

Melting pot immigration crafts societies that are rich, varied and functionable. Multiculturalism when done to prevent this from happening creates ethnic ghettoes and tensions where harmful practices are retained within insular communities and it becomes wrong to adress those problems.