The Hijacking of Multiculturalism

The Hijacking of Multiculturalism

When is Barack Obama going to play the race card? “The Toronto Star” published an article on March 8 entitled, "In U.S. politics, race card remains in vogue,” stating, “’the race card’ could still be played.” It claims that racism is part of the American “cultural and historical furniture.” Is multiculturalism defined by such racism and polarized thinking? When Obama’s parents married in 1960, there were still 22 states banning interracial marriages. Then, in 1967, the Supreme Court abolished all “race hygiene” laws. The concept of “race hygiene” is, in essence, the opposite of multiculturalism. There is problem with using the word “multicultural” to describe people of “many different skin colors”, not people of “many different cultures.” When skin color becomes the focal point the concept of multiculturalism has narrowed and become improperly defined by only one aspect: physical appearance.

Frankly I’m impressed Obama hasn’t “played the race card” since media articles are speculating and seem to be using it already . He is focused on appearing Presidential, not on being multicultural. Why does the media try to make it about race? John McCain has a culture but we don’t talk about his culture because he’s an elderly white male.
The United States has been considered the “melting pot” of different cultures for centuries. Yet the KKK, the black panthers, the Black Muslim movement, white supremacists and like groups all advocated for, and still argue for, “racial hygiene” during this same period of multicultural growth in America. There is no shortage of special interest groups that continue to work to hijack the multicultural philosophy that our country was founded on.

Look at the people around you and you will find that just about everyone is “multicultural.” No, not everyone is a mix of different colored skin, but the multitude of the United States population is not 100% of any culture. Being a “pure-bred” is rare in today’s society. In my circle of friends, being a “pure-bred” is neither a blessing nor a curse. I live and socialize in a multicultural setting every day. I find this is not about race and color. It is about their heritage, customs, and family behavior.

I look at myself and see a rich mixture of Dutch, British, Irish, and Scottish customs and family histories. All are European countries, but all have different cultures. So I am multicultural, but that’s not how society views me. To society I am a member of the white majority. Defined as a piece of white bread; I am “bland” by today’s expectation of what multicultural means. I do not have different races in my blood but why is this considered to be an absence of “culture”? Simply put, I believe myself to be multicultural.

In an article titled, “Multicultural backlash,” Rukhsana Khan makes the claim, “Others say that the term ‘multicultural’ is misleading because it is actually used to refer to other cultures in particular to ‘non-white’ cultures and yet each of us comes from a culture.” His point that minority pride is mistaken for multiculturalism is a valid one. We should resist making this mistake.

I made this mistake with a person that looked like me even though I believed I had nothing in common with him. During my sophomore year, my family hosted a foreign exchange student, Henning, from Germany. Exchanging cultural views with him was an extreme eye-opener as he expressed cultural pride every day. He felt proud and superior in America because he was German. It was offensive and I told him so. Did I do this subconsciously as well? Is that why it bothered me so much?

At the beginning of the year Henning and I did not get along. In his view products made in the United States were poor quality and products made in Germany were high quality. This extended to people and sports as well. The outfits he wore were polo shirts, a sweater tied around his neck, and expensive jeans and shoes. He dressed the way he did because he was trained to dress formally for school. Initially he resisted American culture and was uncomfortable in the sweatshirt and jean “combo” that is typical of general population for American teens. Henning expressed his national pride without hesitation.

I didn’t always enjoy Henning’s demeanor but I later respected his cultural dignity. The experience taught me to be more receptive to multiculturalism. What I thought was arrogance I gradually understood to be cultural pride. In my circle of friends I can identify Korean, Turkish, Indian, Egyptian, Japanese, Peruvian, and African American cultures. Henning has made me appreciate these rich cultures as well. It’s about accepting people for their race and culture.

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We have one excellent example of multicultural success center in our backyard: the neighborhood of Ballard. Seattle.net posted an article about Ballard’s amazing ability to embrace multiculturalism. The article says:


“Once the domain of Norwegian and Swedish fisherman, Ballard is an increasingly desirable place to live, shop, and experience the [multicultural] music scene and nightlife. This is not to say Ballard has lost its identity. Seattle still has a fishing fleet (located across Salmon Bay at Fisherman’s Terminal) and plenty of Norwegian speaking codgers hanging around coffee shops eager to tell you about the good old days. The Locks are a popular day destination, as is the Nordic Heritage Museum. Ballard is changing, but it has a pretty big reservoir of character.”

Ballard has managed to use its reservoir to benefit from multiculturalism showing the positive effects of accepting many cultures. But, all of this effort could be wasted if the issue is defined skin color and minority pride. It would also be wasted if Ballard became exclusive in favor of only Nordic Heritage.

Even here in and around Shoreline, there are cultural events going virtually unnoticed. From the time I was 1 year old until I was 8 years old, every May 17th I would plant myself with my family on the curb, or rest on the shoulders of my dad, on Greenwood Ave and watch the Norwegian Independence Day Parade , even though we do not hail from the fjords of Norway. The parade itself was multicultural because there were Filipino, Chinese, and Latino community girl drill teams. But, I myself did not remember this cultural experience until my father reminded me of it. In all the efforts made to raise awareness for minority ethnic groups, we could lose the cultures of European nations, which add to the multicultural society we live in. Thankfully all these cultures continue to march and celebrate together each May.

The word multicultural can be abused so easily. It often suffers from a deviation towards referring to minority cultures and not on the wide birth of cultures both of ethnic minority and European majority nations.

If Obama plays “the race card,” multiculturalism will be hijacked by his campaign and the media will celebrate this. It will suffer a blow because we will not be talking about Presidential qualities anymore. We will be talking about race and it will divide people. People will vote on color not on context, further dividing us into exclusion from other cultures. Multiculturalism will be diminished by those seeking to define it as racial pride and preference. We will be once again fighting “racial hygiene” as we saw in the 1960s.