Multiculturalism simply means ethnic or
cultural diversity and the way we promote and tolerate cultural and religious
differences. I think it has been used by some societies, mainly Western, to
argue for the rights of different groups, like immigrants, ethnic and religious
minorities, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities. The opposite to
that is assimilation.
We can argue that it is hard to pick a
moral from one culture and enforce it as universal standard in an effort to try
to assimilate other cultures, which might lead to intolerance between some
cultural or ethnic groups that don’t share the same prospective.
At the same time it is harder for many
people to accept some cultures because of their beliefs, for examples some
cultures justify honor-killing and female circumcision.
Being an immigrant, the question in my
mind will be: is Multiculturalism system better in protecting my rights against
any discrimination or not?
I think recognizing and protecting my
ethnic group right's is automatically provide a protection to me as an
individual, one can argue that it can be harmful if my ethnic group has some
beliefs that violate some of my personal rights, ultimately the same protection
provided to one ethnic group is provided to any subgroup of it.
Multiculturalism also promotes respect,
understanding, and tolerance between different groups and that will lead to
more interaction between these different groups based on respect. Interaction
between these groups will lead to more diverse and strong nation.
At the end I think we also need to be reasonable
not to allow Multiculturalism to be used as leading cause of class warfare or
conflicts among different groups, some people highlights the differences
between different groups, for example racial or religious group to the extent
of promoting hate related crimes.
Muna, I'd love to read more from your perspective as an immigrant as to whether your experiences have indeed confirmed a growing degree of multicultural acceptance, as you've attempted to assimilate into this pluralistic culture. Or have you found it still to be a mono-cultural society here?
ReplyDeleteBefore I came to the US, I had the presumption that American society is mono-cultural, not only individuals but also cities with the same Wal-Marts and same streets' names everywhere.
DeleteAfter living in four different cities, I think that many diverse cultures exist peacefully in America. I see a great deal of cultural pluralism where minority groups are fully participating in American society, they're able to maintain their own culture.
I also can't claim that America is fully Multiculturalism, compared to Canada, for example, America can be described as a melting pot where there's American identity, that is dominant, and many other ethnic ones like Muslim, Jewish, African, Latino,...etc
From a personal experience here in Nashville, the society is pluralistic. I'm able to keep much of my cultural values and traditions and introduce some of them to my neighbors, and at the same time absorbed some of their traditions and values.
For the Muslim community in Nashville, I think we're able to keep our values and get along very well with the other communities.
One challenge I can think of, is how to balance between being a Muslim, American, African-American, and Sudanese-American.