Blog #3: Multiculturalism

I consider myself to be a fairly flexible person. While I have my own opinions, I will listen to any argument with an open mind. My friends come from a variety of backgrounds. Ever the student, I ask questions and they teach me about their culture and religion. From grades 3-7, I attended school in the Panama City, FL area. It was fairly culturally diverse with a prominent Vietnamese population. (As a result, I find myself correcting people at work when they butcher the name Nguyen.) However, I do not remember learning anything about their culture. We did projects in grade school that revolved around Native Americans and learned about the different tribes that were local to the area. I am not sure that I remember this because of the subject matter or because it was my best attempt at creativity. Art was always my sister’s thing. When I was about to enter the 8th grade, we moved to Madison, AL. The first thing that I noticed was the smallness. By that, I mean that it was not as culturally diverse. Granted, I was not thinking in those words at age 13. At the time, I thought…where in the world did my parents take me? In time, I assimilated as I had before and developed long-lasting friendships.

Samuel Taylor notes in his article that with America, “it may be the first time that a nation has abandoned the single identity of its origins and set out deliberately to adopt multiple national identities.” He feels that the goal of non-whites is separation rather than inclusion. While I am sure that there are many who have that goal in mind, there are also some who are willing to share their cultural history. Perhaps we just have not asked them to share? I do agree that the same historical event is seen differently by different people because their perspectives are different. Taylor compares multicultural history to Affirmative Action. “Just as whites are to step aside to give hiring preferences to minorities, whites are to set aside their own point of view and study those of others. Non-whites, on the other hand, are free to promote their own interests and exclusionist histories. Like Affirmative Action, multicultural history is possible only because the majority has abandoned its position at the center.” I believe that in order to move forward, we should open our minds up to every culture.