Most literature on multiculturalism assumes, without argument or compelling empirical evidence, that immigrants and members of ethnic.
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- Editorial Reviews
- The Multicultural Mystique: The Liberal Case against Diversity by H.E. Baber
- The Multicultural Mystique: The Liberal Case against Diversity
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Editorial Reviews
According to the received view, multiculturalism benefits ethnic minorities, who want to maintain distinct cultures and keep to themselves. And it protects them from the pressure to assimilate to the majority culture. Baber scrutinizes these assumptions in this critique of the notion of multiculturalism.
Baber asks whether it could be that many, or even most, members of ethnic minorities want to shed their ethnic identities and assimilate to the dominant culture. She suggests that multiculturalism imposes ethnic scripts on minorities and thus locks them out of the opportunity to assimilate. In effect, it becomes a form of ethnic stereotyping and discrimination. Multiculturalism, when transformed into an ideology as it often is, benefits cultural preservationists at the expense of members of ethnic minorities who wish to assimilate—arguably the majority.
Perversely, it then labels those who would resist such stereotyping as atypical, inauthentic, or even self-hating. Baber argues that liberals, or anyone who favors the expansion of individual liberty, should reject a multiculturalism that restricts personal freedom by classifying and identifying people on the basis of unchosen characteristics such as ancestry and appearance.
The Multicultural Mystique: The Liberal Case against Diversity by H.E. Baber
Like all Americans, ethnic minorities should be encouraged to "invent themselves," to affiliate with groups of their own choosing and be identified as they wish. Read more Read less. About the Author H. Prometheus Books May 7, Language: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. The idea that multiculturalism is a good thing is quite uncontroversial in today's world.
Many colleges and universities such as the one in which I teach have a "multicultural requirement" meant to sensitize students to cultures other than dominant "white" culture.
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We learn in history books and social studies classes that immigrants have and continue desiring to maintain their own culture, and that attempts to integrate them into the "culture of power" is a form of oppression. Baber questions all of this She is not jingoistic, anti-immigrant, or in any way arguing that "Western culture" is superior to every other culture. But here's what she is questioning: She then makes a unfortunately brief case in support of an affirmative action meant to give immigrants and historically oppressed groups a type of equality of opportunity to integrate if they so choose.
The Multicultural Mystique: The Liberal Case against Diversity
In the first several chapters, Baber questions whether people generally like their cultures and whether the choice to retain their native culture rather than integrate MIGHT have more to do with the high costs of integration than actual love for the native culture. She discusses a trip to Kenya where, the more she talked with natives, the more she realized that none of them really loved Kenyan culture and all had a desire to move away from it.
She discusses the many reasons why people might stay with their native cultures that have nothing to do with actual love for the culture: In fact, multiculturalism, she notes, may make exit costs even higher because a nation ingrained in multiculturalism will look oddly upon those who want to assimilate which we are told, people wouldn't do if they were self-loving.
In this way, multiculturalism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy: In the middle section of the book, the talk turns to the costs of multiculturalism by way of the "scripts" that are imposed onto people from non-dominant cultures. The author is fond of saying that there is 'no free lunch" and, by this, she means that pushing multiculturalism often imposes "scripts" onto people of particular ethnicities about what their behavior should look like and how they should be. And vice versa, if we pushed aggressive integration, we'd stigmatize those who may actually want to stay "traditional".
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But often, that is exactly what we inadvertently do to members of ethnic groups and, in the states, blacks: Most literature on multiculturalism assumes, without argument or compelling empirical evidence, that immigrants and members of ethnic minorities prefer to identify with their ancestral cultures. According to the received view, multiculturalism benefits ethnic minorities, who want to maintain distinct cultures and keep to themselves.
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And it protects them from the pressure t Most literature on multiculturalism assumes, without argument or compelling empirical evidence, that immigrants and members of ethnic minorities prefer to identify with their ancestral cultures. And it protects them from the pressure to assimilate to the majority culture. Baber scrutinizes these assumptions in this critique of the notion of multiculturalism.
Baber asks whether it could be that many, or even most, members of ethnic minorities want to shed their ethnic identities and assimilate to the dominant culture. She suggests that multiculturalism imposes ethnic scripts on minorities and thus locks them out of the opportunity to assimilate. In effect, it becomes a form of ethnic stereotyping and discrimination.
Multiculturalism, when transformed into an ideology as it often is, benefits cultural preservationists at the expense of members of ethnic minorities who wish to assimilate—arguably the majority. Perversely, it then labels those who would resist such stereotyping as atypical, inauthentic, or even self-hating. Baber argues that liberals, or anyone who favors the expansion of individual liberty, should reject a multiculturalism that restricts personal freedom by classifying and identifying people on the basis of unchosen characteristics such as ancestry and appearance.
Like all Americans, ethnic minorities should be encouraged to "invent themselves," to affiliate with groups of their own choosing and be identified as they wish. Published July 9th by Prometheus Books first published To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Multicultural Mystique , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Multicultural Mystique. Lists with This Book.
Jun 30, Kathleen O'Neal rated it really liked it. I was greatly impressed with book when I first read it and still agree with many of its claims. That said, reflecting on it now I realize that some of its arguments such as the point it makes about hijab and African-American women's hair are bizarre and at times even racist. At this point I look at this book as an artifact of my intellectual development circa the time I was twenty or so. I doubt I would be as impressed reading it for the first time today.
Aug 11, Patricia Luce Chapman rated it really liked it. The book discusses the currently chic "multiculturalist salad bowl," favoring the melting pot approach which "frees individuals to affiliate with groups of their own choosing and to be identified as they wish.