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Be careful of this multi-culturalism hotch-potch!
Feb 26 2008 | Views 589 |
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Tags: community multi-culturalism indian roots integration humanity poltical correctiness racism
Tags: community multi-culturalism indian roots integration humanity poltical correctiness racism
Be careful of this multi-culturalism hotch-potch!
In these times of political correctness in Britain, the very notion of multi-culturalism, when challenged, raises howls of “racist”, “bigot”, and worse. The pity is that a small, select group of opportunists more interested in political patronage than public service have become the de facto spokesmen for the so called ethnic minorities. They only work to underplay this political correctness by overplaying the multi-culture card and yet having little to say about real societal injustices that affect all our lives.
Since when was culture available in mono- and multi- flavours? Did these islands, or for that matter, any post-primitive society ever have a mono-culture? And what is “cultural memory” anyway? To suggest superficial ideas like streets being named after Gandhi and the statues of Tagore or Desmond Tutu adorning our parks as necessary for a multi-cultural society sounds more like further deepening divisions than creating a cohesive modern society.
If such ideas were followed to their logical conclusion, one can just imagine the situation. Suppose that Birmingham City Council decide to place a statue of Jinnah in a park: People with Indian roots are not best pleased, since many of them perceive him as the architect of partition and the one who said Muslims could not live with Hindus, rather than an icon for a tolerant society. On the other hand, some with Pakistani roots might object on the grounds that their religion does not permit the erection of graven images and one of Jinnah should not be an exception. Similar objections would arise with Gandhi. Is this the society we want to create? If this is cultural memory, thanks, but no thanks!
The fact is that most people, when left alone and unencumbered by political correctness, are comfortable with what is underneath their skin and that of others. They would rather see culture not as something that is “mine” and “not mine”, but rather as “here”. Each individual has the freedom to pick and mix what suits them. Living comfortably with ones Britishness, combined with roots from the Midlands/Glasgow/Africa, and a heritage based on Jewish/Indian/Irish or whatever other tradition has nothing to do with the sociologist’s mythical construct of multi-culturalism.
The lives and works of those like Martin Luther King and Tagore, far from endorsing an iconic, exclusivist multi-culturalism, espoused a holistic, non-exclusive, humanist,, global and international outlook. To use them as symbols for a fuzzy multi-culturalism and political correctness would be a travesty. Better to do them justice by honouring them as men of distinction, regardless of their race. They should be icons NOT because Britain is a place with immigrants, but because, society, as a coherent, civilised whole, values them. Indeed, these great men and women would attract the same respect and honour in any civilised society anywhere.
Martin Luther King wanted the world to see him and treat him as a man, NOT a black man. British multi-culturalism as promoted by the unelected spokespersons – usually of the left wing variety – is characterised by its thin gloss and total lack of substance. Instead of bringing people together, it has the danger of reducing King to a black man, and fragmenting the overwhelming number of co-citizens into imagined and deeply divisive minorities, whereas in earnest, all they want is to be respected as men and women, pure and simple. As for cultural memory, that is something for each individual to decide on, and not for experts who are so busy looking into the rear view mirror that they cannot see the future.
Better for our present and future generations, that they find heroes of their own. We ought to be more positive: We need to learn from the ecstatic reaction of the average “minority” (that is brown skinned to the politically correct) 16 year old in Ealing or Leicester when England win at football, and of the awe in which Sachin Tendulkar is held by the average “majority” (that is, white, in politically correct language) cricket follower.
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