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Multiculturalism “has become an excuse machine”
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 18th, 2008
William Katz, writing for the American think tank Hudson Institute, argues that multiculturalism has become, in effect, an ideology of the left. For one thing, Westerners are expected—indeed, constantly hectored—to “understand” other cultures, but other cultures are not encouraged to understand ours.
Multicultural ideology is anti-intellectual, amoral, and runs counter to the very idea of civilisation.
One of the building blocks of multiculturalism is non-judgmentalism. All cultures, we are told, have their own validity. And, after all, who are we to question what someone else does? Why, that would be cultural imperialism. The anti-intellectualism and amorality of this position is simply breathtaking, yet it’s a widely held notion. After the 9-11 attacks, the president of Mount Holyoke College, where young women are presumably educated, actually praised her students for being non-judgmental about the people who had just hijacked and murdered. Even college presidents chimed in, informing us that we didn’t really comprehend the cultural factors driving the suicide bombers.
You know, if only we understood German frustration, we could deal with this man Hitler.
Non-judgmentalism violates one of the most fundamental concepts of civilization - that to be civilized means making choices, including cultural choices. The citizen is called upon to judge and evaluate all the time - in elections, in trials, in determining social policy. The basic American history text in Robert Hutchins’s college at the University of Chicago was called “The People Shall Judge,” not “The People Shall be Non-judgmental.” We not only have a right to judge, we have an obligation, and that obligation extends across cultures. We had an obligation to judge apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. We had an obligation to judge the Gulag in the Soviet Union. We have an obligation to denounce the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.
Champions of multiculturalism are loathe to talk about the failings of non-Western cultures because that would require discernment and exercise of judgment.
Mr Katz’s biography indicates a wide range of experience. A graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and former editor at The New York Times Magazine, he has also worked as a CIA officer, political aide, and writer of novels and television comedy. Currently, he blogs at Urgent Agenda and Power Line.
From The New York Times to blogging. Some journalists and journalism professors would regard that as traitorous.
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November 18th, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Good point Scott. My tax dollars don’t go educate newcomers on Canadian customs but even though they don’t respect mine I’m expected (or face an HRC somewhere) to respect theirs. My last three doctors were South African making me want to learn Afrikaans so I understood what they were saying to each other when they slipped from English.
Probably the best example, for me, about reverse cultural insensitivity, is the taxi industry. Until about five years ago it was basically a ‘white’ dominated industry which includes First Nations people. We recently had an influx from Africa through the hiring practices of Maple Leaf Pork who like to hire from overseas and put people on a short leash. After the two year mandatory work for the pork plant a number left and collectively started a taxi company. As in any service industry the ‘customer is always right’ and when you cannot understand a direction, make change in a simple decimal system and are generally rude to the customer you don’t start out well. As the owner of another company I heard the complaints daily and had customers ask if we had — drivers and if so send someone else.
Yet if we approached any agency responsible for the industry we were told we were infringing on their human rights. It took a year to get a convicted rapist and sexual attacker out of one cab. The owner was powerless and the City was useless. They did suspend one of my drivers for too many speeding violations, none of which were in our cabs.
November 19th, 2008 at 06:08 PM
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