When discussing multiculturalism vs. nationalism with 1,000 different people, the chances are good that you will get 1,000 different answers. After reading the articles "The Challenge of Multiculturalism...", "Pithissippi Burning..", and "Why Multiculturalism is Wrong", I have realized that there is definitely no clear answer as to which choice is best. There are many people who support the idea that America is a huge melting pot of nationalities, and our history should equally include all of the races involved in the development of our nation. They believe that the current history books are very Euro-American based (centering primarily on white history) and tend to leave out vital information about other races such as Native Americans, Chinese, Mexicans, and African Americans. In our nation's current state of "political correctness", more positive attention has been drawn to differing cultures than in the past. We now have a black history month, which brings awareness to their many innovators and achievements. Our society has made many positive adjustments to provide for the rapidly growing Hispanic population; a large amount of publicly displayed information is written in English and Spanish, schools provide ESL programs to help students adjust, adaptations have been made to make it easier to obtain driver's licenses, insurance, health care, and many other things.
On the opposite pole from multiculturalists, you have the nationalists who generally believe that citizenship should be limited to one ethnic and cultural identity. They tend to believe that the acceptance and mixing of other cultures dilutes the strength of the nation and ruins our democratic state of being. Generally, many nationalists are often referred to as "racists". Nationalists come in all shapes and colors; do the groups KKK and Black Panthers sound familiar? Not all nationalists are racist, some countries just have a great sense of keeping with their traditions and history and feel that an influx of immigrants from other countries would destroy what was already established. Their basic attitude is "conform or leave", and tend to prefer a unified culture as opposed to diversity.
The articles presented brought up some very thought-provoking ideas to me about multiculturalism and nationalism. The comment was made that history is a perspective, and everyone's perspective is different. Whites and Blacks definitely have different views on slavery, and Chinese immigrants probably had a much different view of history than Whites people as well. Let's not forget Native Americans, I'm quite sure they had a much different perspective of the Pilgrims than the one portrayed in my old history books. Despite having a tendency to lean towards a multicultural viewpoint, there are some positive ideals set forth by nationalism. People have a tendency to want to belong and feel like they are part of something, perhaps giving them a sense of self-worth and security. Taking pride in being part of a "nation" provides that feeling for many people. "Ideal" multiculturalism is something that I see as a positive quality because I have been fortunate enough to spend much of my life around people from many different cultures which has allowed me to be tolerant and respectful towards them. Even multiculturalists can get carried away with there desire to re-write history from their prospective.
Since America is quite young as far as national history goes, my hope is that in the future we can take pride in being a tolerant, multicultural society that uses that ideal to instill a national pride in all citizens of our country. We as educators can start this "ball rolling" by teaching our students to be proud of their heritage as well as respectful and understanding of others. This ideal could become our "new nationalism"!
References:
Sociological Research Online (1997). Why multiculturalism is wrong. Structures of Nationalism.
Taylor, S. The challenge of 'multiculturalism' in how Americans view the past and the future. The Journal for Historical Review. 12: pp.159-165.
Tobia, P. (2009, February 23). Pithissippi burning: race, white nationalism, and American culture. Nashville Scene website. Retrieved from http://www.nashvillescene.com/Articlearchives
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