In other courses I have argued that the U.S. has had a diverse society from its very beginnings. It has become more diverse and more aware of this diversity in the last decades. America has also watched the globe shrink with the onset of the Information Age. This has made us painfully aware of our ignorance about ourselves and our international neighbors. Multicultural education is no longer a luxury or novelty, it is a necessity. We can no longer afford parochial debates over political correctness.
Early America was comprised of English and German-speaking white Protestants, dominating Native Americans, and African slaves. The new country soon absorbed French and Spanish-speaking Catholic minorities as it expanded. Eventually these were joined by a variety of nationalities from across Europe, many of whom were Catholics and Jews, and Asians on the west coast. As they arrived in North America, the new immigrants generally started on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Many non-English speaking and Catholic European new comers were eventually able to integrate. This was also true of Jews, as the only large non-Christian minority. For most of America’s history, English-speaking Protestant segments dominated of our multicultural society and educational institutions (Janzen, 1994).
From the start, women of all ethnic and religious backgrounds were restricted from access to traditional bastions of privilege in institutions of higher education. Sexual orientation was deeply in the closet. Physical and sensory disabilities were largely ignored. At the middle of the 20th century, doors began to open to middle-class European-Americans, Catholics, Jews, women and racial minorities. Civil rights and women’s movements in the late 1950s and 60s opened the door further. By the end of the century, a surge in Hispanic, Southeast Asian, African, Muslim and Hindu immigrants added even greater complexity to American society. As we move into the 21st century by Christian reckoning, the U.S. only increases its diversity of national and religious minorities, their visibility, and their exercise of civil rights. The new Americans see the university campus as the key to economic success in their new land. We have moved from the melting pot to the multicultural mosaic (Reisch, 2008).
Formerly disadvantaged segments of society arriving at American universities did not always recognize their socio-cultural groups in the Western civilization lessons or textbooks. Often, minorities were appalled to find their culture represented in institutions of higher learning as primitive, marginalized, oppressed, exotic, less developed, or Third World backwaters of civilization (Smith, 1990). The women’s movement, civil rights, affirmative action, and progressive educators have generated movement to add more diversity to campus curricula and reflect the multiple cultures of the nation (Gezi, 1981).. Some multiculturalists would argue that the U.S. (and higher education) has been dominated by White elites studying “dead White men” (DWM) too long. Traditionalists argue that Western civilization classics are “canon” – almost holy writ (Bloom, 1987). The irony is that ancestors many of DWM such as the ancient Jews, Greeks, Italians, and Catholics would not have been welcomed on campus upon their arrival at Ellis Island or other points of entry. Both sides in the debate over multicultural education content have charged their language with contempt for the other. The term multicultural became a code word for “political correctness” (PC) in the 1990s, as if identifying global giants of thought was an attack on European virtue and the foundations of American civilization.
The fact is that the “canon” of Western classics is no longer enough to understand world culture in the age of globalism and 9-11. As important as Western civilization is, it is only part of the human story. Graff states that multicultural curriculum has been supported by separate courses in the past but he argues for confronting debate head-on as a way to revitalize the universities role to promote critical thinking (1992). Today we may not be able to afford to promote diversity and global understanding through expanded specialized course selections. The Bible, Plato, and Shakespeare should be joined by an introduction to the Vedas, Confucius, and the Koran. Examples of representative classics from cultures, creeds, genders and orientations should be presented. The well-rounded student not only needs to know where global cultures are located; they need to know something of their thought and literature. We need to provide students with multicultural learning to understand the world, their nation, their local communities and their own heritage. This is not political correctness; it is recognizing the world we live in.
Bloom, A. (1987). The closing of the American mind: How higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Gezi, K. (1981). Issues in multicultural education. Educational Research Quarterly. 6 (3): 5-14.
Graff, G. (1992). Beyond the culture wars: How teaching the conflicts can revitalize American education. New York, NY: Norton.
Janzen, R. (1994). Melting pot or mosaic? Educational Leadership. 51 (8): 9-11. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may94/vol51/num08/Melting- Pot-or-Mosaic%C2%A2.aspx
Reisch M. (2008). From melting pot to multiculturalism: The impact of racial and ethnic diversity on social work and social justice in the USA. British Journal of Social Work. 38 (4): 788-804.
