In Defense of Multiculturalism

A middle school student was forced to remove an American Flag off his bike last week for fear that it would incite racial tensions. Of course, the flag had been on his bike for the past two months, an American flag waves outside the school, and immediately after national outcry the boy was allowed to restore the flag.

Here is Superintendent Edward Parraz’s feeble defense of the campus supervisor’s decision:

Our Hispanic, you know, kids will, you know, bring their Mexican flags and they’ll display it, and then of course the kids would do the American flag situation, and it does cause kind of a racial tension which we don’t really want,” Parraz said. “We want them to appreciate the cultures.”

Elissa Harrington of FOX40 interviewed Parraz the next day when boy was allowed to display the flag:

Parraz said national flags were banned from campus after a Cinco De Mayo incident when tensions escalated between students displaying the Mexican flag and those waving the Stars and Stripes.

Needless to say, right-wingers seethed with rage at the original decision, and some pointed the finger at the bogeyman ‘Multiculturalism.’ Larry Sands, one of these finger-pointers at RedCounty, makes his point:

Multiculturalism states that all cultures are equal and if one strays off that reservation, one is frequently labeled insensitive, ethnocentric, racist and worse. However, part of the multicultural canon states that the majority culture is not equal to any minority culture and thus should not be acknowledged.

I’m not sure what this ‘multicultural canon’ is, but I assure you the ‘majority culture’ (assuming this means White Anglo Saxon Protestants) is not under threat from ‘minorities.’ Every Fourth of July, I see people of all races celebrate the independence of our great nation. On the national lawn, you see Amish people, Latinos, Blacks, and Whites all convene to see the glorious Washington Monument and the fireworks that light the sky.

Sands furthers his rant:

Hence, minority cultures are allowed to celebrate Cinco de Maio, Black History Month, American Indian History Month, etc., but celebrating a national holiday like Veterans Day is considered divisive.  Hence it is understandable that the Hispanic students at the school were offended at Cody’s expression of patriotism.

Veteran’s Day is not a holiday of the ‘majority culture.’ It is a holiday honoring all who defended our nation; it is not rooted in cultural origin whatsoever. Whites, Hispanics, Arabs, Asians, and Blacks have all served the U.S.A. Culture doesn’t mark Veteran’s Day but service.

Earlier in this post, I also noted how students celebrating their Mexican heritage on Cinco de Mayowere confronted with American flags. Imagine if someone started demonstrating with an American flag at a Chinese New Year Parade or at Oktoberfest. Unless the flag was waved alongside the others in these situations, one could only assume an antagonistic stance. It’s as if the American flag is existentially opposed to Cinco de Mayo, or those who celebrate it are somehow opposed to America (The irony is the Mexican defeat of the French on Cinco de Mayo prevented France from obtaining its real goal of breaking the American Union)  Of course, he then claims the Hispanics are being antagonistic:

Because the Hispanic students had been taught that kids like Cody are ethnocentric and racist and therefore to be reviled, the superintendent’s decision may have been a wise one. Protecting students from danger is really the most important job a person acting in loco parentis can do.

The real culprit then is neither the superintendent nor the antagonistic Hispanics, but rather the philosophy of multiculturalism and its devout adherents in schools, on school boards and teachers’ unions who have gained control of much of our public education system.

Sands also makes the absurd claim that Hispanic students are taught white students are ethnocentric and racist. Needless to say, there is no citation for this vitriol.

Moreover, if most Republicans share the mindset of Sands, then Stanislaus County should not have to worry about multiculturalism taking over its schools since the county is heavily Red (Del Rio, CA, the location of Denair Middle School, is represented by a Republican Congressman, State Senator, and State Assemblyman). Of course, then, Denair Unified School District must contain all these villains on their board like Robert Hodges, a farmer, or Louisa Allen, a retired instructional aide.

Sands is not done though:

Only when we start to teach all children – native born and immigrants alike — about American exceptionalism, e pluribus unum and why the U.S. is the destination of so many of the world’s downtrodden, will this incident not be repeated.

His proposal is entirely unclear; is he proposing we gloss over America’s mistakes? How do you teach American exceptionalism? I fear for what the Big Brother-name the class would be given (AMERICA IS THE GREATEST AND CAN DO NO WRONG?). No, we must teach the truth in our classrooms. We must praise the likes of Lincoln while condemn the savageries of Native genocide and slavery. Only if we learn from our mistakes are we able to prosper as a nation. U.S.A. is a great nation, yet we are always striving towards making it more perfect. For us to simmer in our arrogance and scoff at criticisms is to do great dishonor to our Founding Fathers.

We should continue to make our nation hospitable for immigrants and not antagonize them for their different cultures. Never can we expect assimilation if an ‘US vs. THEM’ mentality is created. To truly honor E Pluribus Unum, we must celebrate our similarities as well as our differences.