Multiculturalism

[DotCommunist]

We call it 'Isclam' these days.

as revealed through the Prophet Mohammerhead *nods*

 

[camouflage]

Holy Mackerel.

 

[fela fan]

Multi-culturalism is just another bloody ism to divide us all.

A cricketer, can't remember who, was flying into south africa on a tour and the immigration card asked for his race. He put down human.

And that's really what it should all be about. If it was, wars'd disappear rapidly.

'Tolerating' others is a terrible way to live. Accepting others, and all life actually, is the key to living a reasonably life. But if we're not given labels, colours, nationalities, creeds, religions, on what basis could those criminals in charge of countries fight their wars?

I live in an international community, and most of my holidays take place where people from all countries congregate. I find it fascinating how everyone gets on with no need of any police to regulate their behaviour.

Those in power, and the media, do all they can to divide humans my promoting our differences. Multi-culturalism is part of this, albeit more covertly so. It's up to us the people to reject this focus, remember that we all want the same basic things (love, respect, peace, happiness), help each to this end, and ENJOY the differences... indian food, jamaican music, thai females, english beer, dutch cafes, australian cricket...

Nah, forget that last one.

 

[toblerone3]

All the major religions have their own ways of describing cod

 

[kyser_soze]

As Jebus says, 'I will make you fishers of men'

 

[DotCommunist]

As Jebus says, 'I will make you fishers of men'

I thought he was saying 'I will make you vicious old men'

 

[Crispy]

Multi-culturalism is just another bloody ism to divide us all.

A cricketer, can't remember who, was flying into south africa on a tour and the immigration card asked for his race. He put down human.

Culture != Race

 

[Santino]

As Jebus says, 'I will make you fishers of men'

He was the Son of Cod.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Studying African American literature, as I am at the moment, this issue of multiculturalism comes up a lot. My head's all over the shop regarding it, if I'm honest, but I think I'm almost pretty much of the opinion it's got the potential to divide more than unite.

Anyway, excellent recent novel with a comic take on the whole thing: Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt. Main character is a nomenclature consultant who thought up the name for a new sticking plaster brand. He called it Apex. The plasters come in a variety of skin tones - multicultural sticking plasters. And so on ...

 

[purplex]

A common culture is a must. To do this we must ban religion and pro-create with someone outside of our own race. Eventually we will be all mixed race with no religious ideals to fight over. Then all we have to do is reclaim some land from the sea and humanity will be fine.

Youre a proper old loonbag you are, ban religion, and that will improve community relations how exactly?
Multi-culturalism to me is accepting the value of difference, and the freedom to be different.
You have to allow people to be themselves, as generations go by people become more integrated, naturally.
Religious fascism is fucking idiotic, let history be your guide, its never succeeded without massive loss of life. Is your dogma worth seeing women and children die for .
Forcing people to be something they aren't is ridiculous, its unfair, it wont work. Britain does better than most, bar a few idiots on all sides, most people want a decent life for themselves and their kids, those trying to derail our society are the problem. No sense of imposed identity or culture required here.

 

[ska invita]

Multi-culturalism is just another bloody ism to divide us all.

Excuse the bump (dont need another thread on multiculturalism, and this one isnt that old), but this is why multiculturalism as a policy in Britain has been the best option - the alternative assimilation in France agrees in principle with you Fela - ignore religion and ethnicity and we'll all lvie in a republic as one people. I agree with that in principle too.

But here's what happens in practice: this disaster, and a renewed rise of right-wing-anti-immigrant feeling across EUland (Germany particularly worrying it seems - where multiculturalism was announced as 'failed' by merkel)

 

[butchersapron]

Dan Margolis has a great review of Kenan Malik's From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath here that lays out concisely and precisely the case (yes i know most of us have heard it before by now) against official multi-culturalism from above:

Up through the nineteen eighties, there had been a united fight against racist violence from neo-Nazis by Britain’s “Black” community (South Asians, Afro-Caribbeans, and others). The official response wasn’t to help equalize society, but to establish outreach programs to different, relatively arbitrarily grouped, communities. Thus, Pakistanis, some Indians and others were lumped into “the Muslim community,” and the government’s primary way of interacting with them was through “community leaders.“ These so-called leaders were simply those who spoke a lot, or who decided they wanted to be community leaders.

Eventually, these policies pushed people so far apart that Britain came to be seen as a “community of communities,” and no longer a cohesive whole. Muslims generally stopped associating with Afro-Caribbeans, and so on.

Of course, most Muslims are not terrorists, so the question arises: Who becomes a terrorist and why? We know that most of these people have been well off, at least middle class, and well educated. According to Malik, the separation foisted by multiculturalism provided fertile ground for identity politics, mixed with a culture of grievance, to grow into jihadist terror. Young people in the “Muslim community,” instead of fighting racism—how could one fight against inequality when the whole idea of a cohesive society was out the window?—found themselves fighting against their parents’ version of Islam; in short, the rebelled by becoming more pious, more “Islamic” than anyone else.

I was researching the Asian Youth Movements of the 70s and 80s earlier this week and found a quote from one of their leading lights (Mukhtar Dar)who walked away in disgust at:

The AYM’s symbolic black secular clenched fist split open into a submissive ethnic hand with its divided religious fingers holding up the begging bowl for the race relations crumbs.

which clearly reflects a similar understanding of what happened and why.

 

[Dr Dolittle]

Multiculturalism isn't an ideology. It's a fact. Whether we like it or not, Britain is a multicultural country, and it didn't take any laws or government policy to make it that way. It's just the way it's turned out.

The hubs of this multiculturalism are places like Brixton, Hackney, Rusholme (Manchester) and Easton (Bristol) - places where the various ethnic groups are large enough to have that critical mass that results in multiculturalism. Modern technology helps, too, with people able to keep a foot in their 'home' country via email, ethnic radio/TV, forums and cheap phone calls. Not everyone who lives in these hub areas likes multiculturalism, especially those who've lived there a long time and remember when it was all white and English. But those kinds of problems are just a normal part of being human - we shouldn't try to solve them.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Multiculturalism isn't an ideology. It's a fact.

Surely it's both?

 

[butchersapron]

Multiculturalism at its limits?