Racism and the rise of multiculturalism

Racism and the Rise of Multiculturalism: Progress or Pitfall?

The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also learn one language and that language is English.-Theodore Roosevelt

Gribbin 29)

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. EMMA LAZARUS (the New Colossus: Inscription for the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor)

Potter ii)

Within the foundation of this nation are several concepts that have become fodder for propaganda that builds a case for social diversity and at the same time contradicts the actions of the collective nation and the feelings of many individuals, about race and diversity. Conflicts over race are as old as the nation itself and the debate seems everlasting as some social reformists lay the groundwork for inclusion and multiculturalism while others still fight the hard fight for assimilation and racial dominance of the majority culture, which in the United States has consistently been the white English speaking culture.

Schmidt, 1997, pgs. 1-2) the United States will consistently and effectively develop answers to the debate concerning multiculturalism as a product of necessity and not surprisingly because of its continued and growing diversity.

The 1990s proved to be one of the most strikingly public eras for social conflict based on race and events during the 90s seemed to add more fuel to the fire on both sides. With one side saying we haven't come far enough in the bid to establish a multicultural society, a melting pot, and the other side saying we have conceded to much in that direction and that is why there is so much crime, violence and destruction. The overriding principle in both arguments is that tension exists, often racially motivated and occasionally comes to a boiling point that is dramatically displayed in the public eye, allowing all to form opinions and eventually express those opinions in the debate, in both a public and an individual manner.

Some examples of this conflict are the revolutionary response to the 1991 Rodney King beating and subsequent LA riots, the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial, which divided the nation on racial grounds, the passing of California's propositions 187 in 1994 and 209 in 1996 which attempted to change the immigration situation in California. Additionally, the growing national movement to establish English as the official language of the states and nation, to attempt to force immigrants to assimilate is an example of the multicultural backlash, and of coarse the Patriot Act, a piece of highly debated national security legislation that will likely continue to trouble the nation in its complexity and its bid to keep America safe without infringing on the civil liberties of its population. Each one of these events and issues demonstrate the challenges and conflicts that often arise in a culture with an unequal balance of power, and especially if the perception associated with an unequal power distribution is based on racial distinctions.

There are few truths that are clearer than the existence of such a situation in the United States. Race determines economics, personal daily interactions, social standing and a cascading number of other issues that individuals as well as entire cultures deal with. In a statement made by a leading expert on race and discrimination the point was well made that, "in a society structured on racial hierarchy, a 'valorization of whiteness,' as Cheryl I. Harris terms it, may inform even the most routine of social and economic exchanges." (Wald, 2000, p. 3) it is the unequal distribution of power that is being responded to in situations such as the Rodney King beating, trial and the resulting race riots in Los Angeles. The period beginning in March of 1991, with the massive media repetition of the video clips associated with the Rodney King beating and then the resulting riot behavior mark a period in U.S. history that is dark. It reflects other periods, where race was at the forefront of the minds of individuals, such as during the reformation, following the civil war and during the socially destructive Jim Crow era were segregation was officially sanctioned in a majority of the states in the U.S. Though these pictures are vivid in the memories of the people who lived through those times the resurrection of the backlash of open and subtle racism in the form of video footage played over and over on national and local television is a striking example of the manner in which a social issue can become an issue that is discussed among everyone who does not live under a rock.

The first videotape, taken on March 3, 1991, by an amateur cameraman who had been awakened after midnight by sirens and the noise from a police helicopter, is of the King incident. It shows uniformed officers swarming around a large man who writhes on the ground and attempts to rise, but is clubbed and kicked into submission while other policemen watch with folded arms. The second video, shot from a news helicopter hovering over the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues during the riots a year later, shows the driver of a cement truck, Reginald Denny, being dragged from his cab by neighborhood toughs, then kicked and smashed in the head with a brick until he lies near death while one of his assailants does a jig.

Lou Cannon, 1999, p. xix)

Rodney King, was black and the man killed in the backlash video, filmed after the Rodney King trial when most of the officials involved were absolved from responsibility, Reginald Denny was a white man, "His only crimes were to be on the wrong street at the wrong time and to be white." (Lou Cannon, 1999, p. 306) According to public opinion the knee jerk reaction to the violence that had ensued against King and the subsequent court decisions mostly absolving the police offered the public no appeasement for the brutality.

There was not "enough gray area in the verdicts," Cecil Murray would say later, to persuade blacks to respond rationally. In fact, there was no gray area at all. As South Central viewed the judgment at Simi Valley, white jurors had justified the beating of a black man by white police officers. (Lou Cannon, 1999, p. 262)

The racial lines drawn by the situations, both superficially and deeply, encompass ideals that are not being met, by anyone and countless excuses and explanations that do not stand up to the ideas of our culture. In a comprehensive study of power, May concludes sadly that, "Violence comes from powerlessness, as I have said; it is the explosion of impotence." (May, 1972, p. 53) This is one truth that can be argued by both opposing views as the dominant culture fears the perceived loss of power associated with multiculturalism and minorities foresee facing decades more of racially motivated decisions being made for them and about them by the dominant culture.

A similar situation occurred when the nation divided along racial lines during the public representation of the OJ Simpson trials, first the public criminal trial and second the public civil trial.

A the trials provided for discussion of issues that divide the public and, as a result, have forced the public to reflect on these otherwise hidden issues. The primary divisive issue revealed by the Simpson cases is the racial divide in America. Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times, wrote that "for two-and-a-half years, the O.J. case has been a grotesque but nonetheless piercing alarm telling us that there is a racial gap so wide in this country that most white and black Americans view the exact same events, not to mention our civic institutions, in exactly opposite ways" (1997, February 12, p. A 8). (Schuetz & Lilley, 1999, p. 3)

The OJ Simpson trials, as most of us remember demonstrated a social divide that had been in the recent past overshadowed by attempts at inroads toward the ideals of multiculturalism, inclusion and diversity. Yet, the actions of all involved in both the Rodney King beating, subsequent riots and the OJ Simpson trials prove that all the mantras in the world, associated with the acceptance of cultural diversity are simply superficial and many believe attempts to cover, or ignore rather than root out real solutions, regardless of their prolific nature. (Schmidt, 1997, p. 9)

Racism and racial disparities are repeatedly reiterated by national movements that attempt solutions but are often respective of only one or the other side of the divide. An example of this is the more current passing of Propositions, 187 and 209 in California.

Both Treverton and Miller et al. address specifically the highly contentious and often divisive issues surrounding Proposition 187 in 1994, which sought to limit access to education and other state-funded services to undocumented workers. Antiaffirmative action Proposition 209 in 1996 had a similarly divisive effect on the state's population. (Heikkila & Pizarro, 2002, p. 8)

The propositions do not welcome immigration, a commonplace occurrence on the official and unofficial level in California but attempt to force such immigrants to assimilate and follow the letter of the law in order to get ahead, and as for 209 sometimes that might not even be enough. (Clark, 1998, p. 28)

Immigrants to the United States have diverse national origins but it is the link with Mexico that defines much of the immigration process in the late 20th century. The United States is the predominant destination of immigrants from Mexico and Central America; as we have seen, most of those immigrants settle in California. Between 1980 and 1995 more than 3 million people migrated from Mexico to the United States. Two million of those, nearly 20% of Mexico's net population growth, came to California. In 1995 about 2 to 4 million of Mexico's 30 million workers relied on the U.S. labor market for most of their annual earnings (Martin, 1995). (Clark, 1998, p. 29)

Race is a divisive social issue that is often reiterated in the legal arena in this nation and is likely to be answered with the common American answer of economics. It costs to much to educate illegal immigrants and it costs to much (to the majority) to allow them to be given special treatment in employment and/or education, once again forming the eventual basis for reiterative powerlessness, such as is seen in race riots and other violence.

The strength of cultural diversity depends on the delicate balance of competing groups. The reaction to Proposition 187 can be viewed as a response to a perceived disturbance in this delicate balance and a consequent fear of divisions fueled by ethnic rivalry. The data on voting behavior also suggest that local Californian concerns about mass migration are at odds with national policies governed by diverse agendas, including civil libertarians' concerns about a national commitment to the role of the United States as a nation of immigrants, and big business's (especially agricultural interests) desire for open immigration as a continuing source for low-cost labor. (Clark, 1998, p. 177)

Though proposition 187 was blocked based on it being deemed unconstitutional the population in California voted it in by 59%. (Clark, 1998, p. 174) There is no real evidence that the proposition has changed the flow of immigration into California or the U.S. In a broader sense, especially since it was blocked. ("HUMAN TSUNAMI; California Reels," 2004, p. A01) the later legislation 209, removing affirmative action as a decisive force in the admittance decisions and hiring decisions in higher education, had a more limited effect but is also debated by both groups. The reasoning is that it is not helping the people it was intended to help and that it should therefore not be sanctioned to exclude other more qualified applicants, presumably white. "An emphasis on dominance is likely to do no more than replace one power broker with another, whereas an emphasis on cooperation may resolve future social and ethnic tensions." (Clark, 1998, p. 188)

Another example of racial division can be found in the national movement to designate English as the official language, first on the national level and then later, when that failed on a state by state basis, interestingly a consistent political tactic used by civil rights movements, (e.g. abolition of slavery, ERA, women's suffrage, the fight against Jim Crow laws and black suffrage rights and even universal suffrage by age 18). Each of these issues has been successfully made into federal constitutional law. At this stage the movement is having state successes across the nation, and will likely be voted on the federal level very soon, and excluding the ERA the historical success of this tactic will likely be proved once again on this issue. The website for the official movement, U.S. English www.us-english.org and the history of the movement itself is described in a historical manner in the following statement:

In 1983 Senator S.I. Hayakawa (D-Calif.), seeing the disaster that Canada's bilingualism had created and the newly legislated bilingual education efforts in the United States, founded the organization U.S. English. Its primary goal is to help the nation pass a constitutional amendment that will make English the official language of the United States. Hayakawa, born of Japanese parents in Canada, a naturalized American citizen, and a one-time professor of semantics, more than most knew the value of a common language. The proposed amendment reads: "Section 1. The English language shall be the official language of the United States. Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Given the predominantly liberal composition of the U.S. Congress in the 1980s and early 1990s, this proposed amendment never made it out of committee and thus neither the House nor the Senate could vote on it. (Schmidt, 1997, p. 121)

Schmidt goes on to explain that the force of the ideology behind the movement is consistent with the dominant cultural ideology of maintaining the U.S. As an English speaking nation, filled with English speaking people.