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Definition
Definition: approach to diversity that recognizes group differentiation, and allows for religious and cultural beliefs
Context of debate: how should the government deal with multicultural societies?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: want to know how to respond to this diversity and how do we remedy the disadvantages the minorities face |
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| Critiques of multiculturalism |
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Definition
Definition: Group vs. Individual rights, women’s rights, etc.
Context of debate: can multiculturalism exist or should people just assimilate?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism:
Barry reading |
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Term
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Definition
Definition: A philosophy that values individual rights and equality
Context of debate: direct contrast to multiculturalism; can liberalism and multiculturalism coexist?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: Liberal Principles call for not only individualism but also egalitarianism. They can co-exist but this means that State's have the right to intervene in affairs of illiberal minority groups |
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| Color-blindness/Liberal neutrality |
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Definition
Definition: The removal of all legislation that differentiates people in terms of their race or ethnicity
Context of debate: Should laws be color-blind, allowing for equality?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: Societal prejudices exist, by making system blind, makes it difficult to level the playing field |
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| France and ethnic statistics |
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Definition
Definition: All people are considered French despite original nationality
Context of debate: Must display French identity, no religious of racial affinity
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: assimilation, not multicultural |
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| Cosmopolitan view of culture |
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Definition
Definition: Cultures dynamic: they interact and change
Context of debate: should some cultures change to do away with certain practices?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: for example discrimination of women |
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Term
| Foulard affair and Burqa ban |
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Definition
Definition: France bans face covers in public areas, very blatantly targeting Burqas
Context of debate: Should women be allowed to wear a burqa? Is it more or less freeing for a woman?
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: is it helping, or just restraining Muslim women to freely move outside? |
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| Native Americans in the US Constitution |
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Definition
Definition: natives are considered non-citizens, not part of the United States, but controlled sovereign nations.
Context of debate: ongoing debate of rights and identity of native peoples in relation to the US government. Looked upon as non-existent anymore because do not fit in the classic stereotype of hunter-gatherers
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: |
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Term
| Settler colonialism as a process |
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Definition
Definition: not a singular event, but an ongoing process that deprives natives of their land, resources, and human rights.
Context of debate: examples of land removal, boarding schools, legal ownership, supreme court cases, etc.
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: accommodation and reparations |
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Definition
Definition: Documentary highlighting the debate of the Washington Redskins
Context of debate: history of racism and hate, land / religious / legal rights, slur of honor?, DALP, representation
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: long heated argument both for and against the use. What is in the name that makes it harmful? Baggage, stereotyping, identity, dehumanizing, etc. |
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Definition
Definition: The creation of different identities within the context of historical and cultural context.
Context of debate: Nature vs. Nurture, debate of biological vs. social basis
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: Race defines individual access to equal rights and treatment, stereotypes, hate-crimes, etc. |
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Definition
Definition: famous African American sociologist with Harvard education
Context of debate: Important figure in the academic world in disproving race as a biological idea, and prominent civil rights advocate
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: alters social perception of race, leader |
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Definition
Definition: One in support of eliminating race all together (Appiah)
Context of debate: Racial Skepticism vs. Racial Constructivism. |
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Definition
Status quo can favor majority group and be harmful to minorities
State neutrality will destroy minority cultures
People have a right to their culture because it
gives them their identity
In the tension between individual and group
rights, group rights dominate because the
majority, even if constrained, will be ok
Support Case: uses aboriginal Canadians as an example to show that assimilation of minority groups can be harmful if they can’t assimilate.
Unlike the case of African American segregation in the U.S., aboriginal minorities in Canada do not view separation from majority culture as a “badge of inferiority.” It is “forced integration” that is perceived as a “badge of inferiority” by aboriginal Indians, damaging their motivation for education and socio-political participation
How they support their case: uses the example of two minority cultural groups in Israel - Israeli Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
For example, illiberal cultural minority groups like the Ultra-Orthodox Jews often make “illiberal demands” on the conduct of outsiders in their public space. Despite their infringement of the rights, property, and emotions of members of the majority, governments should still grant them collective privileges because the majority will thrive anyway. |
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Definition
A LIBERAL DEFENSE OF MULTICULTURALISM
Group and individual rights can be reconciled
Liberalism is not just individualism, it is also
egalitarianism. We need compensation for
unequal circumstances.
We can’t be full individuals without our cultural
communities
Any culture will do, as long as individuals have a
culture (c.f. M&H) |
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Term
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Definition
Main argument: minority groups cannot have special rights because all individuals should have equal rights, color-blind. Individual rights are not the same as group rights because it takes away from individuals.
Argument against multiculturalists: believers of multiculturalism tend to view culture as static, monolithic entities that are incapable of change themselves. This is historically incorrect. Cultures evolve and some harmful practices need to be eliminated (such as foot-binding). When cultural groups are forced to open to other cultural opinions, they can eliminate harmful practices themselves due to effective communication (against moral absolutism) |
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Definition
Multiculturalism is harmful to women
Main argument: if minority groups don’t change their harmful cultures the society should let them fade/die, multiculturalism is harmful to women
How they support their case: explains gender discrimination towards women in minority cultures: female genital mutilation, polygamy, marriage rights, and property rights issues are all support for the case that culture hurts women (issue with this argument is that these are regional practice not practices of a specific faith. Also, Okin’s argument is flawed because it views multiculturalism in a functionalist way.) |
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Definition
Main argument: Agrees with Okin in that women are discriminated against in all cultures. But his approach for coming to a solution differs.
How they support their case: We need to identify womens rights as human rights universally. Okin says that minority cultures have to adjust to the majority. Let’s say for example a culture that discriminates heavily against women, well now that culture has to progress to that of the American culture where discrimination is less so. The problem now is what if that minority culture does a better job of not discriminating or what about cultures in other countries that do an even better job? Okin forgets to mention that sometimes majority culture must also adjust for the betterment of its status. Only when cultures universally and fundamentally accept discrimination as wrong can we get rid of this problem or it will always persist.
Where they st |
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Definition
Main argument: multiculturalism is positive way to move away from patriarchy
How they make their case: argues for women’s empowerment
How they support their case: examples of matriarchy and elder power, argues that forcing liberal ideas on minority groups is as illiberal as gender discrimination of these groups towards women
Where they stand relative to others: agrees with Okin about gender discrimination but disagrees with her method; similar stance to An-Na’im |
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Definition
| Main argument: (1). The word race should disappear because it doesn’t have a biological basis. (2). Race is a social construct that is not grounded in any biological facts. (3). Race is logically invalid because it is predicated on a fallacy: that is, falsely assuming that any perceived phenotypical differences entail a necessary, “essential” difference between levels of intellectuality, morality, civilization, modernity, etc. (4). The replacement of “race” with “cultural essence” is equally egregious because the logic is the same--by asserting that some people are innately more entitled to that culture than others just because of their cultural membership by birth, you deny others from accessing the culture. Culture is, by definition, a learned construct and therefore the idea of “cultural essence” is as fallacious as race. |
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Definition
by creating a stereotype about indigenous people, they can no longer self-identify (Red Skins), which legitimizes the continued victimization, institutional racism, and expropriation of Native American land by the U.S. government (U.S. as a capitalist, developmental sovereign-state, which views land as resource and utility instead of the nexus of social relations.)
How they make their case: Words like “redskins” matter because it creates the false image that indigenous people no longer resemble the image of their past, so they have disappeared and no longer exist
Where they stand relative to others: Aligned with Coulthard, author of “Place against Empire. |
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Definition
Main argument: while having a color-blind society based on merit would work in a perfect society, truth is that our society is filled with institutional discrimination; (2) In a true meritocratic society, equality does not mean “moral entitlement to a job” but an equal consideration for all qualified candidates.” (3) Race, like geography and class, should be considered a “qualification.” Thus the Piscataway incident is justifiable.
How they support their case: Piscataway chose to keep a black teacher so that it can encourage black students to break social boundaries and create a role model
Where they stand relative to others: Supportive of Affirmative Action and Reparations for slavery. Aligned with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ position. |
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Definition
Main argument: because of slavery and the origins of overt racial discrimination, institutionalized racism exists which prevents blacks from moving up in the socioeconomic ladder. It is an endless cycle of poverty and discrimination.
How they make their case: The author uses real stories to prove that such discrimination does exist and bring up the people and their racial identity to emphasize his point.
How they support their case: (1) Anecdotes about Clyde Ross’ life in Chicago; (2) Examples about the historical exploitation of African Americans in Chicago due to redlining policies; (3) The successful reparations of Israeli Jews by Germany, an example that the United States can follow.
Where they stand relative to others: Allied with Gutmann, against McWhorter. |
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Definition
Main argument: Robinson takes the extremes of black inequality and blames it on social and institutionalized racism, but the author disagrees. Additionally Robinson believes that black students are not in touch with their “African culture”, hence why they are so lost and don’t have an identity. Author states that Robinson is only looking at a limited set of data and doesn’t consider the progress that blacks have made.
How they support their case: The author supports his case with current statistics and pointing out their contradictions with history and observations. For example, he points out that most slaves came from Southern Africa to display Robinson’s ignorance of the history and culture that Robinson believes he knows,
Where they stand relative to others: Against Reparation, especially monetary reparation for slavery. |
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Term
| Native American integration in the US |
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Definition
Source of debate: The federal government has rights to American land but native Americans claim that they should have the rights to land. Are Native Americans members of the United States or are they their own sovereign state?
City of Sherrill, NV v. Oneida Indian Nation (2005)
Dakota Access Pipeline Protest (2016)
Coulthard’s Position: The existence of native americans challenges the fundamental theory of multiculturalism because the origin of native american dispossession is rooted in different ideas of land ownership--that is, while Native Americans believe that land defines their social existence and should not be altered, Americans believe that land should be developed and exploited to produce capital and utility. |
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Definition
Source of debate: Black Americans deserve reparations for slavery and its lingering effects
Arguments on various sides: Lingering effects of slavery continue today with discrimination that puts black americans on an uneven playing field so reparations are in order. Or black americans today are too far removed from slavery, not personally affected by it so reparations not necessary (also difficulty in determining who would get say cash reparations with mixed race people, etc). Another view is that reparations have been given in the way that welfare has been expanded and civil rights agencies, bills, and more. |
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Definition
Definition: There is no biological basis for race, societies and history have made "race" real
Context of debate: Racial Skepticism vs. Racial Constructivism. |
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Term
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Definition
Definition: controlling for the experiment by choosing random sample
Context of debate: educational studies of pre-k education |
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Definition
Definition: Treatment or consideration in favor of or against, or thing based on the group, class, or category
Significance for politics of multiculturalism: Does multiculturalism promote discrimination, or protect against it? |
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Definition
Definition: A situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group
Context of debate: Often results in self-fulfilling stereotypical performance.
Significance: Stereotype threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance. It may occur whenever an individual's performance might confirm a negative stereotype because stereotype threat is thought to arise from a particular situation, rather than from an individual's personality traits or characteristics |
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Definition
| Definition: Practice of denying services to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic makeups of those areas. Affluent White American area was marked green, while African American and Mexican neighborhoods are marked red. Red areas means that the houses in the neighborhoods are most likely not going to get any home loans. |
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Definition
Definition: practice of enslaving African peoples in the early United States
Context of debate: Should Reparations be made to African Americans in a post-racial America? How should the government remedy past historical traumas? |
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Definition
Definition: Idea that some form of compensatory payment should be made to the descendants of African Americans who have been enslaved
Context of debate: Is it too far removed from slavery for this to have any effective purpose? Is it simply dividing people more on racial lines? |
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| Implicit Association Test |
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Definition
Definition: Test to see what type of racial preferences one has and how biased one is towards each race
Context of debate: To what extent is racial preferences conditioned by social/media representation? |
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