The continuing relevance of multiculturalism

Ray Honeyford led a simple and unassuming life as the unknown headmaster of the Drummond Middle School in Bradford, England, until in January 1984 when he descended into the realms of infamy by authoring an article titled Education and Race: An Alternative View which was published in the conservative magazine The Salisbury Review.

The article was unequivocal in its criticism of multiculturalism and its effect on British society. Upon the publication of the article, Honeyford was assailed with a barrage of invective, and subsequently, forced to take early retirement.

Never returning to teach again, he remained forever bitter about his experience and the resulting fallout until his death in 2012.

Earlier this year, Petrona Smith, a black woman from the West Indies, was allegedly fired from her job as a Spanish teacher at a New York City school for using the word “negro” to describe a student in her class. Incidentally, the word “negro” means black in Spanish.

These incidents, separated by nearly three decades and merely two of the many that litter newspaper headlines every year, share a common origin in that tremulous relationship between race and education. Political commentators decry these occurrences as examples of political correctness run amok in today’s multicultural world. In fact, a cursory reading seems to lay the blame squarely at Western society’s misplaced belief in “multiculturalism”.

This begs the question: What is multiculturalism? By defining multiculturalism as a movement spawned by the human rights revolution that swept the world starting in the 1960s, one sees it as a natural reaction to the racialist beliefs and ideologies that characterised the imperialist attitudes prevailing among the developed nations in the pre-World War II era.

Seen in this light, multiculturalism is not merely an attitude to be indulged in by the rich and the few, but a school of thought building upon the failures that plagued the first half of the 20th century. 

Where then did it go wrong? It began with the ham-handed way that governments in Europe and America, in particular, had taken to enforcing multiculturalism.

Taking potshots at an idea without any relevant discussion over its implementation makes about as much sense as blaming fire itself over an act of arson.

In addition, the current dismal economic climate has a big role to play in stoking the embers of racial and cultural tensions that arise naturally between the social majority and minority groups. However, the recent disturbing trend towards isolationist movements such as the UK’s Independence Party, to name but one of many, is a deeply reactionary attitude threatening to undo much of what was bitterly fought for in the 20th century.

Abandoning the idea of multiculturalism altogether in an effort to right the ship will be a fatuous move that might end up backfiring completely in today’s increasingly multi-national economic and cultural world.