Culture - What Is It and Is There a Misconception Around Multi-Culturalism?

By Ilyan Marshall

Culture is what you make it out to be. It is constructed characteristics and knowledge carved out by individuals and groups with their take on their environment. This could be language, religion, music, arts or even social habits like being encouraged to read as a child rather than encouraged to play out with friends. Culture is embedded in our society and  provides a sense of belonging, meaning and mobility to the functioning of day to day life.

This leads onto multi-culturalism and why it is important : multi-culturalism is the inclusion across cultures, appreciating each individual or groups’ knowledge and characteristics to facilitate diversity towards productive outcomes of any nature; whether it be in the playground or in the office, there are no limitations to how far that group or person may go based off one's cultural background.

Although this is not what multi-culturalism is today and it imposes an incredible burden upon the progression of society. It has been manipulated into a political instrument that blankets the reality of modern systems. Current systematic approaches to encourage multiculturism are not enough. Inclusion schemes and other alike attempts at promoting diversity start with the right idea but in practice are flawed by different elements of bias and instilled parameters laid by budgets and scope (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016). The framework of diversity policies and schemes primarily either lack diversity to begin with or are put in place for the wrong reasons. If, though, implemented for the sake of multi-culturalism as defined above then they still may become obscured by litigation or the idea of ‘colorful window dressing’ with media appeal in mind. This means that the desired outcomes in the first place are lost in application and the  scheme or policy acts as a glass ceiling to a room of people who are wrongfully not involved in the conversation of inclusivity, which in itself is ironic.

Photo by @carloslopezmagvia Unsplash

The data below showing the percentage of people aged 16 and over who felt they could influence decisions in their local area, listed by ethnicity, is relatively shocking. In all demographics, below half of the surveyed population feel as though their voice matters. This shows more about British politics than it does about culture, although interestingly of the 10,065 that took part 7,936 belong to the White British demographic; begging the question that if the typical ethnic majority do not feel confident in their voice within politics then how can it be assumed “on average” ethnic minorities feel the same. Now, this is just singling out one aspect of failures on behalf of the government, so it is easily imaginable the other aspects of society like education and the workplace in which ethnic minorities are still being sidelined.

The extremities, as such, of a lack of multiculturism can be seen in history from glass ceilings to genocides and wars. Samuel P. Huntington argues that the repercussions of this burden, a lack of understanding between cultures, will cause “great divisions amongst mankind” and that “the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations” as a result of cultural conflicts (Huntington, 1996). As predicted by Huntington, these conflicts can be seen in the Ethiopia between Muslims and Orthodox Christians, also seen in the ethnic cleansing of six million Jews during the Holocaust and the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement (Ostebo, 2017) (Editors, 2009) (Imoh, 2020). Historical moments like these, in particular ethnic cleansing, are not random as they are motivated by cultural and racial tensions augmented by the kin-country syndrome and western society. 

The misconception of multi-culturalism is underpinned by our understanding of culture and its function in society. Looking towards a brighter future we must cultivate the essence of culture, it being a subjective social phenomena that everyone is entitled to. We then embrace a sense of belonging and meaning within day to day life such that a step towards true multi-culturalism is achieved. 

Bibliography

Dobbin, F. & Kalev, A., 2016. Why Diversity Programs Fail. Harvard Business Review, July-August. 

Editors, H., 2009. Ethnic Cleansing. History.com, 14 October. 

Huntington, S. P., 1996. Clash Of Civilisations: And The Remaking Of World Order. s.l.:Simon & Schuster.

Imoh, C., 2020. How the failure of multiculturalism led to the rise of Black Lives Matter. The Conversation, 30 September. 

Ostebo, P. T., 2017. Christianity and Islam in Ethiopa: Orhtodoxy, Nationalism and the 'Muslim Other'. s.l., University of Florida.