#multiculturalism

What 'multiculturalism' boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture - and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture. ↗

— Thomas Sowell

#blame #boils #cannot #culture #down

I'm at a camp with over 100 girls 11 to 13 years old, around my own age, and I feel like my parents are my only friends. -Mackenzie ↗

— Tara Michener

#bullying #middle-grade #multicultural #multiculturalism #tara-michener

In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn't translate into a rich mosaic of colorful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse. ↗

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

#equality

The construction of civilizational difference is not exclusive in any simple sense. The de-essentialization of Islam is paradigmatic for all thinking about the assimilation of non-European poeples to European civilization. The idea that people's historical experience is inessential to them, that it can be shed at will, makes it possible to argue more strongly for the Enlightenment's claim to universality: Muslims, as members of the abstract category "humans," can be assimilated or (as some recent theorist have put it) "translated" into a global ("European") civilization once they have divested themselves of what many of them regard (mistakenly) as essential to themselves. The belief that human beings can be separated from their histories and traditions makes it possible to urge a Europeanization of the Islamic world. And by the same logic, it underlies the belief that the assimilation to Europe's civilization of Muslim immigrants who are--for good or for ill--already in European states is necessary and desirable. ↗

— Talal Asad

#europe #european-civilization #islam #multiculturalism #pluralism

I think I was always interested in the larger world, even as a kid, and my experiences as a journalist only heightened that interest. Covering conflict, I learned that though leaders often try to create a sense of "us" and "them," the differences are not that delineated. I often felt like it was a whole bunch of "us," with some of "them" scattered around. That made me feel that the borders we draw around ourselves are often artificial. ↗

— Masha Hamilton

#multiculturalism #experience

The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant ‘identity’ (‘this is your duty as an American’, ‘you must commit these acts as a Muslim’, or ‘as a Chinese you should give priority to this national engagement’) is not only an imposition of an external and arbitrary priority, but also the denial of an important liberty of a person who can decide on their respective loyalties to different groups (to all of which he or she belongs). ↗

— Amartya Sen

#respect

Beneath the armor of skin/and/bone/and/mind most of our colors are amazingly the same. ↗

— Aberjhani

#color #diversity #ethnic-cultures #ethnic-groups #ethnicity

The lax multiculturalism that urges Americans to accept the unacceptable from their fellow citizens is one of this nation's greatest vulnerabilities in the war on terror. ↗

— Richard Perle

#citizens #fellow #fellow citizens #greatest #lax

Boutique multiculturalism accepts differences in dress, food, or worship. But the moment the sacred values of a particular ethnic or religious community become public, the toleration ends. (p. 63) ↗

— Alvin Dueck and Kevin Reimber

#diversity #multiculturalism #tolerance #food

Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world. ↗

— Hélder Câmara

#diversity #empowerment #humanity #identity #justice