Multiculturalism: A Conversation of Different Voices by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

o “Unfortunately, as history has taught us, an Anglo-American regional culture has too often masked itself as universal, passing traditions off as our “common culture,” and depicting different cultural traditions as “tribal” or “parochial.” (8)
o Henry Louis Gates Jr. addresses the controversy of a push towards “multiculturalism” in our nation’s public schools. He poses the counter argument being that the goal is “replacing honest historical scholarship with a ‘feel good’ syllabus designed solely to bolster the self-esteem of minorities.” (7) to which he counters that America was incepted as a democratic nation, but thus far our institution of education has systematically disenfranchised marginalized people. As well as posing the argument counter to multiculturalism that some people are proponents of, that people should “master our own culture” first before learning others. The counter argument to that being, “what gets to count as “our” culture? What makes knowledge worth knowing?” (7).
o “Common sense reminds us that we’re all ethnics, and the challenge of transcending ethnic chauvinism is one we all face.” (8)
o 8/21/2007 Last night I was talking to Bhawin, the intern coordinator for the Albany Free School. We were talking about multiculturalism and anti-oppression within the Free School community. He made a very good point that when addressing prejudice in children of the free school some might say that it is going against the Free School ideal of freedom of expression. Indeed, once some students felt like he was oppressing them as an adult because he was asking them to take a step back from a situation because they were dominating it. Instead of creating an empowering environment for everyone, the space had been dominated by the gender-privileged students there. If freedom of expression is the goal, then it can’t be at the expense of a portion of the other schoolmates/anyone.