Shawn Wong, an associate professor and director of Asian-American studies at the University of Washington who helped to compile the first anthology of Asian-American authors, offers insight on this instigator of so much commotion in academia. In “What Exactly is Multiculturalism?” he quotes a colleague, who defines this fairly recent socio-academic term as “the closest approximation to the truth and the reality of our American society” (25).
Citing an article from a 1990 issue of Time magazine, Wong supports his case with a very poignant statistic: “By 2056 when someone born today will be 66 years old, the ‘average’ U.S. resident ... will trace his or her descent to Africa, Asia, the Hispanic world, the Pacific Islands, Arabia--almost anywhere but white Europe (26). The realm of possibility that these statistics are inaccurate exists, but nevertheless they depict the reality of America: just as it always has been, it will be forever an immigrant nation. Spaniards claimed the Southwest, the French went to what is now the Great Plains, and the English founded the colonies that developed into our nation. Today, the influx continues. However, the new elements of the population are arriving from other parts of the world, and as a result curriculums across the nation need to reflect this change in the heritage of today’s students. In college Wong realized how little he knew or was being taught about his own Asian heritage, and the resulting revelations led him to become a proponent of multiculturalism (26).
Shawn Wong was disappointed by the lack of attention given to Asian-American culture by the courses offered. Instead of giving up on discovering more about his heritage, he took the initiative to learn on his own about the collective history of his people. He was appalled, then, by the ignorance he discovered amongst his fellow Asian-American students. They were clueless to some of the most important facets of the history of Asian-Americans. Some did not recognize the integral part played by the Chinese in building the great railroads in California and throughout the West. Others had no idea that Asians were greatly responsible for the development of the strong agricultural economy of California. Most egregious of all, some Japanese-Americans were unaware if their grandparents had been held in internment camps during World War II; a few did not know that these camps had even existed (26).
In his quest to further multiculturalism, Wong finds amongst his many peers an unlikely ally in Ged Cowin, an Australian nurse who has had articles featured in the Australian Journal of Nursing. While Wong’s eyes were opened to the necessity of multiculturalism in college, Cowin became a supporter of multiculturalism as a result of experiences in her profession. She mentions some of these in “Multiculturalism: Simply A Matter of Respect.” On one occasion, an elderly Macedonian women was to have her gall bladder removed. Cowin was unable to communicate this to the patient, so she enlisted the help of a cleaning lady. This was to little avail; the cleaner accidentally told the woman she would be having her bladder removed. Many staffers in Cowin’s hospital had trouble dealing with a Cambodian patient who, as was customary, slept on the floor. In order to make the hospital warmer to patients of various cultures, Cowin helped to implement multicultural training amongst staff (40). Concerns expressed by Wong, Cowin, and their ilk are serious, as are the concerns about similar troubles in dealing with American culture.
E. D. Hirsch might sympathize with Wong and Cowin, though he is not worried so much about emphasizing multiculturalism. Rather, Hirsch, a professor of English, and author of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, is concerned more with the ignorance Americans have of their own culture, as he has discovered in his research, and how to remedy this problem.
As an American student, I find some of the results Hirsch puts forth in “What Every American Need to Know” to be astonishing. Talking with students in Richmond, Virginia, he found that many, living in an area important to the Civil War, could not identify the significance of the names “Lee” and “Grant” (274). He also cites an occasion in the Latin class his son was teaching. Asking the class for the name of a famous epic by Homer, his son received the reply, “The Alamo?”. For a moment, the teacher gave the student the benefit of the doubt, assuming that “Alamo” was merely an extremely incorrect pronunciation of “Illiad.” Upon further discussion, however, Hirsch’s son discovered that the student not only was unaware of the name of either of Homer’s epics, but also of what the Alamo is or was (272-273). Hirsch goes on to cite the work of a peer, Benjamin J. Stein, who found that some students found it hard to believe that states like California and Rhode Island, so different in size, had the same number of United States senators; this equal representation was one of the most important results of the compromises made by the Founding Fathers (273).
While such evidence as cited by Shawn Wong warrants a broader, multicultural curriculum, such a curriculum must be more than a band-aid approach to years of ignorance in regards to non-mainstream-American cultures. Rather, it must be an all-encompassing program that reinforces in students a knowledge of the many facets of not only foreign and ancestral cultures, but also the cultural smorgasbord that is America. Detractors to the theory that American culture should be more strongly emphasized might argue that our schools already teach courses in American History, and that to further include this subject area might lessen efforts concentrating on other cultures. Perhaps the point they make is fair, but it is not thorough. American culture is already taught, but is not always retained by pupils, and the teaching method is often very narrow-minded. By being stressed in multicultural programs, American values can be compared and contrasted with similar aspects of other cultures. If students can make connections between American culture and other cultures, perhaps they will retain more effectively what they learn and come to appreciate about both their own culture and whatever other culture or cultures they study. Furthermore, it is difficult for people to accept and appreciate other cultures when they ignore their own. Why would someone indifferent (or uninformed) to his own identity care about some other way of life? And as Wayne C. Booth says, “without preconception, prejudices--without the frame of mind produced by earlier experience--we could not fully engage with any story.” In making this statement, he is amending eighteenth century writer/historian David Hume’s protest against prejudice (“A listener must ‘preserve his mind from all prejudice,’ allowing ‘nothing into his consideration but the very object, which is submitted to his examination’.”) (164). What Booth’s statement means in regards to the theory I propose is that without one’s understanding of his own culture, with all of its success and struggles, he cannot truly accept the struggles endured and successes achieved by other cultures; Americans need to understand themselves in order to understand others. There is a need for multiculturalism in the curriculums of American schools. The continuing influx of immigrants into the country who cling on to old traditions supports this. However, the argument provided by E.D. Hirsch shows that we must not ignore the culture that derives from Europe and for three hundred some years has evolved into what it is today: American society. In the movie Braveheart, the antagonist, England’s King Edward the Longshanks, proposes a novel idea for the annexation of Scotland. He says, “The problem with Scotland is that it’s full of Scots.” If he rids the nation of Scots, it will no longer posses its own unique identity. The same is true with America. If society becomes too concerned with catering to other cultures, it will forget about its own great past. This is equivalent to saying, “The problem with American culture is that it’s American.” William Wallace, hero of Braveheart, fought to keep Edward from destroying his nation and its identity; American educators must protect the American identity, letting it evolve, while not changing radically, as other cultures influence it.
Booth, Wayne C. "'Of the Standard of Moral Taste': Literary Criticism as Moral Inquiry." In Face of the Facts: Moral Inquiry in American Scholarship. Eds. Fox and Westbrook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 165.
Cowin, Ged. “Multiculturalism: Simply a Matter of Respect.” Australian Journal of Nursing 10.1 (July 2002): 40.
Hirsch, E.D. “What Every American Needs to Know.” Shaping Discourses: Readings for University Writers. Ed. April Lidinsky, et. al. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. 265-294.
Pratt, Mary Louise. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Shaping Discourses: Readings for University Writers. Ed. April Lidinsky, et. al. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. 391.
Wong, Shawn. “What Exactly is Multiculturalism?.” Emerging Librarian 20.5 (May/June 1993): 25-26
This was written in Fall of 2002 as my Unit 2 paper for First Year Composition at Notre Dame.
