Is Multiculturalism a Big Deal?
Multiculturalism is a very widespread topic. Linda Chavez and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. both write very convincing essays on this topic. The one big difference I noticed was the intended audience of the two essays. Chavez’s essay, “Demystifying Multiculturalism,” seems to be trying to reach audiences of highly educated people and multiculturalists. Gates’ essay, “The Debate has Been Miscast From the Start,” seems to be trying to reach an audience of non-European Cultures. Chavez argues, “Multiculturalism is a product of government policy and does not help minorities or the country as a whole” (1). Gates tends to agree with multiculturalism and says thinks we should include non-European cultures in University studies. I thought that Chavez had a stronger essay. They both had great points and were believable, but I had an easier time understanding Chavez’s essay.
Linda Chavez takes on the position of a person who disagrees with multiculturalism, in her essay. She add many great points in her essay about why multiculturalism is just a name. She says that making diversity such a big issue isn’t really helping it. She thinks the immigrants that come to this country should be able to keep their background, but still learn our society if they are going to live here.
In his essay, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. seems to be saying that multiculturalism is a good thing. He thinks that in universities, they should be including people of other races. He tells us through his essay that he believes the schools should educate immigrants by using the language they are used to speaking.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. has good personal credibility because he has his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. He also has written many essays that have been published in such magazines as Time, The New York Times Book Review, Yale Review, Black American Literature Forum, and the Boston Globe. He also teaches at Harvard and holds the chair of the Afro-American Studies at Harvard. Seeing that he is the chair of Afro-American Studies leads me to believe that he may be biased to one side of the multicultural perspective.
Chavez shows good personal credibility because she graduated from the University of Colorado. She also did graduate work at the University if California at Los Angeles, and the University of Maryland. Her experience in such areas as the director of U.S. Commission in Civil Rights for the Reagan administration seems to show that she has experience with all different perspectives of multiculturalism. I think this gives her more credibility and makes her essay more believable.
Gates shows evidence when asking the questions, “What does it mean to be American? Should scholarship and education reflect our actual diversity, or should they, rather, forge a communal identity that may not yet have been achieved?” (3). Gates answers his questions and justifies his thoughts by adding thoughts from William Henry Hulme, “The insidious introduction into our scholarly relations of the political propaganda of a wholly narrow, selfish, and vicious nationalism and false patriotism” (3). Gates seemed to add a lot of personal opinion in his essay and no source of where some of his ideas came from. This made it harder to understand where he was going with his ideas, or what was true in his essay.
Chavez shows evidence and that she has studied up on what she writes about. She discusses how important Multiculturalism has become to many people. Chavez uses facts when explaining how the whites will not become a minority in the workplace, “The study, Workforce2000, estimated that by the turn of the century only 15 percent of new workers would be white males” (2). Chavez explains how multiculturalists want immigrants to be able to learn in their own language. She seems to think they should be able to speak their own language, but when they come to America, they should learn our culture. “The Los Angeles school district alone currently offers courses in Spanish, Armenian, Korean, Cantonese, Tagalog, Russian, and Japanese” (4). Although I think Chavez offers many great points, she also adds a lot of her own opinion into her essay. She says “Indeed multiculturalists seem to believe that a person’s character is determined by the color of his skin and by his ancestry” (3).
In trying to reach the readers’ emotions, Gates uses a story about Johnny. In his essay he says, “We’re worried when Johnny can’t read. We’re worried when Johnny can’t add. But shouldn’t we be worried, too, when Johnny tramples gravestones or scrawls racial epithets on a dormitory wall?” (3). I took it that he is trying to prove why we should be worried about children who may not be given the right education if they are from a different country. This story might effect the emotions of some, but others may not believe that how a child acts; is any proof of racism.
Chavez also chooses to tell a couple of stories in attempt to touch our emotional side. She states, “On one of the most rigorous gauges of assimilation-intermarriage-Hispanics rank high. About one third of third-generation Hispanics marry non-Hispanic Whites, a pattern similar to that of young Asians. Even for blacks, exogamy rates, which haven quite low historically, are going up, about 3 percent of Blacks now marry outside their group” (4). I think Chavez makes great points here. She seems to be trying to show that Multiculturalism is not quite as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. She shows that more whites are marrying people from different cultures or races.
While I tend to like Chavez’s essay better, I also think that Gates has some great points in his essay also. I thought her essay flowed better, and it was more believable. Her ideas went together and when I read it for the first time, it all made sense. In order for me to understand Gates’ essay, I had to read it through many times. I still am not quite sure if I understand his essay fully. It didn’t seem to flow in a manner that helped to understand his points.
Works Cited
Chavez, Linda. ”Demystifying Multiculturalism.” The Mercury Reader. Comp. Scott Stankey. Needham Heights, MA: Pearson, 2000. 38-44.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. “The Debate has been Miscast from the Start.” The Mercury Reader. Comp. Scott Stankey. Needham Heights, MA: Pearson, 2000. 57-61.