Essay on Multiculturalism

Thinking about multiculturalism, we can mention that it became the third influential model to address the complex issues related to cultural, ethnic, racial and religious diversity of many contemporary states. In more broad sense, this concept means coexistence or assistance to coexistence of different cultures in one country. Many people use this term when they discuss anti-racist future, but multiculturalism can also mean a kind of mutual isolation of different cultures.

Exploring the influence of multiculturalism on America’s identity, there exist a big variety of opinions because America is one of the most complex societies by its ethnic and cultural structure. It is a fact that America’s population has historically evolved at least five main elements: the indigenous population – Indians, descendants of slaves, whose masses were imported from Africa, the religious and the non-homogeneous first wave of colonists, political and economic elite of Anglo-Saxon origin, successive waves of immigrants, not only from Europe, but also from Latin American and Asian countries. Taking into account the above mentioned fact, we can say that it is hard to assess unambiguously the phenomenon of multiculturalism and its consequences. We know that multiculturalism means a denial of the cultural universalism, the rejection of the integration and assimilation. Moreover, multiculturalism continues and strengthens the line of cultural relativism, additionally maintaining the principle of equality of all cultures and supplementing it with the principle of cultural pluralism. Thus, we can say that multiculturalism weakens America’s identity to some degree because it rejects any general or central core of values, often representing the dominant culture of ethnic and national community in its maximalist form, and demands full equality for all cultural, linguistic, religious and other minorities, for all groups with a difference.

In conclusion, explaining the influence of multiculturalism on America’s identity, we need to remember that multiculturalism emphasizes the equal dignity of all cultures of society, and using multiculturalism in a somewhat milder form America can achieve a real success in strengthening its identity.