Re: civil rights/60s/Multiculturalism

Candida Ellis (cellis@uclink.berkeley.edu)
Tue, 14 May 1996 11:39:43 -0400

Sometimes I feel. . . like a motherless child.

Oh well. I've managed to offend everybody--those who think
multiculturalism is the greatest thing since sliced bread and those who
hate it since each side reads in what I write only what they themselves
expect to encounter.

The celebration of difference aspect of multiculturalism seems to me
progressive.

The establishment of turfs (primarily in academia but also in the
community, in politics) seems to me retrogressive. Nobody gets
"righteousness" conferred by skin color or ethnicity or cultural riches.

And the end political separatism works only to the advantage of those who
want to render difference impotent.

By the way. . . for those who worry about "success" -- possibly you could
consider that for some of us, "success" doesn't mean precisely what it
means to you. Now there's a difference we might all be able to
celebrate, especially since there isn't enough money for us all to be
"successful" in the conventional understanding of that phrase.

Candi (twin of **andi's everywhere)