Multiculturalists Are People, Too

Over the past several months, there has been much bantering in the press and talk in the African American community about the issue of identity politics vs. multiculturalism. This is not a new discussion, but the recent electoral contests for the 10th District of the Los Angeles City Council and the 1st District of the Los Angeles school board intensified the debate.

Essentially, what is being said is that if one works to build ethnic coalitions, and hence could be called a multiculturalist, then one is naive at best or a sellout at worst. And that, in either case, one is undermining one’s group’s seat at the table of American political power. Further, some say that multiculturalism ignores this country’s white supremacist history and downplays contemporary economic inequities that are a result of continuing institutionalized racism.

Conversely, if one supports identity politics, then one is savvy and looking out for the interests of the black community.

Yet for black interests to advance in the Los Angeles of the 21st century, an extreme position taken in either camp cannot be the foundation for a workable Realpolitik. Coalition building is not leaving one’s culture or ethnicity at the door; each group within the coalition will have issues pertinent to its particular group. Nor can identity politics be used to overlook the outrageous antics or status quo performance of elected officials or community leaders simply because they share the same skin color or ethnic origin.

The African American community is entitled to and obligated to organize itself and identify the specific issues that are of concern to it as a whole, e.g., our over-representation in jails and prisons, police accountability, racial profiling or the devastation of AIDs. But an authentic, historically grounded multiculturalism should have us gain strength by forming coalitions with allies of other racial and ethnic groups who share our political and economic issues. Such coalitions will demand accountability and maturity from both those we elect and our community leaders.

Multicultural politics is about holding other partners in the effort accountable, too. For instance, in recent years there have been multiracial efforts to defend affirmative action (defeat Proposition 209), defend immigrant rights (defeat Proposition 187) and stop the passage of the three-strikes law (Proposition 184). These coalitions involved a great deal of internal dialogue as to strategies and tactics. There were also closed-door talks among some Latino activists that three-strikes was a black concern and not something they were going to organize in the Latino community about. Conversely, there were some black activists who had the same perspective in terms of defending immigrant rights.

Coalition politics requires partners in an endeavor to agree to disagree at times. But it also means that a common agenda can be forged around critical issues, including public education, the criminal justice system, affordable housing, mass transit, health care and jobs--issues that affect many people but disproportionately impact African Americans.

The black community can look for ways to strengthen its effectiveness from within and work in coalition with others; these are not mutually exclusive goals. We must scrutinize the platforms and programs of any leader or group and not simply accept the usual from leaders because they happen to look like us.