Teach Multiculturalism and More

James Solomon fears that people have taken the wrong message from multicultural education and talks about an anti-multicultural backlash (Voices, July 28). But the problems Solomon talks about are inherent in multiculturalism itself.

While multiculturalism preaches tolerance, it sends other contrary messages. It teaches children that the most important thing about themselves is their membership in a group and that the most important thing about another person is exactly his otherness. Once you have given children these messages, preaching tolerance is going to be an uphill battle, especially given teenagers’ natural antipathy to being instructed in correct attitudes. If we understand that the antithesis of multiculturalism is not bigotry but humanism, we will understand what is missing from multicultural education and why it has produced the effects Solomon so rightly deplores.

Charles E. Berezin

Los Angeles

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In a complex discussion of what he sees as the failures of multiculturalism (and multicultural education), Solomon speaks of one negative result as being the creation of multicultural bullies who, once themselves targets of vitriol, are now not only “off limits” and have their own “monthlong celebration,” but are engaging in hatefulness themselves--in rap music, for example. It feels as though it’s not just multiculturalism and rap music that are targeted but African Americans, as well.

Solomon claims that multiculturalism has failed in large measure because it basically admonishes kids “not to hate.” Multicultural education is primarily about teaching kids to ask many questions, including who they are, why we hate, how hate is constructed and exploited and what makes hate profitable. And it teaches them to ask how we form and understand ideas represented in words such as “culture,” “race,” “same,” “different,” “weak” or “powerful.” We just have to keep thinking about multiculturalism and how to teach it.

Sharon M. Klein

Los Angeles