I was sitting in my high school band room my junior year, organizing the holiday music our director was handing out--Silent Night, O Holy Night, Hallelujah Chorus, Hava Nagila. All the names were familiar. Then I was handed another sheet of music; it was a piece written to celebrate Kwanza. My band director explained that Kwanza is an African-American holiday and that we were to play the piece for Candlelight, our holiday concert. The city of Norwalk was trying to integrate multiculturalism into its curriculum. And where is a better place to start than in its holiday concerts with the public attending?

The United States has always been a pluralistic society, and the concept of multiculturalism has caused heated debate throughout history. The social institution (a stable set of roles, statuses, groups, and organizations that provide a foundation for behavior in certain major areas of social life, including education, family, politics, religion, health care, and the economy (Newman p. 32)) of education is the most popular place for this debate to occur. The most recent debate that has emerged has been between the Anglocentrists and the multiculturalists.

In his article, "The Moral Drama of Multicultural Education," Shan Nelson-Rowe examines how multiculturalists cast themselves as heroes. Before we can examine the concepts behind Nelson-Rowe’s article, we need to understand that there are two types of multiculturalism in our society (a population of people living in the same geographical area who share a common culture and a common identity and whose members fall under the same political authority (Newman, p.19)). When we hear the term "multiculturalism," most of us think of what Mary Hepburn defines as coexistence (a mosaic of racial, religious, and ethnic groups--all thriving from diversity and the common commitment to democratic ideas (Hepburn)). "The vision is that as various ethnic groups contribute to the expansion of the national norms [culturally defined standards or rules of conduct (Newman, p. 37)] and social values [a standard of judgement by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes (Newman p. 35)], civic values will be broadened; mutual respect and self-esteem will be strengthened; and students of all cultures will better identify with the national society and support it (Gollnick and Chinn 1990; McQuire 1991; LeSourd 1991; Banks 1991 in Hepburn). The concept of the mosaic is that groups may maintain their own identities for the purpose of supporting our national society.

However, these are not the multiculturalist beliefs that are discussed by Nelson-Rowe. Rather he talks about radical separatists. (encouraging social and political division and generally rejecting the idea of a common core of widely accepted values (Hepburn)). "The radical multiculturalists insist that the school curriculum must be freed from European and white dominance. It must be changed to reflect the history, mores [highly codified formal, and systematized norms that carry severe sanctions when violated (Newman, p. 98)], and interests of minority cultural groups with the aim of liberating minority youth by generating cultural pride and self-esteem" (Suzuki 1984; Sleeter 1991 in Hepburn)

We can see these exact concepts that Suzuki and Sleeter discuss when "[m]ulticulturalists claim the suppression of diversity leads minority pupils who find their languages and heritages denigrated, to develop negative self-images and perform poorly" (Nelson-Rowe, p. 295) Because these multiculturalists believe that they free minorities from the villainous Anglo-Saxons and restore self-esteem, they cast themselves as "heroes."

While casting themselves as heroes and the Anglo-Saxons as villains, the radical separatists cast minorities as victims. Multiculturalists use political idioms in order to collectively identify minority children as victims. The first of these idioms is that of endangerment, which "involves claims about threats to health and well-being" (Nelson-Rowe in Newman, p. 297). We are led to believe that if we do not have multicultural education then the well-being of minorities will be attacked. The other idiom that is used is entitlement. Entitlement is used to show a sense of moral urgency and to argue that now is the time to act.

I have difficulty believing that these minorities are victims of society and need the multiculturalists’ help. Back in high school I wasn’t taught multicultural education, yet my group of friends in the Advanced Placement classes consisted of a Mexican, Honduran, Puerto Rican, German, Asian, and Ukranian. We all graduated at the top of our class, and now some of them are at schools such as Dartmouth, Columbia, Amherst, and Boston University.

The question then arises, from whom do the "heroes" claim they are saving their "victims?" The answer is the Anglocentrists. After World War I, a fear of foreigners ignited in the United States. Our borders were filling with immigrants, and the concept of Anglocentrism began. "Sociologist Milton Gordon (1964) labeled this intolerant doctrine of assimilation "Anglo-conformity assimilation." Its narrow purpose is to mold people of minority cultures into the primary American culture, inducing them to give up their native customs and language and adopt those of the majority culture. They would not contribute to the culture; they must conform to it." (Hepburn) It is this ethnocentric (the tendency to judge other cultures by using one’s own as a standard (Newman, 99-100)) view of the Anglo-Saxon culture as the standard culture that multiculturalists are fighting against.

However, casting Anglocentrists as villains is too harsh. For many Anglocentrists these ideas have been socially constructed in reality (process through which facts, knowledge, and truth are discovered, made known, reaffirmed and altered by members of society (Newman, p. 54)) My mother is a prime example of this. She grew up in an all white neighborhood. She can remember the first black girl to attend her high school. For her, Anglo-Saxons were all she knew. She was brought up being taught that the Europeans came over to the United States and melted together to create a new culture. To her, this is the American Culture, and new immigrants should become part of that.

Many Anglocentrists do not see their point of view as Anglocentric but rather as assimilation (the process by which members of a minority groups change their ways to conform to those of the dominant culture (Newman, p.414)). This is better known as the melting pot. "The first assimilation theory of pluralism views society as a collection of groups [a set of people who interact more or less regularly and who are conscious of their identity as a group (Newman, p.31)] including a central culture [the language, values, beliefs, rules, behaviors , and physical artifacts that characterize a society (Newman, p.34-35)]group. (Hepburn) In the original concept of assimilation, each of these groups contributed their strengths to the society and were accepted into the common culture. The purpose of assimilation was to unify the population. However, the new melting pot theory by Anglocentrists tends to eliminate the strengths of the other cultures mixing in with the "American" culture.

Are radical multiculturalists truly heroes? Not if there are so many problems in implementing their form of education. "Relative proportions of minority students vary from one community to another, and there is conspicuous lack of unity among African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics on these issues" (Hepburn). To actually form a curriculum that includes all minorities’ histories would be impossible. At present the largest growing group of minorities is the Hispanics. Several other groups fear that as the Hispanic numbers increase, their power might be eroded (Prud'Homme 1991 in Hepburn).

Another problem confronting the education proposed by the multiculturalists in Nelson-Rowe’s article is "the resistance of a number of black leaders who argue that the great majority of black Americans have no personal, economic, or political tie with any people in Africa" (Hepburn)

Even if multicultural education is successfully taught in schools, their goals may not be achieved. Unless the social institution of the family supports multicultural beliefs, the children may still harbor Anglocentric views. Adults who grew up in Anglocentric societies will continue to teach their children their beliefs, making it hard for school system to teach otherwise.

When evaluating the multiculturalistic view presented in Nelson-Rowe’s article, we have to look at where these ideas may take us. Etzioni provides us with the answer. "He argues convincingly that with an overemphasis on our differences, we will soon become a people unable to converse with one another-not only because of language dissimilarities but because we may not share the same knowledge and core values" (Hepburn)

If the radical separationists aren’t "heroes," are the multiculturalists who believe in coexistence? One common belief by supporters of coexistence is that it helps unite children at a young age. If we start teaching multiculturalism in elementary schools, students will more readily understand each other and be able to communicate with each other better. However, defining each person and his or her culture can create in-groups (the people who constitute the group to which one belongs (Newman, p.38)) and out-groups (the people who are not members of the group to which one belongs (Newman, p.31)). At such a young age, pointing out differences among children may only aid in their categorizing of people. The good intentions may have harmful effects. Young children do not tend to form cliques based on differences. I remember in elementary school that I did not realize the differences between other races and myself. When asked to describe a fellow classmate to my mother I said, "He wears a yellow shirt, blue pants, he has brown hair, and brown eyes, and oh yeah, he’s got brown skin."

Children growing up in America will still be able to learn about their history and culture even if there is not a strong multicultural education curriculum. The concept that allows for this to occur is family autonomy (a belief that American families should have the right to rule themselves and be free from the watchful eye of the government (Newman, p36)). Families have been able to maintain cultural traditions from their native countries. Although minorities may not know as much about their history as they would with multicultural education, they are still able to maintain some of their cultural identity. Most of my friends from high school speak their native tongue at home and celebrate traditional holidays. They understand their culture and maintain their national identity.

Now that we understand the different viewpoints in a pluralistic society, we are left with one question; which view do we opt for? Force-feeding Anglocentrism to children is not the answer, nor is teaching radical separation. We cannot teach all minorities to shed their culture and adapt to the Anglo-Saxon one, nor can we live in too diverse of a society where there are not commonly held values and morals.

I think that students of different backgrounds attending school together will naturally share pieces of their background. A new melting pot will form in which Anglo-Saxons and minorities will create a new "American Culture." If the Irish and the Italians were able to overcome their differences and melt together there is no reason a new melting pot cannot occur. The closest method that can aid in this is coexistence. Some history of other cultures can be integrated into the curriculum without making the culture stand out as different from Anglo-Saxons. We need to see all of us as individual Americans not categorized minorities. Our society is on the path toward this new melting pot where no one is a victim of a villain needing a hero.

Hepburn, Mary A. 1992. "Concepts of pluralism and the implications for citizenship education"

Social Studies Jan/Feb93, Vol. 84 Issue 1, p20.

Nelson-Rowe, Shan.1997. "The Moral Drama of Multicultural Education" pp. 295-301 in Newman, David. 1997. Sociology: Understanding the Architecture of Everyday Life, Second Edition Readings (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press).

Newman, David. 1997. Sociology: Understanding the Architecture of Everyday Life, Second Edition (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press).