Multiculturalism Largely Ignored

The Negative Aspects of Multiculturalism

Russell Sias © - UCOII

In the United States, the issue of multiculturalism has been largely ignored. At the very least, it has either been inappropriately represented or misunderstood for years, perhaps both. As citizens, we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that diversity is a good thing for those within (and without) our country. In some instances, this is a correct and appropriate position for the citizens of our country to adopt, in others, it is not.

In those instances where multiculturalism causes a division within the country, such as a specific group's insistence to not speak the commonly accepted language, not support the same holidays, not share the attributes of the community across communities, cause isolationism between communities, narrowly define markets by cultural or geographic areas, or otherwise separate people into distinct groups having ultimately far different goals for their individual communities, multiculturalism will be devastating to any country. Multiculturalism boldly stands as an obstacle in the way of developing or sustaining common goals for a country when its individual communities do not have a common bond.

Knowing a second language is one thing. Teaching our children the culture of our grandparents is a worthwhile endeavor. However, forcing one's culture on a section of our community and isolating that segment from the general population is quite another. It is absolutely necessary that we recognize the hazards that we bring upon ourselves when we allow multiculturalism to rule our communities or even our nation. Do we want to allow a change in our land where, when we travel, we go from one community to another, speaking different languages, where the community is likely to be resentful of outsiders, where cultures do not mix, are not shared, and where people have nothing in common? Do we want to allow multiculturalism to segregate our country and then wonder if it will literally come apart as the Soviet Union has done? If the answer to these questions is no, then we must regain control of the many issues caused by our present attitude towards multiculturalism.

In the fundamental characteristics that define one country from another, those characteristics that differentiate the country as a distinct group of unique people, those fundamental attributes that determines our collective individuality; and in fact, our very identity within the world community, multiculturalism is not a good thing. Left unchecked, multiculturalism will affect the fundamental beliefs of the country. It will increasingly become more and more detrimental; ultimately leading to a loss of the very culture that defines the country as a separate and distinct entity from other nations of the world. Coupled with a quiet invasion, multiculturalism allows takeover by a foreign power, just as surely as a less than adequate response to being taken over by violence and force.

In this country, our makeup is founded upon waves and waves of immigrants. It is fitting that we encourage legal immigration within the bounds established by our laws. Without the controls of these limits set by our immigration laws, allowing for assimilation of the newly immigrated population, we will cause a fracture of the general population to the point that we will not be a united country, but a divided one. In the first 150 years of this country's existence, every immigrant had a similar desire when it came to supporting America. Under the guise of multiculturalism, this is no longer the case.

Abraham Lincoln said: A nation divided nation cannot stand. Multiculturalism clearly should be considered as being within the scope of this longstanding statement. In the 2004 Utah legislature, as it became apparent that a bill was going to fail to be brought to the floor for discussion, a group of Hispanics, in support of Mexican immigrants, gathered in the rotunda of the capitol building and chanted "Viva Mexico" for several minutes.

These people clearly have missed out on the opportunity to be true Americans, and have misunderstood one of the major reasons for joining other Americans in being patriots within this great country. They have yet to understand the necessary lessons our immigrant forefathers learned as they strove to become an integral part of this "United" States.

One of the results of multiculturalism is that current day immigrants are attempting to bring their culture and ways into this country. Hence, they have yet to transfer their allegiance to America, their new home. They deprive themselves of the very essence of what it means to be an American. Those who strive to impose their culture and their ways upon their new neighbors deprive themselves of much of the benefits they seek by immigrating and by not gaining an understanding of the concepts of a united America.

Immigrants normally come from a less successful society than the one they are immigrating into. This goes without saying; after all, it is a major reason for their move in the first place. No one disrupts their family or contemplates a significant life style change without good cause. Immigration is not the result of the success of one country over another. Its cause is the relative failure of one country in comparison to another. People migrating to another country are doing so because first they are dissatisfied with their present situation, and they perceive that the new location to be a better environment in which to raise their family where they can have the hope of having a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

It is not difficult to understand that multiculturalism supports many of the same aspects within the new culture as the one from which immigrants are attempting to flee. Immigrants recognize that the country they have deserted is less able to serve them, which is why they are striking out to better themselves, but via multiculturalism, they blindly insist on promoting many of the cultural problems they left, which can only bring about the ultimate restructuring of their new environment to be identical to that which has failed them and from which they are attempting to flee. Like the alcoholic, who knows that one drink leads to another, and that the result of that last drink is often negative and unwanted, the immigrant, in a similar fashion, wants to bring their failed culture with them, thereby corrupting their new environment with that which they are attempting to leave behind.

When we look at today's society, we see the insidious signs of multiculturalism everywhere around us. Unless we want a fractured and divided country where different languages are spoken, where anarchy reigns supreme, where people are pitted against anyone from different segments of our population, where one cannot feel free to come and go to other parts of the country or even of their own towns, then we must recognize the dangerous cultural aspects of multiculturalism and begin to eliminate these negative influences from our societies.

Either we do this, or we will continue down the path to more and more separate and individual societies, instead of building a single and solid, united American society. Our community leaders, whether mayors, city council members, state legislators, congress, yes, even the president, must look at each and every ordinance, code, and law, to ascertain that it does not promote multiculturalism. Further, we must begin to strike down those codes and laws that presently encourage the negative aspects of multiculturalism in this great country.