Multiculturalism and 'the lie'
There is a strange irony that tinges our lives and living in Australia.
Quite simply put it is the lie.
The lie that multiculturalism works. The lie that you are racist if you do not agree with multiculturalism.
There is one simple truth. No-one in power has ever explained to mainstream what the hell multiculturalism actually encompasses, embraces, means.... even though it is having and will continue to have a major impact on our society.
Do you know what it actually means? I doubt it, I doubt if anybody does. In fact in this recent article published by the Baltimore Sun reveals how crazy things things multicultural have become in that land of democracy, the United States:
Parents unhappy with ethnic labels required by schools
School labels difficult for multiracial children - Baltimore Sun (USA) 5th August 1997
Categories on forms limit students to five ethnic groups.
By Mary Maushard
Julie Kershaw refused to label her daughter “black” or “White” when she registered the girl at McCormick Elementary School in eastern Baltimore Country last week.
So, in what some say has become an uncomfortable rite for multicultural families nationwide, officials chose for her - labelling Sasha Rogers-Kershaw as “white” to the displeasure of her parents.
“She knows she’s black and white. She’s proud of who she is,” Kershaw who is white said of her daughter. “Her father and I are not together...but he agrees with me. Neither one of us wants to drop part of her ethnicity.”
Kershaw’s plight reflects a continued tension between parents of multicultural youngsters and school systems that have no place on their forms for multicultural distinctions.
The issue is not limited to schools. Despite an increase in multicultural families, state and federal guidelines often force people to choose among five ethnic categories on official forms: American Indians, Asian, Black but not Hispanic, White and Hispanic.
Concern over those restrictions recently led the Clinton administration to propose that Americans be allowed to check more than one box when asked to list their race on census and other federal forms.
In Maryland, a governor’s task force of multicultural designations was formed after Gov. Parris N Glendening vetoed a bill in 1995 that would have made multiracial a category on state forms. That panel is due to make recommendations by Dec 1.
“What has happened with this child happens all day everyday especially in August,” said Susan Graham, executive director of Project RACE - Reclassifying All Children Equally, a group that pushes the multicultural issue nationally.
Its just not for these children. But Donald Mohler, spokesmen for the Baltimore Country public schools said, I think all of us are more aware that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work anymore.”
The federal office of Management and budget (OMB) is recommending a change that would allow individuals to check all classifications that apply on census and other federal forms.
The OMB will not however include a multicultural classification on such forms, as groups such as Project RACE have urged.
But several states around and numerous school districts around the country have established a multicultural classification said Graham whose group is working to increase that number.
In the meantime families such as the Kershaws are forced to make distinction they believe is dishonest.
Faced with five racial designations, Kershaw decided to write in a sixth: black and white.
Her ethnic background is black and white, and I have a real problem having to pick one,” she said
But school officials told her if she would not choose a race for her daughter , they would. Though Kershaw understands the policy issues and realises that the local school employees were just following rules in handling Sa’sha’s registration, she’s concerned that it would be dishonest to label her child as just one race.
What ramifications am I creating for my child by picking one?
She also said, “I’m not willing to settle for what they are willing to give me.”
In the past few days Kershaw has contacted several legislators and country Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione, who has not returned her calls, though he did send a letter explaining school system policies, she said.
Now Kershaw is considering a parochial school for her daughter and for a foster daughter, who is also biracial and also a student at McCormick.
“If they [public schools] can’t deal with their race, I’m a little concerned about how they will deal with them educationally,” she said.