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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (357)	6/4/2005 10:04:33 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 544178

Has there ever been a successful* multi-racial society which lasted for any historically significant length of time? I frankly can't think of one. * I realize that I should define successful. I suggest that a successful multi-racial society would be one without any meaningful prejudice or discrimination and with equal opportunity without regard to race, in which all racial groups feel fairly valued and respected and have an equal opportunity to participate fully in the economic, political, and social life of the society.

To: epicure who wrote (357)	6/5/2005 9:39:06 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 544178

I see two issues in the multicultural debate. First, is a multicultural society desirable and sustainable? IOW, if we decide that we can't find a successful model, can we opt out of multiculturalism? I think most of this debate is a waste of time. America is already a highly multicultural society. We lack the will to stop illegal immigration and tweaking the legal immigration up or down a bit won't make any real difference. Tens of millions of immigrants already live in the US with tens of millions of first-generation kids. I find most of this debate right up there with discussing the desirability of having a high tide and low tide at Malibu tomorrow. Guess what - it's gonna be there no matter what. The second question is what you do with a multicultural 280-300 million person society once it already exists. It would be interesting to ask a constitutional lawyer if there is anything from our Founding Fathers that would support enforcing some kind of white-values-only society. Personally I think it's both impractical and offensive. I doubt it would be legal if it were taken to the extent required to restore a "white-majority" atmosphere as espoused by the anti-immigration crowd. I am biased from living in several multicultural societies that all had their problems, but were richer for being more diverse. The only almost monocultural nation I can think of was Botswana, where less than 2 million people live in a country the size of Texas. Not much of a test case. It also has a raging AIDS problem but I can't say for sure that was magnified by cultural insularity. Though come to think of it, the high AIDS rates in Lesotho and Swaziland (also mostly one-culture states) could be considered a correlation. In my experience, most anti-multi-cultural talk is simply frustration with inevitable change. Rather than looking for a successful model multicultural state, can anyone point to a virtuous monocultural society? Scandinavia is about the closest I can think of. Maybe Switzerland but they speak four different official languages, so it doesn't quite count. Assuming a debate ensues on immigration and multiculturalism here, please let's all try to keep it polite and on topic. Thanks.