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When we hear the word "multiculturalism," some imagine people of all races and creeds holding hands, others imagine a clash of disparate cultures that cannot co-exist. There are many more nuanced definitions in between.
In the world of mainstream politics, there is now widespread acknowledgment that the failure of immigrants to properly integrate into the culture of their host nations is causing a lot more harm that good. The backlash against multiculturalism has begun to manifest itself as a rise of nationalist parties such as England's UKIP and France's National Front gaining more support from disillusioned countrymen.
In 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that,
" This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, west of Berlin, yesterday. "
Merkel also suggested that the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society, and late last year the European Court of Justice ruled that EU citizens who move to another member state "solely in order to obtain social assistance" may be excluded from receiving that assistance, an acknowledgement that multiculturalism's side effects are causing more harm than good.
Those interested in this topic should read Foreign Affairs' excellent article The Failure of Multiculturalism.
As a political tool, multiculturalism has functioned as not merely a response to diversity but also a means of constraining it. And that insight reveals a paradox. Multicultural policies accept as a given that societies are diverse, yet they implicitly assume that such diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. They seek to institutionalize diversity by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes—into a singular, homogeneous Muslim community, for example—and defining their needs and rights accordingly. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to manage.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:31PM
Race is a human construct, not supported by the biology. Please continue...
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:40PM
WTF does "race" have to do with this discussion? The subject matter is "multiculturalism". Maybe you have failed to understand that US and Australian white people came from very much the same "race", but they have developed vastly different cultures?
Grab a dictionary, and try to follow along on these big words. Some of us actually expect participants on a nerd site to understand the odd sixteen-letter word now and then.
(Score: 3, Touché) by aristarchus on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:02PM
Modified:
Culture is a human construct, not supported by the biology. Please continue...
FTFY
Please continue, racists. (Submitted by Eth? How could it not be?)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:09PM
Right in TFS:
Learn to read, smartass.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:23PM
Sorry, I down-modded you by mistake. There doesn't seem to be any way to undo this.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:44PM
No problem - I'm often curious about who mods, and why. But, stuff happens. I've clicked the wrong thingy often enough since these new-fangled computers came along!
(Score: 5, Touché) by ilPapa on Sunday May 24 2015, @08:24PM
"Vastly different" in the sense that Americans love cars and beer and surfing and football and Australians love beer and cars and football and surfing.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:36PM
US football and Australian football are vastly different you insensitive clod! lol
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:17PM
It was casually mentioned in the first sentence, hence my comment.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday May 25 2015, @12:45PM
The trouble is that unlike when I was young, being a nerd has become cool. When I was in high school, "nerd" was an insult, now it's a compliment. This has a lot of people who just don't have the intelligence and curiosity to be a nerd thinking they are one.
OTOH maybe he just needs more coffee...
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:10PM
Sigh....let me point out this teeny tiny fact,mmmkay? RACE is different colors, be it white black green WTF ever, and CULTURE is an identity that a group, whatever color they may or may not be, has CHOSEN to assume.
For an example of why culture can be a bad thing? Just look at the ample evidence that the current culture of the American black, which glorifies violence and gangs, drugs, abusing women and abandoning children, while condemning those that actually try to get an education or better themselves as "cooning" and "acting white" has become so toxic that the #1 cause of death among young black males? **-OTHER BLACK MALES. [huffingtonpost.com] That's a rate 6 times higher than white males of the same age bracket BTW, which should be a good indicator of the difference between a culture that glorifies the image of the violent thug and one that does not. When black men like David Carroll and Tommy Sotomayor point out the insanity going on in the black community (as Mr Sotomayor put it "black boys are being raised without fathers, without rules, and are killing each other for nothing but dumb shit") they are attacked as an "Uncle Tom", Sotomayor got death threats to the point he carries a gun, and for what? Pointing out that a culture that "only respects you if you are hard" and glorifies "thug life" is destroying them?
So I hope you can now tell the difference between RACE and CULTURE, because there is a pretty big difference.
**- BTW don't you just loooove how they try to make excuses, like "its because they are poor" while ignoring the fact that the poorest place in America is white which is the VA coal mining region and despite have very lax gun laws compared to places like DC and Chicago their homicide rate is extremely low? Its not poverty, not race, that is killing the black community, its a culture that practically worships violent behavior while constantly preaching a permanent victimhood political narrative. This is why in every video where he sees a sign being held up saying "black lives matter" Mr Sotomayor says "only when that life is taken by a white person, otherwise it isn't worth anything".
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:26PM
Oh my, Hairy. You've stepped in it now. No one EVER wins one of these arguments when they point out obvious truths. Stand by to be blasted from all sides!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:05PM
> Stand by to be blasted from all sides!
And you've hit on the most obvious truth of the post...
All hairy wants is to be the center of a bukake circle.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:28PM
Let 'em. I am a socialist leftie from the 70s, when we actually believed in judging people by the content of their character and not by some Oppression Olympics [wikia.com]. We believed in actually looking at problems and trying to SOLVE those problems, not make excuses. this is why I have to LMAO at those that claim they are championing "justice" for minorities as their group has become so hate filled and fucking racist there is actually a game called SJW or Stormfront [youtube.com] because their writings are so filled with venom its hard to tell the difference between their posts and those from white supremacist websites.
We've been pretending the culture isn't an issue for damned near 40 years...has things gotten any better? Has the violence gone down? Number of children raised without fathers gone down? When you have Jessie Jackson saying he's more afraid of running into black teens than whites at night? [theracecardproject.com] I'm sorry but your culture is fucked up!
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @08:01PM
> We've been pretending the culture isn't an issue for damned near 40 years...has things gotten any better? Has the violence gone down?
Yes. Dramatically. A nearly two-thirds reduction. [wikipedia.org] Today's black violent crime rate is even one third less than the white violent crime rate of the 70s.
Will that change your mind about anything? I'm guessing, no it won't. I bet you just keep right on believing that black people are just as violent as ever. You'll ignore this inconvenient fact and stick to your imaginary world. That is the definition of bigotry, after all -- an obstinate or intolerant devotion to his or her own opinions and prejudices; [merriam-webster.com]
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday May 25 2015, @12:41AM
You may want to take unleaded fuel into that equation as well though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:42AM
I bet you just keep right on believing that black people are just as violent as ever
It's kind of beside the point, isn't it? So long as they remain several times more likely to be violent criminals than anyone else you should happen to run into, keeping them away from your home and family makes sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @09:12AM
So long as they remain several times more likely to be violent criminals than anyone else you should happen to run into, keeping them away from your home and family makes sense.
You're talking about Texans, here?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:47PM
unfortunately, Texans aren't as easily ferreted out with a quick glance. if we could just cure the white skin pigment disease then the world would be nothing but kittens, puppies, and daffodils.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @07:46AM
{Secret ComaPodensis task force directive} Mod this and the parent up! Hairyfeet is a valued member of the team!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:46PM
while condemning those that actually try to get an education or better themselves as "cooning" and "acting white" has become so toxic that the #1 cause of death among young black males? **-OTHER BLACK MALES.
Wow. I guess I need to get around on the net more because that's the first time I've seen someone blame black-on-black violence on "acting white."
Which itself is a total myth. [vox.com]
BTW don't you just loooove how they try to make excuses, like "its because they are poor" while ignoring the fact that the poorest place in America is white which is the VA coal mining region
Where population density is some of the lowest in the country? [arc.gov]
Yeah, life is complex but bigots only see what they want to see.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:12PM
Well said, this is the as one well written black author called it, The Inconvenient Truth about Ghetto Communities’ Social Breakdown [nationalreview.com]
You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @07:36PM
Holy crap is that article myopic and worded in a way to obscure rather than reveal truth.
For example he says, "Murder rates among black males were going down — repeat, down — during the much-lamented 1950s, while it went up after the much celebrated 1960s." Yet violent crime in general among blacks has been trending downwards since at least 1973 [wikipedia.org] (as far back as I could find data). Where they no longer "exempted" from the requirements of civilization in the 70s? Or is only that murderers get a special exemption?
That guy seems like he's pushing an agenda rather than trying to inform.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Monday May 25 2015, @04:33AM
Crime has gone down for everyone in America. Naturally that includes blacks in the gangsta culture. But their crime rate is still higher than for people (of any race) afflicted with less self-destructive cultures.
But are you aware that Dr.Sowell is black?
And that he's been studying and writing about this stuff for decades?
If he has an agenda, it's getting his fellow blacks to pull their heads out of their victim-mentality asses and see what they're doing to themselves.
http://tsowell.com/ [tsowell.com]
in particular, see
http://tsowell.com/cv.html [tsowell.com]
and
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp [jewishworldreview.com]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @04:41AM
> But are you aware that Dr.Sowell is black?
Yes, so what. Are you implying some sort of tokenism?
> And that he's been studying and writing about this stuff for decades?
Well, all I know is he lied with statistics on the first time I ever met him. So that is a hell of a bad first impression.
> If he has an agenda, it's getting his fellow blacks to pull their heads out of their victim-mentality asses and see what they're doing to themselves.
What people say their agenda is and what they actually do aren't necessarily the same thing. I am sure he believes he's doing that. Some people think deliberately lying is a useful tool to accomplish their goals. It only works when they don't get caught...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Monday May 25 2015, @08:07AM
> But are you aware that Dr.Sowell is black?
Are you aware that he is a total Wacko Conservative Republican shill, and totally not a reliable source on anything? If I were the FBI, I would probable plant rumours that he actually plagiarized his doctorate, because, how could a Black person get a PhD without cheating? (On the racist assumptions that are rife in this thread.) Same goes for the rest of them, Clarence ("No Questions")Thomas, Ben ("Brain surgeon without a brain") Carson. Not to mention the completely insane Republican Black person, ___-_______ fill-in-the-blank. You know you can! Allen West? War criminal and crazy person. Herman Cain? Extra cheesy! Alan Keyes, totally wacko, and his daughter too! Wikipedia has a list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_Republicans [wikipedia.org] of African American Republicans, but it covers from the end of the Civil war and not just after Nixon's Southern Strategy make it so lucrative to be a Black Republican, like Condaleeza Rice!
So again, we should listen to Sowell just because of his skin color? That's racist! And a version of the Cretan Paradox: St Paul said, "All Cretans are liars, and it is true because even one of them said so!" Oh, dear, I fear that once again I need to explain this for our conservative members, so they will be able to understand. You see, if the Cretan was telling the truth, all Cretans are liars, including him. So that means that what he was saying (all Cretans being liars) is necessarily false. But that means, if it is false that all Cretans are liars, that he could be telling the truth, so that all Cretans are liars, including him, and we go round once again. Sowell is a Cretan.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ilPapa on Sunday May 24 2015, @08:28PM
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/21/us/texas-biker-shooting/ [cnn.com]
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:09PM
Pointing out another violent subculture does not disprove the grandparent's point. It would seem to prove the point in otherwise guns-are-everywhere Texas.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:14PM
There is a wide consensus that the racial categories that are common in everyday usage are socially constructed, and that racial groups cannot be biologically defined. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_classification) [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:12AM
There is no such thing as different races of humans. What you mean is ethnicity. There is only one race: the human race.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mcgrew on Monday May 25 2015, @12:56PM
For an example of why culture can be a bad thing? Just look at the ample evidence that the current culture of the American black, which glorifies violence and gangs, drugs, abusing women and abandoning children
That isn't black culture, it's ghetto culture and perpetuated by the media; look at the music coming out these days. It looks like they've gotten to you, your brain has been hacked.
That's a rate 6 times higher than white males of the same age bracket
But not the same income bracket.
the poorest place in America is white
And rural. That makes a HUGE difference. Black poor country folk are much like white poor country folk, white ghetto dwellers are no different at all from black ghetto dwellers. I drink in a ghetto bar and know these people. Violent assholes come in all sizes, shapes, and colors.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:15PM
Groups of heritable traits whose frequency varies by geographic area sounds like biology to me.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:11PM
Race is "he's dark, I'm light so we are different human beings". Or "My family claims to worship this dusty book, so we are special" is another commonly bandied around definition.
Previously defined "traits" are a far less accurate marker than genetics, the language is slowly coming to terms with this.
Geography is almost useless as a means for isolating human evolution with the prevalence of long range migration it is very difficult to be specific.
To repeat: there is no scientific basis for race, although there are many political movements that do not like this fact.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @09:37PM
> To repeat: there is no scientific basis for race, although there are many political movements that do not like this fact.
To wit:
Kian and Remee [dailymail.co.uk]
Lucy and Maria [dailymail.co.uk]
The irony of citing the most racist newspaper in the UK is not lost on me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @01:52AM
NO, not "different human beings", unless you're a bigot trying to justify your bigotry by claiming the group you hate isn't even human (the entire premise of racism). Race is "This group has these visually identifiable, heritable traits which are different from that group". That is race. "Different human beings" isn't part of it, except as bigoted bullshit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:23AM
Race is "he's dark, I'm light so we are different human beings".
No it's not [reference.com]. Race is defined by common genetic heritage. Skin color isn't a necessary condition, Slavics are different race from Anglo-saxons even through they have very similar skin pigmentation.
Previously defined "traits" are a far less accurate marker than genetics, the language is slowly coming to terms with this.
That's because race is not defined by genetics you fruitcake. It's like saying that there are no video game genres because there is no inherent code basis to differentiate them on. Race is specified based on heritable observable characteristics.
Geography is almost useless as a means for isolating human evolution with the prevalence of long range migration it is very difficult to be specific.
Which doesn't matter because different human population did remain genetically segregated, regardless of the reasons. We have plentiful of historical evidence to support this.
To repeat: there is no scientific basis for race
"Scientific basis" is the kind of nonsense phrase that a science-illiterate would use to add fake validity to a baseless claim. Scientists have been using the concept of race since at least the 17th century [wikipedia.org]. The idea was widely adopted in mainstream science up until very recently, including by esteemed natural scientists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.
Today scientists don't use race that much because genetics offers a superior alternative, not because it's "not real".
although there are many political movements that do not like this fact
And there are many political movements who don't like the concept of race and want it gone. And that is completely irrelevant, except as a cheap shot attempt to associate the opposition with vain political agenda and unpopular political views.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @07:13AM
That's infrasubspecific variability, not race.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 26 2015, @07:41AM
Groups of heritable traits whose frequency varies by geographic area sounds like biology to me.
Well, that is most likely because you are in Marketing, or racism, rather than actual biology. But thank you for your opinion. as ill informed, bigoted and backward as it is. Have a nice day, too. Watch out for falling houses.