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posted by n1 on Sunday May 24 2015, @04:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the RTFA dept.

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.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2015, @03:23AM (#187495)

    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.

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