Ameliorism, the crusading Faith of many, if not most, American educators, sees NeoMulticulturalism as a means of reducing undesirable social options. The Ameliorist would most likely point out that our lyric from Cielito Lindo represents dhe redemption of Mexican culture from the mistreatment of brown-skinned women through a counterbalancing figure of respect, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Barth argues that ethnic distinctions are born out of conflict. In US public schools it is now considered desirable to celebrate and maintain ethnic diversity. But traditionally, the public schools have at least given lip service to the very conditions that undermine the maintenance of ethnic distinctions as understood by Barth.
Research indicates, however, that the situation is well-inhand.
Thus it is that philosophers burdened with hegemonic concepts of consistency will misperceive as self-contradiction the politically effective rhetorical flexibility of multicultural discourses. The major importance of Neo-Multicultural theory is to legitimate ethnic leadership cadres. Such leaders can often be recognized via processes accessible only to members of their own groups. Sometimes their leadership qualities can be discerned, even within those groups, by processes accessible only through the leaders' personal epistemic privilege. Gender, social class, occupational, or scholarly interests can be ethnically cleansed away as bases for group identity and common concern.