But a strong case can be made that intermarriage contributes immeasurably to the diversity and richness of the human family, as does interracial and inter-ethnic adoption. The point is that a new identity is being created, which goes beyond any narrow chauvinistic definition of personhood. We are all, in the last analysis, members of the same human race and co-citizens of the world community. In Europe, particularly since World War II, many Caucasians are opposed to the presence in their midst of significant Muslim, Hindu, Arab, and African minorities. There are now vituperative demands for an end to immigration.
Skinheads threaten innocent immigrants.
This is humanism in practice. In the United States, one movement that is particularly puzzling is the demand for multicultural curricula in schools and colleges. There is both a positive and negative aspect to this effort. It is positive in the sense that children and young adults should be exposed to a rich diversity of cultures and have the opportunity to learn something about world history, literature, and the arts outside of their own national heritages, and this enables them to overcome ethnic prejudice. But an extreme form of multicultural education has an unfortunate dimension, for it can easily degenerate into tribal chauvinism of a destructive sort.