Cultural Diversity: It’s All About the Mainstream

Cultural diversity is a thicket into which no sane person ought to enter. It is a subject that is hopelessly complicated, often corrupted by political posturing, and, if one digs very deeply, intellectually exhausting if not indeterminate. No one walks away satisfied. Throwing caution to the wind, I enter this dense terrain. My objective is to discuss some of diversity's dilemmas through an analysis of the contraposed ways in which cultural diversity can be implemented - "cultural assimilation," "transculturalism," and "pluralism." Each of these models of cultural diversity supplies an answer to what, for me, is the most important question concerning cultural diversity: to wit, which values or perspectives of the various groups thrown into the mix of cultural diversity (whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and so on) should govern mainstream society when these values or perspectives clash?1 The dilemmas lie not only in choosing among these conflicting diversity models inter se, but also in finding any one of the models acceptable on their own terms given their inherent weaknesses.To help simplify my critique, I shall, for the most part, focus on the black/white binary (the black/white relationship). That, in itself, is controversial; for many if not most civil rights theorists, particularly critical theorists (believers in anti-objectivism),2 reject the black/white binary in favor of a putatively more "inclusive" or "progressive" binary - the outsider/insider binary. I have argued on a previous occasion that the latter binary in fact subordinates outsider groups, the intended binary beneficiaries, and, even as it purports to jettison formalistic mindsets, creates its own formalism. Civil rights discourse stands on firmer grounds (both conceptually and empirically) if we focus on binaries period and not treat all racial minorities as a monolithic group.3 Thus, I ask rhetorically here a question I have raised and answered previously: "Why can't binaries coexist in civil rights scholarship as they do in civil rights law?"4The same question appUes to cultural studies: why not apply the cultural diversity models to each binary individually? A complete analysis would entail applications of the diversity models to Latino/white, Asian/white, and other binaries, as weU as to intersectionaUties - e.g., blackwoman/insider - or even among subaltern groups - e.g., Asian-lesbian /straight-white-woman. As I said, this stuff can get compUcated.Centering my discussion on the black/white binary, I begin with a definition of the term "culture." My intention here is not to be definitive or comprehensive but to merely supply a working definition of the term that will lay the foundation for larger points to come later. In considering the concept of culture, I wiU include some relevant thoughts about black culture.1. In Re CultureAt its most basic level, culture can be defined as the congeries of values, attitudes, behaviors, language, music, art, stories, and other conventions that govern or characterize a society or identifiable group within a society. "The emerging scholarly consensus is that 'culture ought to be regarded ... as the signifying system through which necessarily (though among other means) a social order is communicated, reproduced, experienced, and explored'."5 Viewed in this way, culture can be (but need not be) synonymous with socioeconomic strata. Indeed the terms "culture" and "class" are often used interchangeably.6 A "signifying system" fundamentaUy refers to the folkways of a group: their ways of thinking, living, and behaving with or without conscious design. Folkways are a social group's "commanding guides of conduct" - their psychology (attitudes, values, dreams, fears) and behavioral patterns. Hence, as used in this essay, the term "culture" shall mean "folkways."Can it be said that racial minorities in the United States have distinct cultures, or folkways? Answering this question pushes us deeper into the thicket of cultural inquiry. …