Multiculturalism Yes, Particularism No By Diane Zacharias

Diane Ravitch, a historian of American education, has argued with her essay “Multiculturalism Yes, Particularism No” the positive outcomes of pluralism, and the negative effects of particularism. Arguing that seeing the world as a whole, instead of pieces will help nation coexist, and work together. Race does not matter, and neither does a nation. We are all humans of earth and should be thought of as such. On the other side of the spectrum we have Ravi Zacharias, a christian minister who travels the globe defending his faith, and supporting particularism. The idea that everyone should believe in the same ideals, and attach themselves to the same group. The two ideals Ravitch and Zacharias argue, are polar opposites. One is for individuality,

But smuggled in with pluralization was the absolutization of relativism. The only thing we could be sure of was that all moral choices were relative and there was no point of reference to right and wrong. This resulted in the death of reason.” The mistake made by Zacharias with this statement is that he assumes that his moral is that which should be shared by the rest of the world. This means that he assumes that his versions of right and wrong are absolute. All these assumptions are just another instance where Zacharias’ bias fails to understand pluralism, and weakens his own

The idea that we should leave behind separate nations, is to destroy thousands of different cultures. As Americans we should understand this the best. Just as Rome was once the melting pot of ancient times, America is the modern day melting pot of the world. Ravitch explains, “particularists have no interest in extending American culture; indeed, they deny that a common culture exists. They do not appeal to the common good, because their idea of community is defined along racial or ethnic lines” (Ravitch 70). Ravitch understands, that just because America is a melting pot does not mean we don’t have a common culture. The United States’ common culture is multicultural. The best part about living in such an environment in the richness of the culture around it. Asian, African, Indian, Mexican influence all around us. To lose this would be to lose what makes to United States