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In his essay The Politics of Recognition, Charles Taylor explains that minority groups engage in the politics of multiculturalism when they need and demand recognition. He argues that this demand occurs because people’s identity is shaped by recognition; a group of people can thus suffer if they are misrecognized. Taylor points out that there are two changes that gave rise to the discourse of identity and recognition: the collapse of social hierarchies and the modern notion of dignity. He expands further on the politics of equal recognition in the public sphere. He contends that the politics of equal recognition paradoxically means a politics of universalism as well as a politics of difference. He criticizes the politics of universalism by arguing that the “neutral difference-blind principles” of the politics of equal dignity inevitably reflect the dominant culture at the expense of minority cultures. He moreover maintains that liberalism “can’t and shouldn’t claim complete cultural neutrality” (Taylor 62). Overall, Taylor argues for a politics of recognition in order to ensure the survival of minority and suppressed groups. …show more content…
Will Kymlicka’s Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights argues that traditional human rights do no provide answers to some important and controversial questions about cultural minorities.
He argues that traditional human rights should be supplemented with minority rights. He maintains that a multicultural state should include both universal rights and certain group-differentiated rights for minority cultures. Kymlicka believes that there are dangers to the recognition of minority rights. Thus, he supports a liberal approach where minority rights can coexist with human rights while being limited by democratic principles. He moreover argues that there is no single solution that can be applied to all minority groups and therefore distinguishes between national minorities and ethnic
groups. Both authors linked the concept of identity with a need and demand to be recognized politically in the public sphere. While Taylor takes a philosophical approach to explain the discourse of recognition, Kymlicka relies on a liberal and political approach to resolve the challenge of multiculturalism. Kymlicka’s distinction between multinational and polyethnic groups was enlightening since the term ‘multiculturalism’ is indeed broad. Thus, the demand for recognition was the highlighted theme in both readings. Taylor proposes that “a greater place ought to be made for women and for people of non-European races and cultures” (65). While both authors use the term “identity” and “recognition” in the political sense, I also believe that these terms can be used in other contexts. For instance, the idea of recognition or misrecognition can also be applied to how people of colour are portrayed and represented in the media. For instance, the media can perpetuate stereotypes that paint a whole group of people in a negative light (Ex: Black people constantly portrayed as thugs or Muslims constantly portrayed as terrorists). I argue that this is a form of misrecognition which is also linked with systemic discrimination in the film and television industry. Thus, it is not surprising to see many actors such as Idris Elba speaking out against the lack of roles or the multitude of stereotypical roles for people of colour. Media representation is crucial because it ultimately impacts how ethnic and minority groups are perceived and recognized. The politics of difference was another key point that Taylor explained in his essay. He argues that a difference-blind society is subtly and unconsciously discriminatory. The concept of “difference-blind” is significant because it often comes up in discourses where individuals feel uncomfortable when people of colour “pull out the race card”. These individuals also feel the need to point out that there are no races because “we are one human race”. But as Taylor himself points out, this is problematic because it ignores and erases the discrimination that people of colour face. Overall, despite the implementation of laws and policies, the fight for minority recognition is still relevant today.
Smith introduces the concept of ascriptive inegalitarianism, which effectively brings to light the conditions in which the reality of political ideologies exist due to social preconceptions that are passed from one generation to the next about the “natural” superiority of one race, gender, religion, etc. Liberalism and republicanism exist and function within this realm, not allowing for their respective ideological potentials to be fully realized. Hereditary burdens are placed on minorities because of clashing of democratic liberalism and republicanism along with these systematic and cyclical discriminatory practices. When seen through the eyes of society and government, these systems are completely inescapable. Americans, through these ascriptive systems of multiple political traditions, struggle with the contradictions each idea presents against the other and as a society attempt to embrace the best qualities of each. These outlooks help explain why liberalizing efforts have failed when countered with supporting a new racial or gender order. The ascriptive tradition allows for intellectual and psychological validation for Americans to believe their personal and hereditary characteristics express an identity that has inherent importance in regards to the government, religion, and nature. This provides those who are a part of the white elite to dictate which features are the most desirable and holy, giving head to social conceptions like “white wages”, which make them inherently superior to all other races and cultures. These ideologies are institutionalized within all facets of American life such as causing evils like mass incarceration, wage gaps, and rising suicide
The mention of the abolition of multiculturalism for a “new” post-multiculturalist approach becomes difficult to understand. It claims, “to avoid the ‘excesses’ of multiculturalism” (47), however where does this notable governmental and social switch take place? How is the term coined, and how is it understood in theory versus in practice? How is it different from its predecessor? Even the classification of history struggles to define what is considered to be modern, let alone post-modern, and yet the term suggests a positive approach to alleviating difficult assimilation projects similar to those faced elsewhere (47). This notion may developed on the grounds of “someone else’s problems” ¬– in regards to its Canadian context – as a means to label, or justify, miscellaneous aspects of multiculturalism. However, with the government-wide commitment to policies and programs, in conjunction with social understanding, it naturally becomes subject to a wide array of differing opinions. As both immigration and citizenship policies change, its public reception often shifts as well. Especially since the channels referred to within the ‘multiculturalism...
middle of paper ... ... Given that multiculturalism is a framework that says that anyone can sit at the table so long as they accept certain political and cultural divisions which ultimately work to make impossible your ability to change the basic structure of meaning in society, or which seek to extract any political potential from the things you say, the things you embody and the things you want. You can have holidays, but not your language. You can have a month of the year for your race, but no justice.
Michael Ignatieff identifies that the role of human rights is to enable groups to have dignity and rights that will allow them to act “politically to improve their lives.” Ignatieff provides that it is important to know our history to understand systematic equality. According to Ignatieff, the language of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides protection and empowerment to vulnerable people. For instance, section 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone should be treated equally without being discriminated against. Despite this legal constraint, it does not restrain people from being racist.
Seeing through a multicultural perspective. Identities, 19(4), 398. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2012.718714. Steven, D. K. (2014). The 'Secondary'.
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
There is a specific meaning to race and how its role impacts society and shapes the social structures. Race is a concept that “symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies” (Omi & Winant 55). In other words, Omi and Winant get down to the crux of the issue and assert that race is just an illusion. Race is merely seen as an ideological construct that is often unstable and consisting of decentered social meanings. This form of social construction attempts to explain the physical attributes of an individual but it is constantly transformed by political struggles. The rules of classifying race and of identity are embedded into society’s perception. Therefore, race becomes a common function for comprehending, explaining, and acting in the
The dualistic cultural tendency to condemn hate crimes while ignoring these crimes' social and historical imbrications indicates that the ideological pattern termed "new racism" has come to characterize, not only racial thinking, but also other forms of identity-based difference and even mainstream efforts to combat bigotry. The result being that the bigotry manifest in hate crimes is unequivocally defined as criminal, while the differences that initiated these crimes in the first place are rendered moot. Bigotry appears deviant, while the status of being in a minority group is viewed as either neutral or irrelevant. The myth of the color-blind society transmogrifies within these narratives into the myth of the post-difference society. ( LEWIS
According to Dei & Caliste (2000), this form of modern racism is based, among others, on conditions that are socially created which maintain and reinforce such environment. A critical understanding of the structural patterns, the identity of the dominant group, and their social location necessitates that these practices be identified. Second, being aware of the invisibility of whiteness can dismantle the system of oppression (Yee, 2005, p. 90). Recognition is not enough since social service workers collude with the status quo. Despite recognizing its existence, they have failed to see themselves as implicated in the same structure that oppresses them. Third, when systematic oppression and the clandestine identity of the whites have been concretized, discussion can be directed from a common generalization of the whites to a more contemporary understanding of the patterns of racism (ibid, p. 91). There must be a conscious exposure of the dominant group’s action as inviolable and natural; any analysis must reveal what identity and culture operate to further commit this systemic form of oppression and racism in the practice. Lastly and importantly, an effective and meaningful solution to the problem necessitates an understanding of whiteness and oppression (ibid, p. 95). Else, it will be more of conflict of rhetoric rather than, as what Dei & Caliste (2000) implied, an analysis of racial relations within broader sociological
According to Beaueboeuf-Laufontant, racialization can be defined as the placement of groups in particular statues within the matrix of domination is justified through the generation and dissemination of controlling images. As a result of overaching ‘’matrix of domination”, a few statuses are considered normative and deserving of first class citizenship while most others are deemed constitutive of deviance and requiring subordination. As representations of subordinated groups, controlling images guide behavior toward and from these persons, constrain what is seen and believed about them, and when internalized, profoundly influence the self-perceptions of the marginalized. Like stereotypes, controlling images are generalized representations about
Muhammad Ali, a famous boxer, once said, “Hating People because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. I’s just plain wrong” (Goodreads, 2015). For many centuries, ethnic conflict between the humans have existed immortally due the never changing differences of culture and values, spinning the cycle of war. Fortunately, some have ended however some still remain immortal in the eyes of those who have experience struggle to this date. The lack of awareness of problems in a cultural crisis concerning those who fall victim to a system and society that discriminates and alienates. With assistance of Critical Race Theory, this essay will examine how the role of race with has affected has caused consequences within the lives of marginalized groups within society through the lives and their relationship with those in their communities.
Explaining how to challenge the discriminatory attitudes that remain rampant throughout the world, Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a recent article, quotes the incisive words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "We are all of equal worth, born equal in dignity and born free and for this reason deserving respect. . . . We belong in a world whose very structure, whose essence, is diversity almost bewildering in extent, and it is to live in a fool's paradise to ignore this basic fact."
Secondly, how do we identify a different race? Edward Said, a post-colonial theorist, posits that the idea of Other and Otherness permeates our society and it supports a racist approach to “differences.” Those who are identified as Other by their differences from the upper classes or non-Others can be marginalized and suppressed in societies class systems (Dillon 2010). Apartheid in South Africa and slavery in the United States give us real life examples of extreme marginalization (Dillon 2010). Another way of making the distinction between Othe...
Society shapes racial inequality in the modern United States and Wayne Brekhus (2015) looks at how social marking is an element of culture in American society. When discussing race, people tend to talk about discrimination against marginalized communities (i.e. non-whites, females, homosexuals, etc.). They actively look at the marked category--those marginalized communities-- and the unmarked goes ignored. Berkhus believes that there are two possible reasons why these unmarked categories are avoided. Either the issue is psychological where individuals “deliberate[ly] disciplin[e] the mind to ignore the irrelevant” or it is sociological and is caused by the “deeply ingrained unconscious pattern of cultural or subcultural selective attention
When a migrant first moves to a new country, they often encounter many challenges. Social inclusion is one of them. Migrants and minority groups are often faced with the challenge of being an outlier in what the identity of the country is. For example Australian’s are most commonly known for being of Caucasian descent, Japanese people are known for being of Asian descent. This is the first challenge a migrant faces when moving to a new country. Often they do not represent what known as the ‘national identity’ of the country. This stereotyping does exclude them from majority.