95743 Chap.2 Diversity, Race and the Multicultural Experiment
Diversity, Race and the Multicultural Experiment
Two meanings of diversity
This chapter separates biological variety within a species from the cultural range of human difference that the subject studies, which covers ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, age, class, ability, belief, national origin and politics.
It explains why the lecture treats variety as an asset, using an example from evolution and an argument about technological progress.
Race as a classification
Competing official schemes for sorting people by race show that the categories are drawn by people, not found in nature.
Race is defined through perceived physical traits that groups decide matter, while ethnicity rests on a felt common ancestry built from language, religion and kinship.
A short history of the experiment
From ancient empires to post-war human rights treaties, the chapter traces how societies have handled difference: tolerance between states, colonial hierarchy, ethno-nationalist violence, the spread of multicultural policy and the tensions that have returned since.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Genetic and cultural diversity
- 02
Why diversity has value
- 03
Race and ethnicity as classifications
- 04
Melting pot and salad bowl
- 05
UNESCO principles on tolerance
- 06
Westphalia, colonialism and ethno-nationalism
- 07
Genocide, ethnocide and apartheid
- 08
Multiculturalism and its current tensions
Worked example · free
Place three settlement policies between the melting pot and the salad bowl
- 1Policy (a) supports participation without asking people to give anything up, so it sits near the salad bowl end while still building a shared language.
- 1Policy (b) presses minorities to resemble the dominant culture in public life, which places it towards the melting pot end.
- 1Policy (c) actively sustains distinct identities inside the larger society, so it sits at the salad bowl end; health services in such a setting should plan for several languages and norms.
Key terms
- Cultural Diversity
- The full range of human difference within a society, including ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, age, class, ability, belief, national origin and politics.
- Ethnocide
- The deliberate destruction of a group's culture through forced assimilation, as distinct from killing its members.
- Ethno-nationalism
- A view of the nation as defined by shared heritage such as language, faith and ancestry, which makes it hard for outsiders to belong.
- Orientalism
- Edward Said's term for the Western habit of portraying other cultures as static, exotic and inferior.
Diversity, Race and the Multicultural Experiment FAQ
Why does the lecture call race a divisive classification?
Because the markers and categories of race are chosen by people rather than set by biology. Official schemes have drawn the lines in different places at different times, and colonial powers used such distinctions to rank and control populations, so the classification itself has done social work.
What is the difference between genocide and ethnocide?
Genocide, which the lecture also calls ethnic cleansing, aims to destroy a group physically. Ethnocide aims to destroy its culture through forced assimilation, for example by banning a language or removing children to be raised in the majority culture, as with Australia's Stolen Generation.
What did the Peace of Westphalia establish?
It ended a long period of religious war in Europe with two principles: tolerance of religion within a country and the sovereignty of each nation outside it. The lecture treats it as the starting point of modern international relations and of later norms of non-intervention.
Why does the lecture say the multicultural experiment is contested again?
After decades in which segregation and apartheid were dismantled, new pressures have appeared: terrorism and a return of nationalism, the migrant crisis in Europe, the rise of the alt-right and governments that defy United Nations norms on racism and assimilation.
Assessment move
Build a timeline of the history half of the lecture with one example under each stage, because quiz questions often ask which period or harm an example belongs to. Learn the race and ethnicity definitions well enough to explain the difference in one sentence each, and practise placing real policies on the line from melting pot to salad bowl.
For the essay, note that describing a cultural context includes saying how a population has been classified and by whom. The workshop pre-work asks for one article on the benefits of multiculturalism and one on its risks; summarise each in three sentences so that you can argue both sides.
