Multiculturalism As A Racial Project

This reflection of the average German’s perception of guest workers is brought into focus by Ali: Fear Eats the Soul to critique the state of Germany’s failure to develop effective public policy that takes into account the reality of the ingrained cultural beliefs of German society. Der Spiegel’s 1973 article “The Turks are Coming! Save Yourself if You Can!” reflects both the disconnect between the German government and the public as well as the general sentiment stereotyping these guest workers as “foreigners… only welcome in the Federal Republic as exotic and cheap helpers… who will soon go back to where they came from” (GiT 110.) These disparities combined with blatant classism and racism permeated German society such that widespread rejection of Emmi and Ali’s relationship, from friends and family to the “professional” workplace, was within German standards of social conduct. Within this

Where Race Does Not Matter is a book written by Cecil Foster that examines racism in European countries mainly giving attention to Canada (Foster, 2005). Cecil Foster is a professor of sociology in Canada and has been a victim of racism in the 1980’s and 90’s as he narrates his story where his parents left Barbados in search of a better life and became immigrants. The book by Foster has a chronological analysis of the issue of immigrants and racism starting with the policies that were used in the past to the policies and procedures that are used today which he terms in his book as the modern era. The primary purpose that Foster strives to achieve in this book is to publicize by laying facts down, the merits of multiculturalism which he firmly

The Author Marable defines “multiculturalism” as “the recognition that our nation’s cultural heritage that does not begin and end with the intellectual and aesthetic products of Western Europe, rather multiculturalism rejects the model of cultural assimilation and social conformity.” However, Multiculturalism is often been misinterpreted, Marable according to him said that, the “melting pot” never existed.

One of the difficulties of accepting multiculturalists is that defining a multicultural society, or institution seems to be determined by one's perspective. A commonly held view suggests that being

Though they went on their own, unlike the dehumanized, enslaved Africans, the Germans were forced out of Germany by lack of food. Overpopulation pushed out a fair amount of Germans, too. The Germans, who immigrate around the 1800s, were faced with the Anglo-conformity theory. Before Coming to America, many were living in hardship and poverty, often times working as servants, they were immediately declined by the charter society upon arrivals to America. (Gjerde & Olson). It appears that the melting pot was not was part of the German experience, at first at least. Assimilation of the German was not welcome and unreachable. This forced many German immigrants to live in isolated land and live in poverty as they fight to adapt to agriculture and farm life. As far as Natural Rights theory are involved, Franklin himself states that they would never be able to “acquire our [their] complexion” which left them at a total disadvantage, in the like hood of having equal rights (Olson p.

Postcolonial historian Matthew Frye Jacobson in Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race traces the “racial odyssey” of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe who were at first regarded as racial other, and then relegated to the status between black and white, and finally inclusive as Caucasian white. These in-between groups were classified as “Hebrews,” “Celts,” “Mediterraneans,” “Iberics,” “Slavs,” “Teutons,” and the like in nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jacobson analyses the contest over the definition, boundaries, internal hierarchies, and identities of inclusion into the white races, and the eventual Caucasian by the mid twentieth century. Caucasian identity united all European origin

Peter Fritzche’s book, Germans into Nazis, contends that, “Germans became Nazis because they wanted to become Nazis and because the Nazis spoke so well to their interests and inclinations…however, voters did not back Hitler mainly because they share his hatred of the Jews…but because they departed from established political traditions in that they were identified at once with a distinctly popular form of ethnic nationalism and with the basic social reforms most Germans counted on to ensure national well-being.” (8-9) His argument rests on the notion that the Nazis had a vision for Germany that incorporated Germans into a national community, throwing off the restraints of a tired government, and propelled them towards a future that would

Jaime is an 18-year-old Mexican American who lives with his mother and sister and has a baby with his current fiancée. He also attends a large urban high school. Within high school, Jaime encounters the challenges of being an immigrant and having a bicultural identity, develops resilience, understands the influences of his mother’s parenting style, and further develops his identity. He is nearing the end of his adolescence and beginning to show traits of an emerging adult.

Late 19th Century Germany was a time seemingly stuck between two worlds – the past and the future – and this period’s amount of rapid growth and change ultimately resulted in the decimation of German society as was known. This collapse allowed a river of hatred to flow in its place, known as Anti-Semitism. Based on the primary and secondary sources discussed in and out of class, I believe there are three main reasons why such a horrendous belief system infiltrated 19th Century German society: conflict between urban and rural populations, rapid freedoms granted to the media, and the ignorance of German politicians who unknowingly or not, pushed political extremists’ agendas.

The purpose of an anti-racist, feminist, environmental, social justice activist, children’s advocacy and international development agencies are to raise awareness about racial oppressions, social justice and its relevance to society, and to encourage multiculturalism and to spread anti-racism around the world. As the time change, so does these movements and in the twenty-first century so do their methods to spread awareness on racial oppression, social justice and diversity of multiculturalism. Social movements bring awareness to racial oppression by either protesting or by creating videos of interviews or creating scenes talking about the racial oppression. The goals of bring awareness to any issue is to catch the eye of mainstream media

The phrase "a lesson to be learned and a tragedy to behold" has been indelibly attached to the Holocaust that to think of it in any other way is thought to insult all those of the Jewish community who lost their lives to the attempted genocide of their race by the Nazi regime. Despite such brevity attached to learning lessons from the Holocaust one must wonder whether the lesson has actually been learned or if people will continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. Angela Merkel, the current German Chancellor, has stated that the German experiment towards multi-culturalism has failed, those who wish to migrate into the country must learn the German way whether it is the language they speak, the culture they have or the very religion they

Emerging during the post-WWII reality of the United States, the term “multiculturalism” has long been embedded into the fabric of American understandings of race and ethnicity. Despite recent efforts to move ‘beyond multiculturalism’, this word and the color-blind ideology supporting it will continue to shape the trajectory of attitudes, policies and activism in the United States. Similarly, multiculturalism in Germany—which was adopted from US-American concepts to address Germany’s own unique post-WWII large-scale—will continue to shape the trajectory of group relations in Germany. As such, this paper focuses on a comparative perspective between Germany and the United States and their respective perceived need for and utilization of the rhetoric of multiculturalism(s). What can we come to understand about multiculturalism in two cases of Germany and the United State? By building off existing sociological perspectives on each case individually and existing academic comparisons, it will become clear, that while distinctively a “(ethno)racial project:” (Omi and Winant) and perhaps as an ethno(racial) project, multiculturalism is used in both countries differently: in the US it is supposed to be answer to the race problem in an ironically “color-blind” society that increases the attention on ethnic and most importantly racial differences; in

Human history is riddled with clashes of race, religion and ideologies which have lead us to where we are today. While the world moves to a more progressive stage, it still drag along the undying fire that is racism and inequality. For a very long time the United States made it hard for minorities such as African Americans and neutralized immigrants to vote, only because they prioritized white US born than others. In other Cases, such as in Germany, many civilians find themselves in an inner struggle to find a middle ground about their Refugee crises. Germany has spent the last seventy years repenting for their war crimes and have now taken in refugees from war torn syria, many civilians are outraged as foreign nationalism come in and claim

Due to irreversible or insoluble situations such as wars, coups, or natural disasters, some people have to move to other countries without any preparation or plan, which only delays the time for the immigrants to completely become a part of society and for the natives to totally embrace the new people. When it comes to the discussion of reactive immigration, this essay focuses more on the refugees who flee away from the corrupted or destroyed countries. When refugees start their new life in a totally new environment, often at the tables of discussions for refugees is the issue of integration. In fact, the reaction of the natives regarding this matter is not so favorable; rather, there have been voices against the refugees. For instance, the German interior ministry had recorded 336 assaults on refugee shelters since the start of the year – over a 100 more than in the whole of 2014 for the reason of conflicting political ideology (Harding, Oltermann and Watt, 2015, online). Even in the statistics, it shows that almost a half of the natives still find it challenging to accept and integrate with the refugees. To elaborate, Hamado Dipama (2015), a local spokesman for the ProAsyl refugee council in Munich who is originally from Burkina Faso, claims that after 13 years in Germany, and a long battles for permanent residency, the Burkina Faso native is deeply grateful for the second chance this country has given him. However, he remains nervous about the identity fault-line he sees running through the heart of German society, between an ethnically homogenous memory and a heterogeneous reality. The unresolved issue of German identity, he says, “remains a deep well of casual racism” (Scally, 2015) – for him and new arrivals from Syria. This

Many political leaders in Europe have declared that their attempts on multiculturalism have failed, “In October 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed that a multicultural approach had ‘utterly failed’ in Germany. In February 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also called multiculturalism a failure, and British Prime Minister David Cameron indicted his country’s policy as of multiculturalism for failing to promote a sense of common identity and encouraging Muslim segregation and radicalization.” (Bloemraad, I. 2011, page 1). Not only do political figures of European countries believe that multiculturalism has been a failure, but citizens of many European countries believe the same impression, as stated in Kenan Malik’s text ‘What is wrong with multiculturalism? A European Perspective’, there are three myths about immigration that have grounded the present-day view that multiculturalism as a political process has been unsuccessful. The first myth being that “European countries used to be homogenous but have been made diverse by mass immigration”, the second myth is “the claim that contemporary immigration to Europe is different, and in some eyes less assimilable, than previous waves” and the third myth is “European nations have become multicultural because minorities wished to assert their differences.” (Malik, K. 2012, pages 1 and 2). Malik then