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Multiculturalism Is America 's Unresolved Race Problem

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Therefore, as Christian Joppke aptly points out, “the direct origin of multiculturalism is America’s unresolved race problem” (Joppke 2011, 36). Indeed, in light of the aforementioned historical processes, multiculturalism began (and developed into the official multiculturalism of the 80s and 90s) as something quite similar to a “racial project” a la Omi and Winant. Seen as an integral step in guiding racial formation, Michael Omi and Howard Winant defines a racial project as following (Omi and Winant 1994,56):
“A racial project is simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines. Racial projects connect what race means in a particular discursive practice and the ways in which both social structures and everyday experience are racially organized, based upon that meaning”.

Much like that of color-blind policies touted by Omi and Winant as an exemplary racial project and which provides the backdrop for multicultural rhetoric (Omi and Winant 1994L 55-56), official multiculturalism (and other forms of it) in the United States works to interpret, represent or explain the racial dynamics in the United States. But rather than focusing on quintessential ideologies for race by attempting to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular old racial lines, multiculturalism in the most basic form focuses on reorganizing and redistributing resources along
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