MULTICULTURAL CHALLENGE
How do we create an inclusive & egalitarian society in which diversity is not merely tolerated or managed but fully harnessed as a thriving lived experience for enrichment of everyone involved & benefit of the society as a whole?
Despite progress made over the last decades, MULTICULTURALISM remains an enduring challenge, all the more urgent as we stand at the junction of retrogressing to the homogeneous & hierarchical past rather than progressing towards egalitarian, inclusive & plural ideals.
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While teaching a largely homogeneous group of university students on the subject of MULTICULTURALISM, I observed an interesting phenomenon: When MULTICULTURALISM was framed as a 'minority issue' & 'how to treat minorities better,' the issue remained outside of my students, but when it was framed as 'what kind of society do we want to create?' 'how do we ensure equality, fairness & justice for ALL?', then students got riled up about the issue without me having to convince them why the issue mattered & why they should care. This experience taught me that in order to achieve UNITY in society, MULTICULTURALISM had to be framed as a social justice issue that concerned us all, including the majority, rather than a 'minority issue,' which maintained a division between the majority & minorities.
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MULTICULTURAL CHALLENGE offers MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION that creates the SPACE for CRITICAL ANALYSIS & SOCIAL VISIONING that engages the public & youth in critical analysis of WHER eWE STAND NOW & social visioning of HOW WE CAN MOVE FORWARD.
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Empowers individuals with the tools to be able to talk about these issues without fear of saying something wrong or offensive;
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Creates 'difficult conversations' that nonetheless need to be had in order to bring different sectors onto the same page & move forward (inc. affirmative action, line between free speech vs. hate speech)