Are you a "multiculturalist?"

[Phosphorescent Panties]

I w as watching a video today, of a person who I won't mention because I don't want to misquote him because that would be bad. In this video the guy mentioned that he is not a multiculturalist. He said people who come over to Britain from Islamic countries, who take their traditions over with them and do not embrace Britain's culture are not actually British. His reasoning for not being multicultural, is that the values that these Muslims bring over are barbaric, using a story about a guy who was raping and beating his enslaved wife, but the news called this man a "British man". 

That anecdote sort of raises a few questions which I find fascinating, because often I've heard the word multicultural as a good thing and as someone who identifies with a lot of liberal news sources, I would actually be inclined to agree with this person. If someone else's culture is barbaric and they come over and don't embrace your culture, furthermore, not even learn to speak the language so they can contact the police if someone has enslaved them and beats them, then that does start to seem like culture and values should be embraced.

To me, I guess that's a testament to the complexity of the issue, because I don't think someone can really be fully "multiculturalist" or fully nationalist or whatever the word is, because if you have no culture and norms then your society will be a muck, but if you have total nationalism then your society will have no individuality and people will inevitably be repressed. So, I think it's interesting to say, but I think I feel comfortable saying that I am not totally "multi cultural".

[bennyboy]

To deny someone else access to your culture based on your dislike of theirs implies a few things. First of all, you have some ownership over the culture, i.e. you have a right to determine, even a little bit, who gets to join it. Second, that your culture really is better than the other person's. Finally, that the other person is representative of that other culture, and deserves to be excluded on that basis.

I think you're partly right. In general, I see especially muslim countries, and the majority of their citizens, as hopelessly backward and ignorant. Also, some other countries have such poor socioeconomic circumstances that you might expect their citizens to have adapted their morals to survival in poverty. I think is probably true that very poor people are more likely to break into your house and steal your jewelry than very rich people would me.

However, where I disagree is with the sense of cultural ownership. Britain and America, for example, are explicitly multicultural, and have a history not only of immigration from various countries, but a history in which the main population robbed those lands from their original holders. This sets up a hypocrisy: "We did all those terrible things in the past, but NOW we're fine. But those other guys. . . who are they to potentially do terrible things? Fuck them!"

[brewer]

Short answer, yes. Longer answer, I take in parts from various cultures that fit my life and disregard the parts that don't. There are some things in any culture that should not be accepted, at least from my point of view.

[Minimalist]

There is a difference between wearing funny hats and honor killings.  Personally, if some muslim started bitching that they sold pork chops in my local supermarket I would have to tell him to go fuck himself and his fucking god.

But sure...they can wear funny hats....as long as they don't cover their faces for the photo at the DMV.

[Phosphorescent Panties]

Right right. I shouldn't say that I'm not multicultural, I should say that I'm not entirely multicultural, but I am mostly multicultural. I agree with what you both said about cultural ownership, I don't believe that should be someone's right to claim, just as it shouldn't be a right for people to censor other's speech, racist or not racist. Because what if the power was reversed and the fascists were censoring the egalitarians? Same thing applies with cultures, especially in cultures, not just accepting outside cultures into your own.

There's been a lot of controversy over these things, now more than ever these days. It seems like news sources are presenting totally different sides of the argument, most of the time. I hear a lot about how black lives matter and the universities are really starting to suck, but to be honest I couldn't really give you many examples because it's hard to remember all of them. Whenever I hear about this sort of thing in every day culture, it's just really difficult to try to have my own solid opinion on it.

It's kind of the same with the presidential candidacy, but now I'm really digressing. I hear so much about hilary clinton which sucks, that I wouldn't vote for her, but it's still hard to remember all the things besides her inconsistent voting record and the fact that she's funded by fossil fuel companies, seems to tell half truths during debates, has friends in the media who are biased for her. She seems like a candidate who's totally bought out, she seems totally untrustworthy and will just say what she wants to get elected, she voted for the iraq war and is probably going to go into another war in syria, instead of putting the money towards stuff that actually helps american citizens like schools and health care.

Phew, sorry if that was totally uncalled for, but I sorta don't know if I can just go ahead and make another thread about the candidacy right now, I'm sure it's been discussed to death. My point though, which loosely ties into my original point, is that it's so hard to get reliable news these days, mostly all the news does is tell you stuff to piss you off about both opposing sides. Then you listen to how much bias is in the mainstream, non outsider news, it just makes my head spin. I can't trust anything in the news, I'm starting to feel like I just can't trust myself or anyone else to talk about politics these days.

[ignoramus]

I don't think legislation calls for migrants to embrace the culture of their host countries.
As long as they are legally allowed to legally live/work in eg: Britain, then they are British.
It would be nice to be able to walk down the street though without wondering if you're gonna lose your head over someone's ideology!

That God character seems to get involved in a lot of bad things lately...
We need to ban him and everything else will fall into place.

[vorlon13]

I think it is desirable for different places in the world to be, well, different. If it was the same everywhere it wouldn't be interesting.

[Chad32]

I would find the parts of the other culture that aren't blatantly illegal in my culture acceptable.

[Phosphorescent Panties]

I don't think legislation calls for migrants to embrace the culture of their host countries.
As long as they are legally allowed to legally live/work in eg: Britain, then they are British.
It would be nice to be able to walk down the street though without wondering if you're gonna lose your head over someone's ideology!

That God character seems to get involved in a lot of bad things lately...
We need to ban him and everything else will fall into place.

I'll say. It's just about the most banal, low hanging fruit when all I see religious people in the new for is stuff like making transgender people not allowed to use the same bathrooms and defunding planned parenthood and allowing businesses to discriminate against gay people. I have an extremely short fuse when I hear about stuff like that, like it just feels like someone stabbed me in the brain and I feel it on a visceral level every single time I hear about it, it never gets easier. Especially when I make a comment on facebook saying "oh my god" and I get a comment from someone saying "you said oh my god, therefor you're not really an atheist, just an immature kid!" and I'm like, someone please just end my fucking misery right now.

[Rev. Rye]

Short answer, yes. Longer answer, I take in parts from various cultures that fit my life and disregard the parts that don't. There are some things in any culture that should not be accepted, at least from my point of view.

Exactly. The key to being multiculturalist is to find a balance. Knowing that two different cultures have interesting and potentially equally valid points of view, but knowing that sometimes, aspects of some cultures should just die.

For instance: I can understand both sides of the circumcision debate (especially given that, according to most studies, the long-term effects (good and bad) are, in fact negligible.) But, whether pro- or anti-circumcision, I think we can all agree that having a rabbi lick the blood off is a bad idea and should be stopped. That shit can't be kosher.