Multiculturalism – Good? Bad? Or Indifferent?

One of the more politically correct words that I constantly hear is the word “Multiculturalism”. On the face of it, multiculturalism seems to be a good thing. After all, it is never bad to learn about the cultures of other countries. However, when applied in the United States, multiculturalism seems to say that the American Culture must be subsumed by the culture of those immigrants that are coming here to live.

Remember the old saying, “When in Rome? Do as the Romans do!” Obviously this is not the case in the United States anymore. Our schools seem to exalt foreign culture, and to go out of their way to actively promote the cultures of every immigrant student, but what happens to the American culture?

What happened to assimilation? What happened to immigrants entering our country to better themselves AND our country? Why are we now expected to transform our neighborhoods, our towns, and our cities into new versions of the immigrants home countries?

When I was living in Japan, I adopted a Japanese lifestyle. I learned basic Japanese, ate Japanese food, followed Japanese law, and tried to act as “Japanese” as I could.

When I lived in Bolivia, I adopted a Bolivian lifestyle. I became fluent in Spanish, ate Bolivian food, followed Bolivian law, and tried to act as “Bolivian” as I could (and sometimes, that could be a very nice excuse for a two hour lunchtime siesta).

However, here in the United States, we have several million immigrants entering each year, many of which are entering illegally, who decide that it is easier to continue living as if they were in the old country. They have no desire to learn English, they decide which laws they want to live, and expect us, the legal residents of this country to accept them with open arms.

The left says that we must accept this behavior to show how “good” we can be. Even if it means that our culture gets thrown out the window, we must accept their behavior as is, and quit expecting them to “assimilate” and become Americans.

Of course, that's a whole other story...