The downside of multiculturalism

I’ve been talking to other Republicans on campus about our multiculturalism campaign. Many have always been passionate about the issue, as it provides a unique opportunity for the Republicans to campaign on something university-relevant. Now, the reaction to the safe spaces fliers also gives us a reason to continue. Only partially because of subversive tactics, Columbia University College Republicans got some attention. For me at least, this was a new phenomenon. There were left-wingers coming up to me to say they agreed, or disagreed, and they wanted to discuss the issue.

We are starting to force people to consider individualism as a viable position, even if only to reject it. We are also badly misunderstood by some, and this further underscores the need to speak out clearly in favor of a University that encourages students to think of themselves as individuals first. This is a start.

Many Republicans have expressed a desire to continue with our multiculturalism campaign. But before we continue with something so controversial, it is important for me, as a member of the College Republicans, to explain why multiculturalism has become a target of our critiques.

A university should produce individuals who are capable of standing outside of their own traditions and are willing to criticize even the most cherished and unquestioned cultural assumptions.

Multiculturalism in a university context—which I feel would be better characterized as “culturalism”—is the set of policies that encourage students to explore and strengthen their distinct cultural identities. However, it acts as a subtle influence in the other direction—away from individualism. Culturalism discourages attempts at objectivity, and ignores consideration of our common humanity.

The larger problem is that through a set of University-sponsored initiatives—including separate graduations, awards for diversity, hosted discussions on identity-specific issues and the treatment of cultural clubs as somehow more important than other clubs—the University is telling the student body that this type of thinking is representative of good academia and should be a part of our thinking as moral, modern intellectuals. For example, a disturbing flier recently advertised an Office of Multicultural Affairs discussion about study abroad activities seen through the lens of cultural identities.

This set of University policies is telling me that if I don’t think as a Jew first, or as a Latino or a black person or a gay person, that I am somehow being less of an intellectual. But is the prevalence of culturalist thinking really good for students? Should the University be lending its moral weight to group identities? I’m going to England next year: Why should my Jewishness be important to the analysis of my experience there, or in any of my studies? I resent being told that I should be thinking about issues through a certain lens because of my ethnicity—an accident of birth.

Academically, cultural perspectives are often-ignored topics that should be studied dispassionately. However, in our everyday thinking, cultural identities are often highly emotional and can produce blinders that are incredibly difficult to remove. The Everyone Allied Against Homophobia safe spaces fliers—stuck on every window—force everyone to think in terms of sexual identity, even when it is irrelevant.

This type of thinking also encourages students to remain within their own comfortable culture, which distorts what we can learn from each other. No one should accuse me of ill intentions for wanting to learn from others’ experiences.

We are Columbia students, and many of us are familiar with the individualism of Mill, Achilles, Hume and Quixote, and the universalism of Jesus and Marx. Both should remain ideals. True, objective individuals are impossible to create, and liberalism was once an Anglo-Protestant idea, but individual freedom of thought should still be the basis of our university culture. The pressure to be cultural-minded shapes who we become as citizens and intellectuals in a negative way. We must question the reigning dogma that communitarian thinking is more important than individuality.

The author is a Columbia College sophomore majoring in Financial Economics. He is a member of the Columbia University College Republicans. This piece is comprised entirely of his own personal views and does not reflect those of CUCR.