Cultural pluralism

DEFINITION: Concept that individual ethnic groups have a right to exist on their own terms within the larger society while retaining their unique cultural heritages

SIGNIFICANCE: As a concept, cultural pluralism is an alternative to the "melting pot" view that immigrants should assimilate to American culture by abandoning their own cultures, languages, and other traditions. Cultural pluralists insist that different ethnic groups have enriched the American way of life as immigrants and native-born citizens have learned from one another, thereby broadening their views on art, cuisine, education, history, music, and other aspects of life.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which saw the largest surge of immigrant arrivals in American history, an anti-immigrant backlash took the forms of nativism, xenophobia, and other expressions of prejudice. Criticism of the unfamiliar appearances and behaviors of many of the newly arrived peoples prompted discriminatory treatment of the new immigrants in education, employment, government programs, housing, and public accommodations. As a result, the advance of industrious and talented immigrants whose efforts could enhance American progress was held back.

Some critics of immigrants felt they were utterly inferior and should be banned from entering the country. Others were more opposed to various traditions, beliefs, and practices of immigrant groups, and felt that newcomers to the United States should abandon such markers of other nationalities or ethnicities in order to conform to American ways of life—specifically, a pattern of Anglo-conformity. This process, known as assimilation, occurred naturally over the generations for some immigrants, particularly those of European descent, but others formed ethnic enclaves in which traditional ways were largely preserved and assimilation was limited. Various assimilation theories arose to explain such patterns and differences.

A Critique of Assimilationism

In 1914, sociologistEdward Alsworth Ross, an advocate of scientific racism, published The Old World in the New: The Significance of Past and Present Immigration to the American People. This book contained scathing critiques of immigrant peoples such as Italians and Slavs as genetically inferior, arguing their presence in the United States as a rootless proletariat threatened skilled native-born workers and promoted political corruption. Reviewing that book for the leftist magazine The Nation in 1915, Horace Kallen critiqued assimilationist theory in an article titled "Democracy Versus the Melting Pot."

Kallen was first and foremost a philosophical pluralist—that is, he believed in the value of differences existing side by side. He opposed orthodoxies as imposing oversimplified straightjackets on the inherent complexity of reality. Philosophical certainty is impossible, according to pluralists, so different theories should be debated and respected rather than having one dominant view overturn another in an endless power struggle among competing narratives or paradigms.

Applying his philosophical views to matters of social reality, Kallen advocated cultural pluralism. He believed that the acceptance of diverse cultures coexisting in the United States strengthened, rather than jeopardized, American solidarity. If one culture insisted on dominating all others, he argued, the result would be continuing disunity and strife. He asserted that assimilationists not only misrepresented the contributions of immigrant groups but also ignored fundamental American constitutional principles of equality and justice.

More to the point, Kallen interpreted Ross and the assimilationists as members of an elite Anglo-Saxon class that was losing its dominance and fighting to protect its prerogatives by means of an undemocratic and unscholarly discourse. The uniqueness of America, Kallen felt, lay in the many streams of immigrants that had been enriching the country for more than a century. He argued that ethnic groups should be free to retain what is valuable in their own social cultural heritages while accepting a common political culture in the form of democratic principles—representative government under a rule of law that protects the liberties of the individual.

The philosopher and psychologist William James was another important proponent of cultural pluralism, as were educational theorist John Dewey and progressive writer Randolph Bourne. Many thinkers brought perspectives from the philosophical idea of pragmatism to bear on the concept of American society and culture.

Critiques of Cultural Pluralism

Cultural pluralism has been attacked for justifying cultural separatism—that is, a transformation to a "nation of nations" similar to what is found in Switzerland or a segregated America of ethnically pure residential enclaves. Such a structure, critics assert, gives rise to unfamiliarity and mistrust between different ethnic groups and can contribute to the isolation of groups with little political or economic power. A second critique is that cultural pluralists assume that because ethnic traditions are static, they can suppress individuality. Third, cultural pluralists are attacked for a belief that ethnic identity is primary and thus more powerful than other identities. Some critics see Kallen’s concept of cultural pluralism as rooted in Jewish ideology and unfit to apply to all groups.

Cultural pluralists respond that American cultural pluralism thrives in an integrated, not a segregated, society. They accept cultures as internally dynamic, changing and adapting over time, with plenty of room for diversity inside each culture. Cultural attachments are seen as important but not exclusive, as Americans must respect those of different cultures in order to enjoy liberty together. Moreover, Kallen’s original argument is entirely philosophical.

Originally, cultural pluralists had much difficulty distinguishing their views from segregationist rhetoric. In contrast with more politically active advocates of multiculturalism, they were unable to articulate how the political system should treat separatists. By the early twenty-first century, the philosophy of cultural pluralism seemed almost irrelevant, as many Americans were by then claiming multiple ethnic and racial backgrounds. That very multiplicity, according to some observers, is a reason for a crisis of identity. Ironically, those who have been in crisis the most over identity, cultural pluralism, and multiculturalism are those who are often single-race or lack ties to outside cultures. Nativism is the belief in protecting the interests of native-born or citizens against those of immigrants or people of other cultures. A rise in nativist thinking occurred in post-9/11 America and continued to gain traction through the 2020s. This rise also coincided with an influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, which itself influenced the border wall erected by Donald Trump. Pro-American, nationalist rhetoric led some Americans to push back against ideas of multiculturalism in favor of a more patriotic, nativist outlook.

To those who believe in multiculturalism, though, there is no crisis of identity if people simply recognize differences in culture, race, and religion and celebrate those differences. Generally, that includes all people, including those of American ancestry. Multiculturalism is an inclusive practice that has, like the cultural pluralism of the early twentieth century, created a better understanding of what it means to be of another culture while still being an America.

Bibliography

Akam, Everett H. Transnational America: Cultural Pluralist Thought in the Twentieth Century. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.

Baghramian, Maria, and Attracta Ingram, eds. Pluralism: The Philosophy and Politics of Diversity. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Brooks, Stephen, ed. The Challenge of Cultural Pluralism. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002.

Denton, Nancy A., and Stewart E. Tolnay, eds. American Diversity: A Demographic Challenge for the Twenty-first Century. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.

Hollinger, David A. Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism. New York: Basic Books, 1995.

Inazu, John D. Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving through Deep Difference. U of Chicago P, 2016.

Johansson, T. R. "In Defence of Multiculturalism – Theoretical Challenges." International Review of Sociology, vol. 34, no. 1, 2002, pp. 75–89. doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2022.2045141. Accessed Sept. 6 2024.

Kallen, Horace M. Cultural Pluralism and the American Idea: An Essay in Social Philosophy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1956.

Kallen, Horace M. Culture and Democracy in the United States. New introduction by Stephen J. Whitfield. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1998.

Kallen, Horace M. "Democracy Versus the Melting Pot: A Study of American Nationality." The Nation (February 18 and 25, 1915): 190-194, 217–220.

Kleinfeld, Rachel. “Resisting the Call of Nativism: What U.S. Political Parties Can Learn from Other Democracies.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 5 Mar. 2020, carnegieendowment.org/research/2020/03/resisting-the-call-of-nativism-what-us-political-parties-can-learn-from-other-democracies?lang=en. Accessed 6 Sept. 2024.

Patterson, Orlando. Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse. New York: Stein & Day, 1977. Assesses Kallen’s effort to reconcile philosophical pluralism with cultural pluralism as a failure because group needs inevitably conflict with democratic principles.

Sollors, Werner. “A Critique of Pure Pluralism.” In Reconstructing American Literary History, edited by Sacvan Bercovitch. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. Criticizes Kallen for advancing group survival of the Jews as a paradigm for all ethnic groups.

Verkuyten, M. Identity and Cultural Diversity: What Social Psychology Can Teach Us. Routledge, 2014.