Sam
Smith – The current conflict between those
opposing antisemitism and those critical of the Israeli mass killing of
Palestinians is another reminder of how – for all our talk of decent ethnic
perspectives - we have yet to become a truly multicultural society.
I recognize this for a number of personal reasons such as having had five siblings of markedly different attitudes and values, being raised as a child in no small part by a family black cook, taking one of the country’s then two high school courses in anthropology and majoring in it in college, and living for four decades in a majority black Washington DC.
From such experiences I learned early in life that a true multicultural community does not succeed just by beating back evils but by learning about, living with, and enjoying people from other communities.
The media in particular is obsessed with treating our cultural differences only as conflicts. While, admittedly, getting along with others is not particularly newsworthy we should as individuals and organizations pay more attention to it since it is essential to what we say we are seeking.
Just one small example in my life was that although my father had started a classical music radio station, I – from junior high school on – was deep into jazz. I started the first jazz band my high school ever had and my heroes soon became in part a large number of black and white jazz musicians.
I was moved not by a desire to improve ethnic relations but to participate in a form of music. It was not racial concerns that brought us together but sounds.
And that experience starting in the 1950s made it easy for me to join the civil rights movement a few years later.
The dominant message of multiculturalism these days is only the defeat of its evil problems. But for me it is also finding reasons to enjoy and even love aspects of others’ lifestyle and values.
