the problem of the 21st Century Is the challenge of Multicultural democracy? Whether American society. Can and will be restructured to include the genius and energy the talents and aspirations of millions of people of color Latinos Asian Americans American Indians African Americans and others this morning, I would like to explore three interrelated themes providing a framework for discussing the issue of diversity within a Democratic Society. the first topic to consider Is the debate over multiculturalism especially in the context of Education now the critics of multiculturalism of length of concept with a concurrent controversy surrounding political correctness on campuses and in public school curriculum, but we need to go beyond the conservative rhetoric to Define multiculturalism properly in relationship with the deconstruction of racial discrimination within American society. Second what are the general trends for people of color within America's educational institutions now because I'm a social scientist of the African American Experience. My commentary will focus very briefly on disturbing Trends away from equality within our national black community. These inequalities are leading us to two unequal America's divided not simply by racial identity, but by sharply Divergent levels of skills learning and access to educational opportunity and finally there is a larger issue on the future of race and ethnicity with in American society itself. Can we go beyond discussions of diversity with the increasingly Antiquated and misleading concepts of minorities versus majority groups to recognize that virtually all of us our Outsiders or minorities based on our ethnicity physical ability or condition language gender sexual orientation or religion. The question of difference within any society or culture is always conjuncture 11th changing and conditional race is not a permanent historical category. But an unequal relationship between social groups. We must rethink old categories and rethink old ways of perceiving one another we must Define the issue of diversity as a dynamic ever-changing concept leading us to explore problems of human relations and social equality in a manner which will expand the principles of fairness and opportunity to all members of society. Now for any oppressed people questions of culture and identity are always linked to the structure of power and privilege within Society culture is the textured pattern of collective memory the critical Consciousness and aspirations of a people. This is part of the reason that the national debate over multiculturalism assumes such critical significance within political circles as well as in the context of Education with the demise of the Cold War American since conservatives have been denied. The threat of Communism is the ideological glue which could unify the voices of reaction led by Reagan's secretary of education Bill Bennett and former presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan many conservatives have launched what they term a cultural war against an Unholy host of so-called new subversives such as the proponents of political correctness affirmative action gay and lesbian issues black studies feminism and worst of all Multicultural. A working definition of multiculturalism. However should begin with the recognition that our nation's cultural heritage does not begin and end with the intellectual and aesthetic products of Western Europe multiculturalism rejects the model of cultural assimilation and social Conformity, which within the context of our schools has relegated historically African Americans Latinos, and other people of color to the cultural slums the mythical Melting Pot in which a diverse number of ethnic antecedents were blended into a non racist and thoroughly homogenized blend of cultures never existed assimilation always assume that the price for admission to America's cultural democracy for racial and ethnic minorities was the surrender of those things which truly made us unique our languages and traditions our foods and folkways our religions and Then our names assimilation assume that social difference had to be translated in hierarchical terms with white Christian males from Western Europe being perceived as The Logical errors of all positions of power. We were taught to honor the dead white males whose names are carved above our libraries and whose texts are still mandated as assignments in western civilization courses. So how do we really interpret multiculturalism? It is first the recognition that totality of American society within the United States is not expressed within one and only one cultural group. Western Europeans one religion Christianity or one language English civilizations cultures and language patterns from Latin America. The Caribbean Asia the Pacific Africa and from Native American people have also profoundly influenced the American experience and enriched the American identity second that multiculturalism approaches each cultural tradition with an awareness of its integrity and continuity, but it must also be comparative and historical and approach. It should examine the parallels between the experiences of people of color and people from European descent and the connections between various populations of groups of people of color in the destruction of American civilization Multiculturalism thirdly must imply an approach toward pluralism, which explicitly rejects exclusivity knowledge is not circumscribed by race gender class or ethnicity all can and should learn from each other. In other words. There's a value in the African American students studying Herman Melville Ernest Hemingway and Shakespeare as there is for a white American student encountering for the first time Jimmy Baldwin Alice Walker or w/e be two boys teachers can and should be of any ethnic gender or racial background. And finally multiculturalism should imply a theory of educational democracy in equality and systems of discrimination within the larger society are often perpetuated in part by educational institutions, which are themselves exclusionary either exclusionary in the curriculum in Personnel in the students composition or in student life democracy and education should foster not closed systems, but open systems broadly-based flexible with a deep sense of public responsibility and social obligation. Multiculturalism should finally play an invaluable role for white Americans as well because no genuine dialogue between ethnic groups can never occur unless there is the presumption of equality and respect on all sides white Americans need to learn the lessons of non-white contributions to the nation's culture art politics and scientific fields in order to overcome the legacy of discrimination and presumptions of non-white inferiority in short multiculturalism permits. All Americans to discover our fundamental Unity through our diversity. Now the national debate around multiculturalism is occurring precisely at a time when race relations have deteriorated on many college campuses to new lows. There is a myth that hundreds of thousands of unqualified Latino and African-American students are taking opportunities away from better qualified white students who are projected by conservatives in the media is the innocent victims of what they term reverse discrimination, but the reality is that in the 1980's the percentage of minority high school graduates went on to college actually declined in 1975 36% of all Latino high school graduates between the ages of 18 to 26 were enrolled in college by 1988. The percentages for Latinos had declined below 24 percent the same Retreat from educational quality occurred for African Americans in 1975, 32 percent of all black high school graduates aged 18 to 26 years were attending colleges 13 years later only twenty eight point one percent of them were enrolled in colleges and universities. Meanwhile white college enrollments in the same years actually. Creased from 32.4% to 38.1% for whites aged 18 to 24 26 years. The basic pattern of Education in the 80s and 90s has been toward greater elitism and inequality, especially for low-income people of any color and for people of color one indicator is the falling rate. For example of African Americans receiving doctorates between 1976 to 1992. The total number of doctorates annually awarded increased from about thirty one thousand to thirty eight thousand eight hundred doctorates Nationwide the year. I received my PhD 1976 there were 1116 African-Americans who receive phds, but after the Reagan and Bush administration's cut back on education and send out the message to retreat from affirmative action universities in many instances began to reduce their efforts to recruit blacks and Latinos and you began to see a reduction in the number of people of color and graduate programs who receive funding By 1992 only 951 blacks receive phds Nationwide that is less than 20 years ago. We see the same pattern of discrimination outside the system of higher education today. There are more than 1/2 million African-American men and women women who are currently incarcerated and federal and state prisons and local jails, at least one half of all prisoners are under 29 years of age most were unemployed at the time of their arrests others average less than ten thousand dollars annual income in the year prior to their arrests as of 1992 about 23% of all young African-American males in their 20s were either in prison or jail probation parole or awaiting trial in New York City where I live the percentage for black men in this group is a staggering 31% if Martin King were here he would draw the correlation between poverty unemployment and who is in prison in this country? Has racism Decline and significance. Yes, and no true legal segregation no longer exists, but can we see discrimination? In other ways? Yes, and it can be measured. Several years ago male and female researchers African Americans and whites were presented as middle class car Shoppers at 90 metropolitan Chicago automobile dealerships. They wore the same types of middle-class clothing. They used The Identical negotiation strategies. They Bartered for the same automobile, which had a list price of $11,000. The automobiles dealers offers to these would be consumers clearly followed a pattern of racial and gender discrimination. White males received the car at a final price offer of 11,000 $352 white women eleven thousand five hundred and four dollars black men 11780 $3 and black women. They got the car twelve thousand three hundred dollars. Here's the question class if that's what happens to black people when we barter for a car what happens to us when we try to buy a house what happens to us when we try to negotiate around issues of property in effect racism is not simply color Prejudice. It is a hidden tax. It is a invisible tax of discrimination penalizing millions of Americans who are Latinos who are African Americans and other people of color the laws have been changed, but that invisible tax still exists. Now given these entrenched patterns of discrimination. How do we Foster an environment of pluralism and diversity to nourish a framework for Multicultural dialogue discourse common values and democracy? For nearly half a century. We pursued the goal of diversity in higher education with it best mixed results in the early 1950s liberal Educators declared proudly that they were committed to the goal of what they called a colorblind environment now conservatives have picked up the same rhetoric. We should all agree that color blindness is the ultimate goal is the great reggae artist Bob Marley of Jamaica once observed until the color of a man's skin is of no greater consequence than the color of his eyes. There will be War but the question is how do we get there? We cannot get there by pretending that race and color no longer matter because in common sense, you know that is not true that they've magically declined in significance in a racist Society color is symbolic of the inequality of power relations, the ownership of property and resources between various groups to end racial Prejudice. We have to restructure the power relationship between people of color and those who exercise power and privilege in the society. This means that we must ironically pursue a color conscious strategy. To create the conditions where one day color is irrelevant in determining the positions of power Irrelevant in educational access Irrelevant in health care and a relevant to other opportunities of daily life. This was the view of dr. King contrary to the way that conservatives would argue it today. Now in the 1970s and 80s the ideal of colorblindness gave way to what could be termed symbolic representation liberal Educators believe that the recipe for cultural diversity would be achieved by bringing representatives of a new spectrum of Interest into the academy women racial minorities physically disabled people lesbians and gays and as well as others programs were established to create new academic courses in women's studies black studies. Chicano studies gay and lesbian studies Asian-American studies Etc. Women and minorities were symbolically represented with their appointments as counselors or college recruiters. These reforms could have become a big inning rather than an end to the process of educational reconstruction on issues of Social and cultural difference within the academy instead somehow. We lost our way and in many colleges and universities were moving backward. Why is this one reason is that women and racial minorities were usually hired and subsequently located in the bureaucratic margins of academic institutions rather than within real centers of power. There were few deliberate programs, which actually tried to identify Scholars of color and women faculty with administrative abilities to mentor and cultivate them and to advance them forward at some institutions minority faculty occupied what I like to call a revolving door position usually designated at the ranks of instructor and assistant professor. Never to be tenured or reappointed and in some Distances and some institutions are conspiracy of Silence develop between white conservative administrators and those few black and Latino and other minority faculty who had been hired during the initial wave of affirmative action and minority recruitment many conservative white administrators employed the discourse the language of diversity, but privately they never really believed in it. They never accepted the academic rationale of African-American studies or Latino studies and yet they adopted these programs to their campuses largely out of political necessity to quell student unrest to reduce criticism from Minority Educators and elected officials. They created programs and departments on a ghettoize basis such programs white conservative and often liberal Educators were convinced would appeal to minority groups moreover all white departments with traditional curricula would not be forced to alter their way of teaching or their discriminatory hiring policies. History departments would not have to offer African-American history to If black studies programs were deemed responsible for it music departments could ignore Duke Ellington literature departments could skip Alice Walker Langston Hughes Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. We must be honest and rigorous and are criticisms of these ghettoize programs. But me was also criticized the even more dangerous distortions of conservatives like Thomas soul and Shelby Steele and would be presidential hopeful Bill Bennett. Although he's recently withdrawn from the 96 race who concluded that Multicultural programs have no relevance to higher education on the contrary the criteria for educational excellence in a society that is pluralistic must have at its core a truly Multicultural vision and pluralistic definition. We must have African-American studies research centers and programs women's studies and ethnic studies programs academic programs reflecting the totality. Of the cultural and social diversity, which is America. The challenge before us is to create the programs in such a way that will impact the totality of the learning experience of all students. We must go beyond the traditional definition of diversity the idea of balkanize in society to redefine the core of the mainstream of the mission of Education. We must assert that the serious study of the African American Experience for example is important not just to black students for ethnic or racial Pride reasons, but for everyone that all students regardless of their ethnic background or Heritage can become intellectually enriched by Explorations into the African American Experience. What is the significance of the debate about multiculturalism? Building coalitions for Meaningful ethnic and racial relations means bridging differences separating various groups, which experienced discrimination and inequality from each other it is unfortunately true in American life and throughout this world that people who are victimized by one form of prejudice or discrimination frequently fail to understand the nature of discrimination and oppression experienced by their neighbors. There are regrettably African Americans who are anti-semitic and there are Jews who are racist. There are white women who are racist and discriminatory toward women of color. There are Asian Americans who are homophobic and Prejudice toward white lesbians and gay men. There are people of color who discriminate against whites who have physical disabilities. Yet when we go beyond the old definition of diversity trying to tear people apart and when we seek actively see commonalities the fundamental humanism uniting all people. We begin to recognize more than our own narrow particularity. The experience of discrimination gives us some common Insight some common understanding into the pain harassment and bitterness and a sense of transformation a sense of hope and aspiration experienced by all people regardless of the barriers in which they've overcome. No, I'm a scholar of the civil rights movement and I write about the politics of women and men of uncommon courage fighting to uproot discrimination and racism in this country. But as a black man, I have intimately lived through this historical experience. I described in my writing. I personally know what it is like to be told to go to the back of the bus because your skin is black. I know what it is like not to be served in a restaurant. I know what it is like not to be permitted to sit inside a heated bus terminal but before us to stand outside in the cold, I know what it is like not to be permitted to try on a cap or a pair of pants at a clothing store because you are black and when you experience this trust me, you will never forget it. And I believe and I know in my heart that this experience of discrimination the burden of inequality and the Democratic struggle to transcend that barrier if properly understood can become Universal because I felt the pain of discrimination. I comprehend the pain of women victimized by violence rape sexual harassment and discrimination on the job. I can understand the anger and frustration of my Jewish sisters and brothers who must confront the hatred and ignorance and violence of the anti-semite. I can express my sympathy and solidarity for lesbians and gay men who experienced discrimination in the loss of their jobs and opportunities solely due to their sexual orientation and I can Embrace with empathy the pain and anguish of Latino immigrants who cannot comprehend the vast distance between our rhetoric of democracy and the reality of inequality and Prejudice aimed against people who are defined as different. So let me conclude. The Israelis in the last several years have finally found the courage to speak directly to the Palestinian people to realize the goal of peace, or at least the promise of Peace in the Middle East the white South African government symbol of that evil known for half a century as a part 8 found the wisdom to engage in a democratic dialogue with the nation's black majority. When will we Americans find the courage to address the massive social economic and human destruction and misery in our Central cities of this nation. When will we place at the top of our domestic agenda the necessity to Foster educational and cultural programs nourishing Intergroup dialogue and appreciation of plural plural plural ality and an awareness of understanding the burden of racism in our nation is not fundamentally attributable to the actions of the Ku Klux Klan the overt racist or the skinheads racism is most damaging as an Institutional force in which millions of white people continue to make unthinking decisions perpetuating inequality and discrimination. To go beyond the traditional form of diversity. We have to face the problem of racism not as a black problem. Not as I Lochte no dilemma, but a burden for whites who fail to see us racism distorts the senses, it blunts a collective Vision. You cannot comprehend the problems of a people whom you cannot see you cannot silence the anguish anguished cries of hungry children whom you cannot hear the crisis of race ethnicity and class forms an effect a fault line deep within the social terrain of this country which threatens to rumble and tear apart the cities and communities of the United States. We saw it two years ago in Los Angeles and our children may one day reap the Whirlwind for our failure to address racial and ethnic differences in a democratic way. Can we envision a Democratic Society in which equality of both opportunity and actual condition for racial and ethnic minorities is a reality rather than a Dream Deferred in the words of black poet. Langston Hughes. It is up to all of us to transform these deferred dreams into Multicultural Democratic realities. The problem of the 21st century is the challenge of building and sustaining a truly Multicultural democracy. Thank you.