Julia Laube:
Growing up, I lived in a predominantly White neighborhood. It was known as being “good” and was pretty wealthy in parts, though I lived in its outskirts. Thus, the elementary school I attended was known as being a “good” school. The interesting part of that was, my elementary school was not totally White, as there were two housing units on the outskirts of the neighborhood as well. One was for PhD students attending the large state school in my midwestern college town, who lived there with their families – they were almost entirely from outside of the States. The other housing unit was simply low-income housing. Because of these two housing units, my elementary school was far more ethnically diverse than it would’ve been without the aforementioned units.
I don’t think that we can ignore that, at the end of the day, it was largely White affluent folks consuming the culture of oppressed minorities.
Much like Alex’s “Around the World” night, at school, we had something every year called “International Day” where there was a large potluck that always had a wide range of home-cooked ethnically diverse foods, predominantly brought by the families of color from the University’s housing. Additionally, there were dance performances, also ranging in representation of culture and homeland. Although this was always a joyous day that I looked forward to, I’m too am now calling into question the possible problematic undertones of the day.
Although I do think I can be optimistic in my assessment of the day, and recognize that it was people of those certain ethnicities representing their own identities and cultures, this day seems to fall into what Hagerman might call “shallow multiculturalism.” This concept refers to the ways in which White people enjoy the culture of other ethnicities, or even go so far as to appreciate the presence of “diversity” and those other ethnicities, without having to acknowledge the vast histories of oppression and ways in which our society is still organized today. Like I said, although I recognize the redeeming qualities of this day, wherein it was individuals of those cultures and identities representing themselves, I don’t think that we can ignore that, at the end of the day, it was largely White affluent folks consuming the culture of oppressed minorities, wherein they were in no way prompted to engage with topics of hate, oppression, and ignorance.
Looking back, I definitely have some critiques of the day, and suggestions for the school on how to void the presence of shallow multiculturalism. I’d recommend that there be a portion of the day devoted to some kind of a talk or presentation, where parents and kids alike were walked through [brief] overviews of various histories of oppression/imperialism/colonization. Ideally, this presentation could be extended to a brief discussion of the problems inherent in race relations to America today. Families would be encouraged to interact with the foods and dances in a different way, because in addition to appreciating the ‘diversity’ of the day, they would be forced to reconcile their own positionality in what they would hopefully understand is still a racist system, and be forced to acknowledge all parts of ‘ethnically diverse’ histories and celebrations.