The Disuniting of America: Reflections of a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr

In his book, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, the author, previous presidential advisor, Harvard professor, and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. asserts that our world has entered what he calls a "dangerous era of ethnic and racial animosity". He portends that this renewed multiculturalism in the United States has the potential to tear apart our nation. He further submits that America, with its unique history of successful assimilation of so many cultures into one united body, should provide the example for the rest of the world as to how to hold ethnically diverse populations together.

Mr. Schlesinger believes that "ethnicity is the cause of the breaking of nations," citing as examples racial conflicts in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, many African and Southeast Asian countries, and even parts of Western Europe and Canada. He notes that these nations have been unable to successfully unify their heterogeneous populations because they have failed to inspire a sense of national identity and thus provide a compelling reason to integrate. America, on the contrary, has been able to do so as its immigrants, while intentionally casting off, in the words of Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, "ancient prejudices and manners", chose to become part of the "new American race". Drawing upon the observations of De Tocqueville, Bryce, and Myrdal before him, Schlesinger submits that democracy, with its self-government and inherent encouragement for civic participation, and the ideals professed within the American credo of dignity, equality and the inalienable rights to freedom, justice and opportunity all contribute to the drawing of the divergent masses into the "smelting pot".

For the greater part of the first 200 years of the American Republic this "colossal machinery," as Henry James termed it, proceeded most efficiently to produce the "ethnic synthesis". However, with the influx of even more diverse peoples in the early 20th century, the gap between the increasingly alien cultures and the admittedly white/Anglo foundation of the "melting pot" gave rise to resentments on the part of the "old-timers" and a greater clinging to their native cultures on the part of the new emigres. Schlesinger points out that many came to view the unifying American melting pot phenomenon as an Anglocentric conspiracy to undermine and devalue other ethnicities. Indeed, both Myrdal and De Tocqueville aptly decried one glaring failure of American democracy; the racist exclusion of blacks from the promise of the American creed. The response to these racial wounds and the deeply rooted anxieties was a shift away from the ideal of the homogeneous melting pot to a new view of America as the mixing together of diverse buy equally valuable cultures into one politically unified society. Arguing that this retained ethnic diversity enriched American civilization, Jewish-American philosopher Horace Kallen coined the phrase "cultural pluralism".

Mr. Schlesinger goes on to enumerate the events which took place over the past half century which, from the springboard of the new creed of cultural pluralism, have brought America to what he sees as a dangerous era of multiculturalism with the potential to rend the nation . He begins with the culmination of World War II and its effect of confronting Americans with their own bigotry in light of the Germans' racially motivated atrocities toward the Jews. Soon thereafter came the collapse of white colonialism. And, finally, at the same time that Americans were losing confidence in the country's prospects for the future, minorities across the nation, blacks in particular, began to organize and seek redress for past wrongs while demanding equality under the law and equal access to all the rights and privileges embodied in the creed. That minorities sought to improve their position within their society is not what concerns Mr. Schlesinger, however. In discussing this "unprecedented ... ethnic upsurge", he asserts that what "began as a protest against the Anglocentric culture ... became a cult, and today it threatens to become a counter-revolution against the original theory of America as "one people," a common culture, a single nation."

Noting that the upsurge of ethnicity has had both positive and negative consequences, the author contends that the masses of the minorities represented are not to blame for the destructive elements of the current cult movement which is often presided over by self-appointed spokesmen cut from a more militant or angry or disenfranchised cloth. Mr. Schlesinger then goes on to expound on a primary weapon being utilized in the ethnic arsenal: the manipulation of history.

Using primarily blacks or African-Americans as the case-in-point, Mr. Schlesinger examines the current attempts by black "leaders" to rewrite the history of black Americans in order to ostensibly improve their self-esteem and provide them with role models. He discusses the fallacious assertions made by some black "historians" about the Afrocentric origins of Western Civilization, including claims to the advancement of the arts, science, and medicine normally credited to the Roman Empire. The Afrocentrists claim that these things were stolen from great African civilizations and then all evidence of this truth was suppressed and the Africans destroyed by white men. They also take credit for the discovery of America prior to Columbus. They also insist that African-Americans are biologically superior to whites, possessing greater intelligence, etc., because of the great abundance of melanin in their skin. These are all claims for which there is apparently no scientific or historical support.

Mr. Schlesinger argues that this sort of "compensatory history," or "underdog history" which is invented or exaggerated to soothe the wounds of the oppressed or abused, really can have no positive effect, either for those it presumes to help or for the nation as a whole. He states, "... black Americans, after generations of psychological and cultural evisceration have every right to seek an affirmative definition of their past". But he also states that, "History as a weapon is an abuse of history. The high purpose of history is not the presentation of self nor the vindication of identity ..." He points out that the reinforcement of such a separatist concept of black identity through such slanted or inaccurate history, coupled with a complete dismissal of the history of black people in America over the past 300 years, can only result in the "...fragmentation, resegregation, and tribalization of American Life".

In addidtion to the manipulation of history, Mr. Schlesinger raises concerns over the multiculturalist indoctrination of America's children through the public school system. Using once again the example of black Americans, he chronicles the imposition of the reportedly bogus historical accounts of the black heritage into public school curriculum, and laments that the "purpose of history in the school is essentially therapeutic". While Mr. Schlesinger sees cultural pluralism as a necessity and African-American history as a legitimate subject, it is the divisive nature of the education and the alienating influence of multiculturalism that alarms him. He confides, "I am constrained to feel that the cult of ethnicity in general and the Afrocentric campaign in particular do not bode well either for American education or for the future of the republic".

Ultimately, Mr. Schlesinger challenges the efficacy of some of the other manifestations of America's increasingly multicultural society while criticizing the "... ethnicity rage in general ... not only [of] divert[ing] attention from the real needs but exacerbat[ing] the problems". He labels biligual education a failure, dooming people to second class citizenship, while insisting that the teaching of English as the primary language opens doors to opportunity and full societal participation. And he marvels at the self-imposed segregation of races, reminiscent of the once Anglo-imposed segregation then so vehemently opposed, and the universities' willingness to allow or even encourage it on their campuses. Ultimately, Mr. Schlesinger sees these many elements as "source[s] of the fragmentation of America" and believes that "the cult of ethnicity exaggerates differences, intensifies resentments and antagonisms, (and) drives ever deeper the awful wedges between races and nationalities".

While understandably concerned over what he sees as very destructive, even potentially devastating trends, Mr. Schlesinger is not without hope. He believes that, despite its imperfections, its history of slavery, segreagation and racism, and its undeniably Anglicized foundations and institutions, America's history also includes the abolition of slavery, integration, and improving human and civil rights, all the result of its European foundation. As he puts it, "the crimes of the West have produced their own antidotes". And, with its unique system of democracy, America is still most able to correct its own course, right its wrongs, and provide the greatest opportunity for people of all cultures, ethnicities, and race to realize their own personal ideals and dreams. The author believes that what it will take is for Americans to "continue to believe in the goal" of the "melting pot." As Mr. Schlesinger sums it up, "Our task is to combine due appreciation of the splendid diversity of the nation with due emphasis on the great unifying Western ideas of individual freedom, political democracy, and human rights. These are the ideas that defne the American nationality-and that today empower people of all continents, races, and creeds".