For decades, people’s perception of social equality has been intertwined with the phenomenon of paying no attention to ethnic affiliation. However, instead of embracing the idea of universal equity, this concept resulted in the explicit enablement of white supremacy. For example, celebrating equality in the US essentially meant being generalized and assimilated into the image of a Caucasian white male. Hence, while at some point, society wanted to eliminate discrimination through everyone being “the same underneath,” only ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities were forced to sacrifice their identity. The result of such assimilation is especially vivid in the case of Japanese Americans and their mass assimilation aimed at creating the model minority (Shih et al., 2019). In order to be accepted in the community, minority populations were threatened with embracing another culture as their own.
Such ignorance should never be mistaken for equality of being the same. The power of equality is to allow one to express their cultural identity without the fear of being marginalized in society. Moreover, embracing genuine interest in different cultures is what makes people evolve in their perspective on the world and critical thinking. Years of discrimination have eliminated the history of hundreds of ethnic minorities, so now is the time to make sure that everyone learns and cherishes their ancestors to the same extent. Undeniably, many people dwell on the fact that the idea of multi-culturalism is highly complex, especially in working or educational settings. However, the study of cultural diversity should never focus on creating exclusive communities that have nothing in common. Diversity is about shared learning of one’s values to find common ground with no discrimination against minorities.
Reference
Shih, K. Y., Chang, T. F., & Chen, S. Y. (2019). Impacts of the model minority myth on Asian American individuals and families: Social justice and critical race feminist perspectives. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 11(3), 412-428. Web.