Taha Tayebi\'s Multiculturalism -Charles Taylor & Amy Gutmann & John Rex

Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra Faculty of Letters and Humanities English Studies Department Master in Culture and Linguistics Course: Culture and Postmodernism Professor: Mr. Najib Bounahai

Student’s Full Name: Taha Tayebi

Take-Home Exam on Amy Gutmann’s “Introduction” and John Rex’s “Multicultural and Plural Societies”

Both Amy Gutmann’s “Introduction” and John Rex’s “Multicultural and Plural Societies” allow us to understand and intellectually reflect on the condition of socio-cultural pluralism in various settings among which the United Kingdom could be a very appealing example for elaboration. Even though Gutmann’s interesting “Introduction” sheds light on pluralism in the United States, its arguments could prove quite useful for any analysis of the status quo in contemporary Britain, a status quo that John Rex does not seem to be satisfied with. According to Rex, it is still difficult to clearly define or easily understand multiculturalism although Britain seems to have embraced multicultural society as a longterm strategic plan. His notion of the ideal multiculturalism is meant to correct the shortcoming of the multicultural society Britain has adopted, and both Rex and Gutmann, regardless of the specificities of the setting each one of them is tackling, agree on the very significant role schools and universities could play in the promotion of the foundations of the ideal multiculturalism.

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John Rex’s article is meant to develop an ideal of multicultural society in which unitary society in public domain and diversity in private domain represent its basic features. Here, Rex suggests that Britain rethink its current vision of building a multicultural society as long as this vision does not promote any sound strategy towards the public domain and the private one. Following Rex, the public domain means law, politics, and economy, while its boundaries are family, morality, and religion. In the public domain, Rex contends, institutions are supposed to foster unity and equality in public matters. The private domain, on the other hand, refers primarily to moral education, primary socialization, kinship, a network of associations, and a system of religious organization and belief. Indeed, two things that bring Rex and Gutmann together. First, Rex is very dissatisfied with the current multicultural society Britain has adopted as a strategic goal and so is Gutmann with the unconvincing role the educational system in the United States plays in the establishment of a genuine and healthy setting of multiculturalism. Second, they both put a very strong emphasis on the role of education, including textbooks, primary schools, colleges, and universities, in the promotion of an ideal multiculturalism, to put it in Rex’s term. Rex and Gutmann agree that schools should be agent of a better change in society, and they should be primarily concerned with selection, transmission of skills, and of “civic morality”, a term that Rex extensively highlights throughout his practical proposal. If Rex developed a useful model in contrast to that of pluralism prevailing contemporary Brirain, Gutmann suggested working more on education, textbooks, colleges, universities, and course curricular to better the plural landscape in the United States. While it is true that John Rex recognizes the differences that may exist in the definitions of “public” and “private” across different cultures and ethnic communities (Asian community for instance), the shortcoming of his proposal lies in the fact that he does not point out that the two categories, I mean “public” and “private”, have changed and will always be changing according to both space and temporality. According to

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both Rex and Gutmann, setting up a democratic political system and constitutionalizing multiculturalism do not necessarily guarantee the respect of all ethnic communities in society as long as all communities do not have equal opportunities in both public and private spheres (Rex) and as long as government agencies, schools, colleges, universities, and course curricular do not seem to be promoting a sense of multinationalism in America (Gutmann). If Rex is not happy with the dominant façade of multicultural Britain, Gutmann is calling for a democratic multicultural education. In fact, it is very arguable that the post-2011 Morocco is also encountering the same challenge. While multiculturalism is strongly emphasized in the new constitution King Mohamed VI initiated in 2011 to calm down the initial turmoil represented by 20 February Movement, many Moroccan communities, like the Berber community, still express their anger about textbooks and courses curricular that still do not promote a sense of democratic multicultural education… A very essential area that both Rex and Gutmann seem to have disregarded in their proposals is the negative role media industry plays in contemporary Britain and USA, a role that may be one of the reasons why various ethnic communities still find multiculturalism an empty rhetoric. The role of media in the public sphere that that Jürgen Habermas theorized on seems to be betrayed by the majority of media platforms. Another example could be Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential elections in the US, who is promoting a discourse of hate and exclusion not only against Muslims but also against black Americans and Mexican migrants. If the United States was as serious about the inculcations of an ideal multiculturalism as Rex suggests, Donald J. Trump would not be given the chance to be the Republican nominee. What he says and does in his campaign seem to be against The We of the People. The same idea could be applicable to how media texts are enjoying the freedom to disseminate a culture of fear and otherness. Racial and religious differences are highly exaggerated on media platforms in both the US and UK, and this perpetuates

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stereotypical images vis-à-vis various communities that are happy with the current multicultural society Britain and America for instance seem to be empowering. In this respect, Edward Said’s Orientalism and Covering Islam still prove useful in our discussion of the crisis that multiculturalism is facing in European and American settings. If we take Gutmann’s idea into account, it would be safe to argue that media industry, like education, is supposed to foster democratic multicultural media through which cultural differences and multinationalism are highly respected. I think that one of the shortcomings of Rex’s “Multicultural and Plural Societies” is that it has devoted no space to media culture in Britain and the extent to which mainstream media texts provoke various ethnic communities, hence bringing about an unhealthy environment that hamper an ideal multiculturalism from taking root. To conclude, John Rex’s revolutionary “Multicultural and Plural Societies” and Amy Gutmann’s “Introduction” both aim at paving the way for an ideal multicultural and plural society. Their corrective proposals could be applicable in various settings where a multiplicity of ethnic and religious communities lives. At the end, the fundamental principle is to treat people equally, to cherish their differences, and to provide a space for these difference and identities to be studied. Education, which both Rex and Gutmann find very essential, could play a very revolutionary role in any long-term smooth transitional period towards the ideal foundations of pluralism. Through the establishment of a responsible media and the empowerment of a civic educational system, multiculturalism would certainly ideally take root in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere. The economic, social, and political challenges the majority of countries are facing nowadays are immense, and an ideal multiculturalism will always trump hatred, cultural segregation, unemployment within particular communities, and alienation, to name but a few, in the context of these challenges.

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