Making a difference: culture, race and social policy.

Making a difference: culture, race and social policy

 

KENAN MALIK

 

ABSTRACT The concept of multiculturalism embodies both a description of a society and a prescription for managing that society. The multiculturalist description of society is a distorted one. Western societies, in particular, are not as diverse as multiculturalists often suggest. The multiculturalist prescription for society creates the very problems it is meant to solve. The notions of culture, identity and authenticity embodied in multicultural policies derive from Romanticism and resurrect ways of thinking about difference that are rooted in racial theory. The emergence of multiculturalism as a favoured political strategy is the consequence of the narrowing of the political sphere in recent years.

KEYWORDS authenticity, culture, diversity, Enlightenment, equality, Herder, identity, multiculturalism, race, Romanticism