BEYOND MULTICULTURALISM

From concept -to concept - to practice

- Olu AlakeSeptember 2006.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Equal Opportunities

Black Arts

Multicultural Arts

Cultural Diversity

Diversity

“MESSY MODERNITY” Social progress means that the

present is different to the past and we have lots of alternative ways of being

The opposite is tradition where the present is rooted in the past and alternatives are limited

Others are fixed into a group defined by its beliefs and traditions

Modernity tolerates these others but from a position of superiority

“MULTICULTURALISM –MODERNITY’S CHILD…”“the belief that many different cultures

should be encouraged and allowed to flourish in society and that services and facilities such as health, education, the arts etc should be delivered in a way that embodies and promotes this belief”

- Race for Racial Justice

“MULTICULTURALISM IS -…?”

NOT Denying the fact of multiple cultures BUT IS

The ‘ism’ of social differentiation A double-edged sword that left no-one

safe!

“…MESSY MULTICULTURALISM”

It focuses on celebrating difference

It has failed to provide a framework for intercultural understanding, sharing and exchange

It encourages identity politics but doesn’t successfully tackle social inequalities

It sees cultural boundaries as fixed and unchanging

“MUCH MALIGNED MULTICULTARISM …” Artists from ethnic minorities are always

defined by their ethnicity Multiculturalism insists artists focus on the

negative tensions between their traditional heritage and the ‘modern world’

Equality is something that the dominant culture allows people from ethnic minorities to have

“What is Cultural Diversity anyway?” cultural diversity = “African, Caribbean, Asian and Chinese Arts” (ACE

Cultural Diversity Action Plan 1998 – 2003) cultural diversity defined as ‘expressed both as a result of historical

processes of migration into and across different states, as well as cultural diversity that has subsisted within different polities over longer periods of time’ – Council of Europe 2003

cultural diversity is explained as: “…Arts Council believes that the term ‘cultural diversity’ can be

interpreted in many different ways; Arts Council England will take a broad and inclusive interpretation, as meaning the full range and diversity of the culture of this country. In some cases the focus will be on race and ethnic background and in others on disability, for example” ACE 2004.

“Then there was ...CULTURAL DIVERSITY!” Cultural Diversity is a signifier

for difference, ‘otherness’ and minoritised communities

Started out as the opposite of assimilation

means both ethnically diverse and culturally specific

Groups together all ethnic identities as non-Western/White

Diversity within diversity not recognised

“Cohesive Communities, social inclusion etc…” Reactive?; Focus on identity, networks and discourse

and not Inequalities; From celebrating cultural diversity to

‘kissing and making up’

Integration – into what?

Integration Integration provides

for the co-existence of minority cultures with the majority culture,

Integration is what they say

Assimilation assimilation requires

the absorption of minority cultures into the majority culture.

assimilation is what they do

“Integration means what again..?”

integration is 'not a flattening process of assimilation but equal opportunity accompanied by cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance' - Roy Jenkins; 1966

NEXT..? We need to reflect minority and majority cultural

identities and also to transcend them We need to respect both the traditional and the

contemporary We need the arts to build intercultural spaces Innovation comes from the meeting and mixing

of cultures

TAKING STEPS BEYONDZiauddin Sardar proposes “cultural spaces … where

cultures can be seen not just in terms of difference but also in terms of common ground”

“Diversity means that there are no limits to what a minority community and its voices can be interested in or have an opinion upon or about which they have a pertinent story to relate”

THE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTS

How much of a role does the arts have to play in the effort to promote equality?

How do we avoid the pitfalls of the past? What would be different about our arts

organisations if we could ‘get it right’?

The Challenge

“these swift language shifts result in a confusion of agendas” - Colin Prescod

The Future..?

“There is no nation now but the imagination” – Derek Walcott