Online Custom «Critique of Haiser R. Diner “Some Problems with “Multiculturalism”» Essay Sample

Every day, historians ask themselves many questions and seek answers to them. Sometimes, those answers are true, sometimes – fake, but all of them are thought to be the truth. In her article, the author mentioned that everyone has his opinions and views, and every person sees the reality with the difference, which often causes many disputes and misunderstandings. Especially, it is all about the meaning of “tolerance” and what people think about such things as gender, race, or language difference. The problem is in people’s minds and their vision of “tolerance” as it is very distorted by the politics and social media. I think that it is very important for people to know the truth, because they are the country. I advocate for truth and equality in the whole world.

Diner’s position is clear. She is against politicizing the history. She does not like when politics hides the truth from people and makes troubles with imposing them different information, which describes things that do not exist. It causes many disputes within the USA and other countries and even makes people to be foes of each other. She is also against people, who is radically imposing their opinion; Hasia thinks that it is normal for people to have different opinions, but it is not normal when some of them impose their own opinions for the sake of self-realization and desire to be weighty in this world.

Starting from 1960, American scientists and historians began to pay more attention to questions related to race, nation, or gender. Hasia mentioned that the government hired many experts to study these questions properly. Every historian has their unique visions and write history just how they see it. For sure, there are many arguments and facts, but scientist’s vision makes an impact on the final result. I agree with the author, because my experience of being in such a situation confirms it. It is awkward to see how politicians and scientists in collaboration write history for their benefit. They create another instrument to control people’s minds making students read their works. On the other hand, different people who read them can make their own conclusions: someone can see uncertainty in these books; someone can read them and not thinking about the emphasis. Diner is surely right about that and shows an example, where she describes the absence of unified opinion in the American culture. The citation of George Mosse about admonishing students never to use the phrase “the people” because no such entity has even existed shows the truth. I agree that people deserve to get high-quality information. This is a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe in new scientists.

The problem of tolerance is one of the most discussed issues today. To my mind, however, people realize it in a different way, the main idea is the equity of races. I think, if politics does not impose people the false distinction between races, there would be no such notion like “tolerance”, which is quite sarcastic. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you –this principle is really true despite treating African people like potential enemies, or being jealous realizing that some nations are living better than yours. People always want to achieve some social status and become a part of something big and mighty. That is why there are such groups of people like “European Americans”. These citizens of America think that they do not belong to this country but have European ancestry. Of course, Diner is probably right when she claims that Americans are not clear nation and have many representatives of different nations or even races; some people cannot deal with it just because it is their meaning. Everyone wants to be original. However, Jews, who studied in American universities in 1950, found nothing in courses that related to their culture and history. Focusing on the level of clarity of the American nation, Diner overlooks the deeper problem of indifference of politics. Therefore, Americans were not interested to support the members of different nations in their country. It was also mentioned that education must be about learning instead of studying, because studying puts you into some frames that impose you what you should know or what you should not. Only learning helps to see these multicultural problems from different angles.

Nowadays, people look at multiculturalism with irony, sarcasm, and humor. TV and social media do their work. Every day, there appear more and more different shows and films where people can make fun of black people. Sometimes, it is a direct ridicule, when people laugh at a particular person, but it also can be hidden ridicule. For instance, in every teenager series-movies, there is necessarily the black person in the group, who shows everyone all racial stereotypes and behavior. I think it is pathetic, and even if people find it funny, such things should be eliminated from TV or other social media. Some people can simply hate others for different traditions and culture, which is silly, because every person can choose what to do or what belong to. It is the meaning of tolerance – not to impose your opinion and desires on people, who do not want to accept it. For instance, there are many nations, especially from Eastern Europe that deal with multiculturalism with sarcasm and racial stereotypes; besides, there are many members of different cultures living in these countries. There is a reverse situation with inequality of genders: the riot of feminists is more popular in Eastern Europe than in other parts of the world. Despite this, the problem of inequality is not so popular than racial problem.