Homegrown by Hooks Bell & Mesa-Bains Amalia

Author:Hooks, Bell & Mesa-Bains, Amalia [Hooks, Bell & Mesa-Bains, Amalia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: feminism, Politics, Sociology
ISBN: 9781138723078
Google: ghu6AQAACAAJ
Amazon: 113872307X
Goodreads: 34703294
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2006-02-01T08:00:00+00:00

5

Multiculturalism

bell: As we’ve discussed, multiculturalism was fi rst introduced into the business world in the US, long before a progressive discourse about diversity had began in colleges, universities, and other institutions.

Businesses started diversity workshops because the US was losing business in Japan and other places. Unlike the Europeans, white Americans did not know the proper rituals and codes, and they hadn’t bothered to really learn them.

The business world, the capitalist world, was the fi rst major force in this country to recognize the importance of learning about “diff erent cultures.” They said, “If we know the cultural codes we can then exploit them for profi t. We can have ads that show dark people with blond people. We can use this whole diversity thing to our advantage.” Yet when multiculturalism arrived in the academy, white people were much more hostile to it—particularly unenlightened white people who didn’t see any advantage to having a multicultural perspective.

Amalia: I experienced how this impulse shaped public education as the 1960s were coming to an end. Various multicultural curricula were being advanced, but they were still really very superfi cial celebrations. We used to say if we keep this up we’re going to have a lot of fat and happy children who can dance.

70

MULTICULTURALISM

71

bell: Because they’ve eaten the foods from all the diff erent countries of the world!

Amalia:

Right. This superfi cial multiculturalism was aided and abetted by shallow multicultural education in the public schools. This is separate from the advances made by the university scholars who confronted the unenlightened white folks—the teacher-activists who were behind the development of programs in African-American studies; Latino studies; Asian American studies; Native American studies; gay and lesbian studies; and women’s studies have made profound and lasting contributions.

But what is not clear to me, even though I was a participant and a witness to it, is how multiculturalism has shaped the mainstream arts and entertainment worlds in the last twenty years. Do you think these changes are connected to the business enterprises of diversity training?

bell: Absolutely. Remember, we are now dealing a class of white elites who were radicalized by, or at least exposed to, the movements of the 1960s and 1970s. They’re not like the capitalists before them.

Many have become fi scal conservatives, but many remain social liberals.

Instead of being afraid of the ghetto, some of these folks were the white folks who wanted to go live in the ghetto! Some of them took on the trappings of being Black, or of being another kind of “other,” so as businesspeople they’re not afraid of the “other.” Instead, for them, black and brown peoples represent a gold mine. This was a big shift in white supremacist entrepreneurial capitalist mentality. As the children and young adults of the 1960s occupy the seats of power, return to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and become the CEOs, they’re not as afraid of Blackness. They are simply more prepared to exploit and market it.

It’s not surprising that young white males—most between thirty and forty—play major roles in the production of hip-hop.

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