Multiculturalism is still a perspective in the making, and I don't believe it will ever be a finished product. People who identify themselves as multi-culturalists, while others are sharply debated broadly hold some of the principles. While academic discipline is U.S. social history, approach for multi-culturalism from that direction, similar ideas about multiculturalism also grow out of other disciplines, can be arrived at from other directions. Clearly, discussion, revision, and renewed discussion are essential elements of any multicultural approach to history.
Multiculturalism is a way of looking at the world that is rooted in scientific exploration, that challenges the cultural limitations distorting our vision, and that calls for more inclusive and reflective teaching. Multiculturalism has the most relevance for social studies, history, art, music, and literature, but it’s not limited to these areas.
Multiculturalism is based on the idea of multiple perspectives that there is more than one way to view and understand an event, an idea, or an era. As a historical example, let's examine the question; did industrialization unleash waves of progress and prosperity? For some people, the answer is yes. But not if you were a shepherd or small farmer in Europe, the Sahel region of Africa, or Southeast Asia, driven off your traditional lands by large-scale commercial agriculture; not if you were a handloom operator in England or India, displaced by water-powered machinery, or an African kidnapped and sold into slavery to produce cash crops for capitalist factories and markets, or a member of any one of thousands of ethnic groups that were drawn into crowded, polluted, and disease ridden cities out of fear of starvation and the desperate need for work.
Differences in perspective can also be subtler, less sweeping, or peculiar to individuals. Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film classic Rashomon presents one event from four.....
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