Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

General Assessment of US Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism in the United States emerged as a result of two different factors. The first is the civil rights movement, and the second the arrival of immigrants of Latin American origin. Both factors emerged as a way of resolving the differences between ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’ in the United States. The US policy of multiculturalism has prioritized shaping social identities and political interests and also put ethnic diversity in the foreground as well.

Laying a stress on ethnicity is of great importance in society. Kymlicka says that the ‘social culture’ owned by certain members of society and the linguistic and historical background derived from this social culture reveal the ability of individuals to be aware of their own attitudes and differences.

Ethnic minorities seek recognition in order to protect individuals in society from the melting pot or assimilation policy imposed by the mainstream. These demands from ethnic groups and their desire to protect themselves from the mainstream are a challenge to the concepts of liberal policies and society. However, the claim that the United States is multicultural in the political and social spheres makes these demands reasonable. The problem mainly concerns viewing immigrants and other ethnic groups as national minorities, because considering them as a national minority leads to increased political diversity and to the abstraction caused by racial discrimination.

Multiculturalism in the social life of the United States is possible with emphasis on similarities rather than differences. Will the differences in social life be really welcomed, should there be a

redesign of the events on 11 September 2001? The political issues that arise from the clash of civilizations thesis, the elimination of racial discrimination and the attitude towards cultural diversity remain objects of discussion. Thus, in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, the problem of the assimilation of various ethnic and religious groups in the United States began to be discussed in a national context.

The idea of multiculturalism, which contradicts the Anglo-Saxon conformity in the US of the 1960s, was an attempt to show that the United States was a multicultural country rather than a monocultural one, emphasizing the formation of various multicultural ethnic and religious groups in the country. However, the events of 11 September 2001 turned the attitude towards the distinctive features of ethnic minorities from positive to negative. These events also led to a reconsideration of multiculturalism not only in the United States, but in the whole of Europe, and in some cases caused the rejection of this policy. Conservatives, particularly in the United States, are sceptical about a tolerant attitude towards different social groups in society, which has ultimately led to the return of the old model to the agenda.