When democracy is failing or ailing, we are quick to define what that failure consists of. Corruption, oppression and dictatorship, for instance. When George Bush won his first US election by a dubious margin, some of those words got called out - but nobody suggested democracy itself was a problem, and should be abandoned. Rather, the calls were for a stronger, better democracy.
When multiculturalism fails or ails, it gets called... multiculturalism. Giving the actual phenomenon of societies with many cultures a bad name! It should at least be called dysfunctional multiculturalism, in contrast to productive multiculturalism. Or define the problem as segregation, assumed assimilation, or terrorism (which is certainly not multiculturalism, any more than Stalin was part of democracy).
Multiculturalism is not failing us. We are failing multiculturalism. We should be calling for a stronger, better supported multiculturalism. One that contributes to a thriving society, as it already does in so many places, instances and organisations. Nobody ever wails, or whoops, about that.
And why are these leaders denouncing multiculturalism? It couldn't be populism, could it?
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