2. WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Equal Opportunities
Black Arts
Multicultural Arts
Cultural Diversity
Diversity
3. “MESSY MODERNITY”
Social progress means that the
present is different to the past and
we have lots of alternative ways of
being
The opposite is tradition where the
present is rooted in the past and
alternatives are limited
Others are fixed into a group
defined by its beliefs and traditions
Modernity tolerates these others
but from a position of superiority
4. “MULTICULTURALISM –
MODERNITY’S CHILD…”
“the belief that many different cultures
should be encouraged and allowed to
flourish in society and that services and
facilities such as health, education, the
arts etc should be delivered in a way that
embodies and promotes this belief”
- Race for Racial Justice
5. “MULTICULTURALISM IS -…?”
NOT Denying the fact of multiple cultures
BUT IS
The ‘ism’ of social differentiation
A double-edged sword that left no-one
safe!
6. “…MESSY MULTICULTURALISM”
It focuses on celebrating
difference
It has failed to provide a
framework for intercultural
understanding, sharing and
exchange
It encourages identity politics
but doesn’t successfully tackle
social inequalities
It sees cultural boundaries as
fixed and unchanging
7. “MUCH MALIGNED
MULTICULTARISM …”
Artists from ethnic minorities are always
defined by their ethnicity
Multiculturalism insists artists focus on the
negative tensions between their traditional
heritage and the ‘modern world’
Equality is something that the dominant
culture allows people from ethnic
minorities to have
8. “What is Cultural Diversity
anyway?”
cultural diversity = “African, Caribbean, Asian and Chinese Arts” (ACE
Cultural Diversity Action Plan 1998 – 2003)
cultural diversity defined as ‘expressed both as a result of historical
processes of migration into and across different states, as well as cultural
diversity that has subsisted within different polities over longer periods of
time’ – Council of Europe 2003
cultural diversity is explained as:
“…Arts Council believes that the term ‘cultural diversity’ can be
interpreted in many different ways; Arts Council England will take a
broad and inclusive interpretation, as meaning the full range and
diversity of the culture of this country. In some cases the focus will
be on race and ethnic background and in others on disability, for
example” ACE 2004.
9. “Then there was ...CULTURAL
DIVERSITY!”
Cultural Diversity is a signifier
for difference, ‘otherness’ and
minoritised communities
Started out as the opposite of
assimilation
means both ethnically diverse
and culturally specific
Groups together all ethnic
identities as non-
Western/White
Diversity within diversity not
recognised
10.
11. “Cohesive Communities, social
inclusion etc…”
Reactive?;
Focus on identity, networks and discourse
and not
Inequalities;
From celebrating cultural diversity to
‘kissing and making up’
12. Integration – into what?
Integration
Integration provides
for the co-existence of
minority cultures with
the majority culture,
Integration is what
they say
Assimilation
assimilation requires
the absorption of
minority cultures into
the majority culture.
assimilation is what
they do
13. “Integration means what again..?”
integration is 'not a flattening process of
assimilation but equal opportunity
accompanied by cultural diversity in an
atmosphere of mutual tolerance' - Roy
Jenkins; 1966
14. NEXT..?
We need to reflect minority and majority cultural
identities and also to transcend them
We need to respect both the traditional and the
contemporary
We need the arts to build intercultural spaces
Innovation comes from the meeting and mixing
of cultures
15. TAKING STEPS BEYOND
Ziauddin Sardar proposes
“cultural spaces … where
cultures can be seen not
just in terms of difference
but also in terms of common
ground”
“Diversity means that there
are no limits to what a
minority community and its
voices can be interested in
or have an opinion upon or
about which they have a
pertinent story to relate”
16. THE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTS
How much of a role does the arts have to
play in the effort to promote equality?
How do we avoid the pitfalls of the past?
What would be different about our arts
organisations if we could ‘get it right’?
17. The Challenge
“these swift language shifts result in a
confusion of agendas” - Colin Prescod
Arts Council England has been attempting to redress imbalances of funding, access and employment opportunities for the racialised minoritised communities of the country. These are the artists who have not been individually and collectively in receipt of the funding distributed by ACE as the government-appointed custodian of the arts. ACE have made attempts to redress these imbalances by the initiation of various strategies under sobriquets such as Multicultural Arts, Black Arts, equal opportunities and the current incumbent, cultural diversity. that in 1986 ACE adopted an Ethnic Arts Action plan, which while having the advantage of focussing concentration more on the artistic aesthetic than the ‘community’-based source, was acknowledged as semantically meaningless, as “the term ‘ethnic arts’ in fact means ‘peoples’ art’ and could actually be applied to any arts.
The establishment needs a revised strategy to manage and preserve a racially divided society, as effectively as 'multiculturalism' did in an earlier time.
multiculturalism was always a double-edged sword. At times, it was an effective riposte to the anti-immigrant politics of Powellism that began in the late sixties, challenging the myth of an ethnically pure society. Against this New Right popular racism, multiculturalism stood for demanding the very survival of non-white communities on these islands. But, as the politics of black communities became radicalised, mere survival in Britain was not enough. Those who were born and grew up here wanted to remake society, not just be tolerated within it. The uprisings of the early 1980s were the most obvious expression of this shift. And at this point, multiculturalism changed from a line of defence to a mode of control. – Arun Kundani
On a local level, the new solutions are as banal as the analysis: cross-cultural contact, inter-faith dialogue, twinning of schools, fostering understanding and respect. Not so much celebrating diversity as kissing-and-making-up; reconciliation without remedial action.
To use 'integration' and 'assimilation' as synonyms, therefore, is not just to misuse language and confuse concepts, but to dissimulate practice.
The anchors that tie an individual or group to any particular environment will therefore entail a complex socio-political framework which that group needs to actively engage with to either subvert the majority positioning or to reconfigure it in accordance with their own interests. Allied to this question of power in the UK especially, is the issue of class.
Who are we? As a society, and as individuals. The question of identity is one that underlies yet permeates this whole discussion, as is the question of social justice, and especially anti-racism. Race or ethnicity does not appear as a salient identity until one is embedded in a system with other national or ethnic groups. It is the contrast, the interaction with dissimilar others, that makes a personal identity out of some personal characteristic. Identity is a story one tells to oneself and to others. That story is partly objective and real, partly imagined and subjective. Giddens writes about a people’s identity as “a narrative about themselves”. The question for the arts is how do we use the arts to construct or promote a narrative that is true to our contemporary society? That is THE MONEY QUESTION!
The challenge is to find a language that has a coherent underlying philosophy and makes practical sense. Keeping our eye on the prize!
