Gesturing at the chairs, she says, "What do you think this says to me?"
The snarky lady sitting next to me responds, "Our culture causes us to sit far away from professors who make us uncomfortable." Her tone isn't friendly or even amused. The professor reads this and gets more icy in response. Her lingo is being used against her. She's being mocked.
Now, there are a lot of good intentions behind multicultural classes. The goal, as I have read in at least ten texts, is essentially to form a community with others in which efforts can be made for mutual peace, justice, community and appreciation. The means are often simplistic and self-contradictory. But in their most rational, least self-righteous form, the means they suggest are as follows: don't get uppity because someone has different values and social-norms from yourself, allow the difficulties caused by histories of one group being stronger than another to color your interactions, act with respect and compassion at all times. If something can be perceived to be a cultural difference, it is an ok difference. If the dominant culture could take responsibility for all the wrong they've caused, healing could occur. Things get hairy in those last two areas, what with all the blame casting which occurs... But the goal is admittedly great. They want people to be able to be together, work together and not hate and kill one another. You should want that too. We all should.
Back to class... In the hall, students whisper in groups: "She (the prof) is just so..." "Can you believe she..."
Indignation, anger, frustration, malice.In the classroom, the prof. responds in kind. "You all need to..." "What you did wrong is..."
Judgment, condemnation, opposition.... blame. Lots of blame. Flowing from the teacher, radiating off the taught...
It's true, the bliss of these classes is that they themselves often disprove their own content. Everyone in that classroom agrees that people need to get along. And every discussion about the latest theory for achieving this... demonstrates the impossibility of that goal.
As ironic as the above discussion is in light of the goal of the course... it is also completely familiar, isn't it? You can find it in the earliest relationship... ("The woman you gave me...") It has probably played out around your kitchen table this week... it is maybe even a frequent discourse between you and the very people you love more than any other people... but you just can't seem to get along with them.
Now, we could laugh at how they think labeling everything as a sacred cultural characteristic is what is going to bind us together in love and respect... or I could go a more foundational route and say that the very premise of multicultural education isn't necessarily one which will serve the students well in the long run... or we could play the cultural comparison game (which ought to be done, often...) but let's say we really do want to love one another. Let's say that is what I will be held accountable for one day... whether or not I loved each person in that room. The starting point is somewhere else entirely. I look at you, and we're the same. We're doomed. Culture, fulture, multure. That's so moot, it isn't even funny. We are playing out a drama that has been around since the beginning of all people (ahem, and thus, all drama)... and it's moral is this: we're busted. Something has to change. And it isn't merely a change in attitude or perception or understanding. It is a change in who I am. It is a change in who you are. And really, the goal isn't that we will get along right here on earth... the goal is that we will be together, worshiping the Creator... in His presence. What we need in that class... is the gospel. If you want to be new, if you want that vast chasm between you and the person next to you to be removed, the only starting point is the cross. The only place that happens is in light of who Jesus is and how sufficient his act as the Passover Lamb was...
And, it is a model. Do you want to know who my model must be as I walk into that class? It is Jesus... and he set his face like flint... to serve and die... for the joy set before him.
"For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
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