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I've been striving for true multiculturalism for a long time
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Why? Is it profitable?
lol</p>
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Why would I be "fed up"? Maybe if I had a personality that felt like being a frog in the well.
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Will you be fed up with Japanese culture if you eat sushi everyday for several months?</p>
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What's wrong with that? I know many caucasian friends where I am their only asian friend, does that mean they self segregate?
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No. You're not taking into account the numbers. Most of the US and most colleges are predominantly white. Thus, it is only natural to have more white friends than non-white friends; statistically, that's how it works out.</p>
<p>But people who specifically seek out other like minorities (Asian, Indian, black, hispanic) self-segregate. And like many of the above posters, I hate it.</p>
<p>The white people you mentioned often don't specifically seek out other whites; it just sometimes works out that way because most people are in fact white. But when you see a large group of Indians or a large group of Chinese, you know they have specifically sought out those people and self-segregated.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think its just gathering a group of people who might have something in common. Is that so bad? They dont ban people who arent that race/culture. If some people find them helpful or fun, what is the BFD? As long as they arent rallying to be superior over other races/cultures, they dont do much harm. I mean, damn I would love to have a designated club for people like me or people interested in my culture, but it would be racist to have a Caucasian Culture club, now wouldn't it? So let them do what they want to do to get by because its just another support system in their lives.</p>
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Why? Is it profitable?
lol
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<p>Yes it has a high MB/MC for me. Maybe not for others. And to be honest, I often dislike the insularity of Chinese nationals (though I am ethnically Chinese) compared to say, Chinese Singaporeans. Purely out of social behaviour. </p>
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Will you be fed up with Japanese culture if you eat sushi everyday for several months?
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<p>Irrelevant (if not irreverent) analogy. (Not to mention Japanese culture is not about sushi, and I like how you've made such a gross oversimplification here.) </p>
<p>I may get tired of a certain element within a large culture, but that does not imply fatigue with that culture, and certainly nowhere near fatigue of what I am seeking: a desire to have multicultural (as opposed to say, just bicultural) diffusion. </p>
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But when you see a large group of Indians or a large group of Chinese, you know they have specifically sought out those people and self-segregated.
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<p>I am not against this per se. Rather, I am against such groups that seek to close their endeavours/ideals/culture/etc. to others, if they do not seek to actively promote it to others. It is true that people with Mexican ancestry might be more interested in a Mexican cross-cultural group from the average American (and the average American is a concoction, like the woman who has 2.4 babies), resulting in skewed distributions. </p>
<p>However, I hate groups that basically aim or plan to be closed.</p>
<p>bananaslug: The famous Nobel Prize economist Amartya Sen has written on the concept of "thick" versus "thin" culture. The majority culture doesn't have a specific group because well ... it's the mainstream and in the majority. </p>
<p>You should look at some of his writings. Economics does have a lot of intersection with cultural studies.</p>
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If some people find them helpful or fun, what is the BFD?
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<p>Because these people impose a negative externality on those of the same ethnic/cultural category who do not want to self-segregate, and furthermore promote self-segregation as the Nash equilibrium strategy.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe you see them that way, but I dont.
end of story.</p>
<p>Most white people are indifferent about other cultures,especially Asian culture. Asian culture for them only means Chinese cuisine, Japanese sushi and the likes.</p>
<p>What kinds of people you know mainly depends on who you are,not what you choose.This is not only about race and culture but also occupation,education and social&economic status.</p>
<p>人以类聚，物以群分</p>
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Okay, maybe you see them that way, but I dont.
end of story.
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<p>It's a negative spillover cost and thereby affecting my self-interest ... and the self-interest of others of the same culture or ethnicity as me (or hell, those within the same environment as me not necessarily of the same culture and ethnicity) who do not want to self-segregate along ethnic or cultural lines. </p>
<p>Maybe you don't see how these groups impose negative spillover costs ... but perhaps you've never identified with a minority culture either.</p>
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What kinds of people you know mainly depends on who you are,not what you choose.
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<p>That is pointless defeatism; the "strategy in force" does not necessarily always have to be at the current Nash equilibrium (indeed there may be another). I do not accept the idea that nationality transcends culture (culture in the broadest sense, just like CC itself forms a culture). Ideas and memes, freely transmitted, are potentially much more powerful than whatever funny traits being born within some invisible line gives you.</p>
<p>So,who do you want to meet? You must have certain purposes.</p>
<p>My girlfriend, who is Japanese, refused to even look at the Asian sorority for fear of having only Asian friends (plus the sorority was virtually 100% Chinese...). she put off joining the Japan Club (there aren't enough Japanese students at the school, unlike most other Asian ethnicities at my school, to have a true student union).</p>
<p>When she finally did, she was thrilled to finally have people who shared her cultural background/ first language.</p>
<p>I bring all this up for two reasons: </p>
<p>1) I ended up being involved in the club, and while I feel very weird being one of two white people (though I shouldn't, since there's more than a few Koreans and Chinese mixed in), I enjoy being mixed into another culture. (The weirdness also comes, I'll admit, from being "____'s boyrfriend" instead of just another member.)</p>
<p>2) Many of these clubs are very, very, very cliquey. Many others, however, really are genuinely just focused common interest clubs. I loathe self segregation, but there's a legitimate need for these clubs.</p>
<p>I think what galoisien is saying in non-Econ terms (forgive me if I misinterpret you b/c we're in total agreement here)</p>
<p>Someone who self-segregates assumes I won't get their culture or we won't get along b/c we're not the same race/ethnicity (this is false b/c as I said earlier, I had lots of diverse friends in high school and we weren't at each other's throats) => they self-segregate, and the cliquey-ness makes it harder for white ppl like myself to have diverse friends. They're kind of worsening the odds for those of us who actually want to have diverse friends.</p>
<p>Not only that, but white people who DON'T understand your culture or may have a superficial, sterotypical knowledge are not going to change their ways or learn anything if they don't have any opportunities to integrate or have diverse friends because said self-segregation just makes the atmosphere intimidating.</p>
<p>Whatever, I agree with the above poster that they CAN help people connect to their culture, so I'm all for that. Finding people who share your heritage = good. Not giving people who are from a different culture a chance = bad.</p>
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<p>I would particularly like to meet: Finns, Iraqis, Central Asianers, Turks, Uyghurs, Dungans and Hui. However, given the relative lack of them at my school, I will also satisfy myself with the abundance of Kuwaitis, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Indians and so forth.</p>
<p>I'm also very culturally curious about religion, admire any cultural practices that stimulate the intellect; I love the fact that a lot of the Middle East is rather fanatic about <em>real</em> football (aka soccer:p) compared to most Americans; I want to know how others deal with cultural diffusion and culture clash. I seek cultures whose values I admire, for I do not believe that the values of the current cultures I participate in are necessarily the best values out there (even if they suffice or are themselves good), or at least the best to be had. I love synthesis and I admire the truth.</p>
<p>And this is why I cannot tolerate plural monoculturalism.</p>
<p>My school's founder (a famous Founding Father) did declare, "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."</p>
<p>Cultural dialogue and multiculturalism carry much of the same idea. But since there is no dialogue in plural monoculturalism, how can reason be put into play to find the truth?</p>
<p>So,you are just interested in other cultures?</p>
<p>Mi Lie: yeah those are my thoughts exactly. :D (Well I'm not white, but I was trying to explain in theoretical terms how an intimidating atmosphere promoted by self-segregating groups infringes upon ME.) I had to put it in econ terms because I was asked, "how does it profit me?" If that person wants to think of culture along those lines, then that is fine -- we can discuss culture and cultural interactions along the lines of economics, if that person enjoys theory.</p>
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I am not "just" interested in other cultures. I am not interested in anti-intellectual cultures (a "street culture" can still be intellectual), or cultures whose value systems are irredeemable to me. I seek to integrate parts of other cultures I admire into my own, and to propagate cultural values I think virtuous into other cultures. The heart of my multicultural endeavours is the idea that I am not bound to the culture I was born into, and perhaps ultimately, the human condition can be changed for the better. (I am of course saying this in very sweeping broad terms. Yes, this includes interacting with cultures because I like their food. But this leads to how they make their food, what ideas or values are behind the food, etc.)</p>
<p>That's good. But you are probably the one.</p>
<p>Did you mean to say "only"? </p>
<p>Perhaps I'm just not as insular as everyone in your self-segregated groups.</p>
<p>I think people reserve the rights to self-segregation, only in self-segregation could a group, oppressed by the majority, rise its public voice against a solid, homogeneous WASP majority. When we think about the state of Asian people in U.S, we must also note the constant oppression those people are facing from a common enemy. Needless to say, this issue is political rather than cultural.
人与人斗，其乐无穷！
I think it is ridiculous to blame a Chinese or an Indian for the sake of their cultural affinity, while millions of Americans around the world indulge themselves with McDonalds and Starbucks. If I go to France or Canada, I would surely ally myself with a bunch of fellow Americans rather than xenophobia natives. </p>
<p>and by the way, culture is not McDonalds nor Starbucks, it is thousands of years of historical cumulation of cultural artifacts. Not some Hollywood cultural commodities that can be manufactured in China and sell to U.S in just one night. </p>
<p>I think people always have this bias against FOBs, and their ethnicity for the sake of integration, which, I think, is ridiculous.</p>
<p>No- People have a bias against FOBs who cop an attitude that "the white man is keeping me down!!!!11!1111", and flatly refuse to even dignify their new locality's culture as such, dismissing it as completely inferior to their own...</p>
<p>Sound familiar?</p>