WSCA 2005 Presidential Address: Toward a Well‐Functioning Intercultural Nation

Abstract

I would like to speak today to our students--the up-and-coming generation--and to those among us who can help to prepare them to live in an intercultural twenty-first-century USA. The current generation has a relational and a national task, an obligation, a requirement that, whether it prefers it or not, it must undertake. The task of the current generation can be summarized very succinctly: to create a well-functioning intercultural nation. We have no choice about whether the USA will become an intercultural nation. It already is one. Our only choice is whether we take actions that will help us to become a well-functioning intercultural nation. Because if it is left to chance or to happenstance, such a desirable outcome is not very likely. There are just too many examples of intercultural nations that function poorly, that discriminate based on a person's culture, that sustain deep-seated hatreds and prejudices, that in its milder forms perpetuate an underclass based on cultural membership, and in the extreme lead to ethnic cleansing, genocide, or apartheid. Indeed--and here is the tough nut to confront without flinching or turning away in despair--to the best of my knowledge such a nation does not now exist; nor, perhaps, has it ever existed. But this does not mean that the task is an impossible one, and therefore unachievable; there must always be a first time for everything. Indeed, the idea and the reality of a nation built upon the concepts of freedom, equality, individual rights, and shared responsibilities did not exist until those who preceded us founded the USA. So it is the task of the current generation to invent, and then to build, something that perhaps has heretofore never existed--a well-functioning intercultural nation--and in so doing to reinterpret what it means to be a US American, what it takes to sustain the vibrancy of various US cultures, and what it means to be patriotic. In my remarks today I want to explore, in just a brief and general way, the nature of this obligation, and I want to provide some hints about how it might be conceptualized. A well-functioning intercultural nation: what does that mean? Let's focus for a few moments on this phrase, beginning with the easiest term to define: nation. Nation obviously refers to the USA. A well-functioning nation is one in which there is vibrancy and vitality within various US cultures, and competence and cordiality in the relationships that occur among them. To me, the term well-functioning also includes both the reality and the perception of equality among the various US cultural groups, as well as a sense of fairness in their treatments and experiences. A well-functioning intercultural nation must be culture-appreciative rather than culture-blind, must recognize what differences matter and when they need to be considered, and must know when differences ought not to make a difference in how we respond both legally and interpersonally. Now for the term intercultural nation: what is that? The obvious answer is: one nation, the USA, which contains many different cultural groups residing within its national borders. One nation, many cultures. One nation, many cultures. The not-so-obvious corollary is this: there is no such thing as US culture. One nation, many cultures. There are many cultures in the USA--African American, European American, various Asian American cultures, Latino culture, many Native American cultures, and literally dozens of other cultures in this intercultural mix that is one nation containing many cultures. In a well-functioning intercultural nation, none of these cultures ought to have the primacy or supremacy of being elevated above all others and called American culture. Currently, however, what should probably be referenced as European American culture is often called American culture, in a continuation of the hegemonic dominance accorded one of the cultures within the USA, such that its cultural patterns are typically unmarked; assumed to characterize the whole of the pattern of US beliefs, values, norms, and cultural practices; and thereby conflated with the term nation. …