Having by and large turned my back on the trappings and strictures of the hollow shadow play of middle class America, I find myself a man without a culture. Granted I slot easily into that angst-riddled twenty-something hipster crowd, but that’s really a movement founded on negation and put down rather than a culture.
I pondered this today as I was walking across campus and was assaulted by no less than three distinct cultural groups offering tickets to something like a cultural parade. There is nothing new in the idea of putting on a show about one’s culture—China has a great minority culture “Disneyland” about all its otherwise ignored or oppressed non-Han peoples. Yet, I can’t help but feel that these aren’t just a touch crass. I’ve been to several such event’s and they are always enjoyable and often educational. I think my dissatisfaction stems from the idea that a group ran its culture through a filter and put all the showy things on display, without too much attention to the humdrum everyday details that are the actual substance of a “culture.”
These events seem like great opportunities to highlight those parts of culture which can draw us together: family life, work, social norms and etiquette, etc. The subtle differences should only serve to highlight the underlying common thread of humanity. Holiday’s and feasts are wonderful things and they should be used as hooks to draw people in and teach them about other people and how similar they actually are.
The sort of normative American idea of multi-culturalism is an odd one in my opinion. Should we celebrate other’s culture? The answer to that question is self-evident when we realize that it’s merely another group’s expression of their humanity.
