A Comparison of Three Essays on Multiculturalism

In “White Terror and Oppositional Agency: Towards A Critical Multiculturalism”, Peter McLaren opens his essay furiously depicting his beliefs that Americans are being brainwashed into critical multiculturalism. He believes that Americans are submissive to whatever they are told is diversity, just as they are convinced that the newest electronic item is the next big thing. On page 47, he states that “Conservative multiculturalism can be traced to colonial views of African-Americans as slaves, servants, and entertainers…” He goes on to bring up mind-blowing examples of racism, such as 10-year-old Josef Moller exhibited in the Antwerp Zoo. Another example he gives is about Ota Benga, a man in his early 20s who came home from hunting to find his family murdered. His home was destroyed so badly that he questioned whether he was in the right place. Benga was later exhibited in the Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo, given the title as a “pygmy”, and given two animals as “friends.” People would enjoy Benga’s antics of charging the cage bars with his teeth bared and mouth open.

McLaren’s third example of racism in America includes the “studies” of Frederick A. Goodwin, a member of the Bush Administration. Goodwin believed that black men in impoverished towns acted as if they were in a jungle. African-American males were supposedly so fond of reproduction because they knew they were going to die. He stated that “maybe it isn’t just the careless use of the word when people call certain areas of certain cities ‘jungles’.”