Multiculturalism

The interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., by Fredric Smoler (February/March) on what America’s children should be taught about American history was very interesting.

I was particularly struck by Mr. Schlesinger’s statement that the Afrocentric curriculum proposed by the multiculturalists “withdraws blacks from America in favor of a fictitious connection with Africa.”

When I was a Peace Corps volunteer living in Burundi, Africa, I had an opportunity to witness the interaction between black Americans and black Africans. Except for the color of their skin, the two groups did not have any more in common than white Americans had with the Burundians. All the volunteers were united in their being Americans, as the Burundians were in being part of their group.

If a connection between black Americans and a supposedly united African culture is a fundamental tenet of multiculturalism, then this is one ism that is bound to fail.