Perhaps the greatest summary of the multiculturalist's mantra came on the hit show Seinfeld. "I love Asian women," Jerry says.
"Isn't that a little... racist?" Elaine asks.
He responds, "If I like their race, how can that be racist?
At the University, administrators and faculty have a similar philosophy about racism. To prove their lack of racism, they go out of their way to tell students of various ethnic origins how much they love and appreciate all cultures. Most students play along, accepting the premise that if one is not a racist, he will view all cultures as equally worthy of praise.
Last year's Hindi controversy demonstrated this flawed view conclusively. Then-Trinity freshmen Jay Strader and Berin Szoka wrote letters to The Chronicle challenging this newspaper's proposal to create a Hindi major. Two arguments were raised against the proposal. The first was the lack of demand for such a major, as evidenced by low enrollment in Hindi classes. The second was that Hindi is a language spoken in a poor, Third World country that has a culture not as worthy of study as certain segments of Western culture.
Because so many students, faculty and administrators accepted the premise that it is racist to judge cultures, Strader and Szoka were labeled as racist and criticized in The Chronicle by other letter writers for days on end. Threats of violence were made by students who were insulted by Szoka's and Strader's letters. Although the controversy eventually died, the core issues were never really debated.
The fundamental issue of the Hindi controversy-and any other debate regarding multiculturalism-is whether some cultures are objectively better than others. And, if this is the case, does this mean that some races are better than others?
A culture is simply the dominant ideas and customs of a particular group of people at a given time. Just as one can judge an individual on his behavior and the ideas he holds-for instance, judging him as immoral if he commits murder-one can judge a culture by the same standard; for example, judging America today as superior to Nazi Germany. Of course, judging the merit of either a person or a culture requires a proper standard of moral judgment.
Morality is not a subjective field, it is an objective requirement of human life. Because humans are mortal and survival is not automatic, we need a chosen, rational code of ethics to direct our actions toward the goal of living. Any code of ethics not conducive to human life is immoral. The self-sacrificial morality of altruism falls into this category.
Just as man's life is the proper standard for judging morality on an individual level, it is the proper standard for judging a culture. Does the culture have a great deal of respect for science and reason, or is it dominated by mysticism? Does it respect the rights of the individual, or does it treat him as an expendable part of a collective? Just as rationality and individualism are conducive to life, wealth and happiness on an individual level, they promote it on a cultural scale as well.
Only in Western culture has there been a nation established on the principles that an individual's life is his own and that he has a right to his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Western culture has produced great thinkers like Aristotle and John Locke-the former the father of logic, the latter the defender of individual rights instrumental in the founding of the United States. Western culture has also produced great thinkers such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and many others.
In order to live as rational and productive individuals in pursuit of their own happiness, students must learn from the cultural heritage that made the advanced world we live in possible, not cultures based on ideas that would have made our world unthinkable. No benefit can be derived from extensive study of one of the hundreds of cultures dominated by mysticism, collectivism, self-sacrifice and self-mutilation.
It is not racist to judge cultures because ideas are chosen, not genetically determined by race. Cultures that are inferior are the result of irrational human choices, and, to some extent, geographical factors. Being of a particular skin color does not make one naturally inclined to any belief system. An individual's free will allows him to judge the religion, traditions and beliefs accepted by those around him and make his own decisions. Those who assume the beliefs of individuals based on race are themselves committing an act of racism.
Instead of reacting angrily when they have their cultural beliefs attacked, students who have accepted the beliefs handed down to them should rationally evaluate the ideas they have come to accept. The truth is not relative, and neither are cultures.
Alex Epstein is a Trinity sophomore and publisher of The Duke Review.
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