America’s Two Multiculturalisms: One Lived, One Imagined
America has always been a pluralistic society. From its earliest beginnings as a distinct nation, the country has been shaped by waves of migration, religious dissent, linguistic variety and an uneasy, albeit fruitful, coexistence. And yet, one could be forgiven for thinking that multiculturalism is a recent ideological invention. This is no accident. The word and the concept have become subject to the distortions of America’s political polarization. It’s time to liberate the word from the culture war. Our subject today is America’s two multiculturalisms.