Becoming world citizens in the 21st century (MultiKulti White Guilt BARF ALERT!)

Portland (ME) Press-Herald ^ | 1/16/03 | Robert Atkinson

[MikalM]

Racism is a disease that affects everyone. Diversity is a statement of fact; multiculturalism is a representation of the value of inclusiveness. The whole Earth is my home. I am part of, and have a loyalty to, all of humanity.

These are just a few of the realizations that have become most important to me. Personal experiences - childhood friends of many ethnicities, and young adult travels to Africa, the Azores and Norway, where I was welcomed by strangers and invited into their homes - have allowed me to know what it feels like to be a world citizen, and still serve as a firm foundation for a growing commitment to diversity and multicultural efforts.

Having just returned from a "Semester at Sea" voyage around the world, the statement made by Baha'u'llah 150 years ago, "The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens," means more to me now than ever.

From our tour guide in Hiroshima whose father was a survivor of the atom bomb dropped on the day I was born, to the Masaai warrior in Kenya who called me his "brother," to the students at the University of Havana, who spoke with me honestly about their country, I have seen up close how, in the words of Maya Angelou, "we are more alike than we are unalike."

We are one human family, with our differences and our similarities both contributing equally to our undeniable link with each other.

We, as Mainers, as Americans, owe our ultimate allegiance to humanity. The Passamaquoddy basketmaker in Princeton, the Honduran migrant worker in Bridgton, the Somali refugee in Lewiston, the Cambodian refugee in Biddeford and the Iranian student at Portland High are all my friends, even if I don't know them personally; their human rights are tied to mine.

Even though I was born with certain unearned "white privileges," anything I have access to that they don't, I feel uncomfortable with.

I value the completeness of multiculturalism. Diversity brings about beauty and enriches everything else around it, as in a multihued flower garden. Multiculturalism becomes a primary value when we recognize the oneness of humanity.

Becoming a world citizen means widening our allegiance, seeing the world as one. In many ways, Mainers have long been world-minded. We have been resettling refugees from five continents now for more than 22 years. The World Affairs Council of Maine has been promoting international programs for 25 years.

World-mindedness will continue to grow here. I do believe, even though we are a vastly white state, that most of us share this understanding. But there is still much hard work to do here.

We must educate ourselves to think globally, to see the entire planet as one, to see the interdependence of all peoples and then work locally for social and economic justice within our own means. We have already come very far in this process.

In our long collective history, we have developed a loyalty to family, to tribe, to city-state and to our nation. Now our final step is developing a loyalty to humanity. Each of these loyalties requires adopting a more inclusive worldview. The first lessons in world citizenship start in the home, and need to be taught in every school from kindergarten through college.

My role as a university diversity scholar is primarily to be an ally and advocate for people of all ethnicities and backgrounds. I want my work to be focused on helping to bring about unity in diversity.

Our challenge today is to make friends with humanity. Our newcomers have much to teach us about resilience, about aspirations, about home and the complexities of identity.

I want to call upon the elders and other members of our diverse communities to tell us what it is like to struggle to attain what most of us take for granted. Over the coming months, I will be planning activities that bring about collaborations, dialogues and discussions designed to create learning opportunities by building bridges between us.

With privilege comes responsibility. As Gerald Talbot, Maine's first African-American state legislator, has often pointed out, it is up to white people to help change things in Maine. As a white person, Maine's diversity issues are my issues, too. It is up to all of us in Maine to try to learn all we can from each other.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., is a professor and diversity scholar in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Southern Maine, and a member of the Maine Refugee Advisory Council of Maine.

[CFC__VRWC]

Even though I was born with certain unearned "white privileges," anything I have access to that they don't, I feel uncomfortable with.

Well, he could start feeling more comfortable by not offering this kind of delusional drivel for publication. As a rule, "they" don't have access to a forum to express their opinions, unless the opionion is sanctioned by their government.

[Travis McGee]

Flushing academia would be one of the best things we could do in this country.

[DoughtyOne]

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[junta]

The French masters on the Island of Haiti were saying the same crap just before they were all murdered and I suspect since human nature trumps namby pamby moralizing nearly 100% of the time this fool is cannibal bait. He is a parody straight out of the novel by Respail "Camp of Saints."

[G.Mason]

"Even though I was born with certain unearned "white privileges," anything I have access to that they don't, I feel uncomfortable with."

This guy is suicidal.

If he should stray too far fron his medicine cabinet, he's a dead man.

[DWSUWF]

Robert...

Speed Kills.

And I'm not talking about how you drive your car...

[G.Mason]

"We need a purge. I'm starting to understand why totalitarian power consolidators frequently like to clean out academia right out of the gate...usually after they've played the useful idiot role."

We need to "thin the herds".

If the weak of minds B/S prevails there most certainly will be a sudden and dramatic population shift. Downward!

Hell, most of these idiots would be dead in a week if the local power company shut down.

[Matthew James]

There's an organization that sells these ridiculous "Citizen of the World" passports. They're clearly not valid, but I know someone who somehow succeeded in getting out of Russia on one! He wasn't caught until he got to U.S. Immigration. [This was about five or six years ago.]

[driftless]

I don't believe he said that it's "for the children". However there are not many he missed. How would you like to have this sap for a teacher? If he really believes all the crap he said, then woebetide him and his students.

[denydenydeny]

THIS is a Ph.D? A Ph.D can write sentences like this?

Having just returned from a "Semester at Sea" voyage around the world, the statement made by Baha'u'llah 150 years ago, "The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens," means more to me now than ever. [The statement just returned from a voyage around the world?]

Even though I was born with certain unearned "white privileges," anything I have access to that they don't, I feel uncomfortable with. [This is about as incomprehensible a sentence as it's possible to write.]

As a white person, Maine's diversity issues are my issues, too. [Maine's diversity issues are a white person?]

Anyone who writes sentences like that should have his doctorate revoked immediately.

I also have a problem with people who demand that "America become more diverse." America is already the most diverse country on earth. If you want the world to be more diverse, go to China or Pakistan and demand that they become more diverse. Why is it only we who must be educated?

[wardaddy]

I never realized the steady allure that guilt serves for the liberal self flagellators until I was over 30. They of course have no conception of shame.

Guilt is an indulgence after a certain point.

[kulot]

Folks: Some of you have done a thorough job of picking apart the author of this article, whose basic point was that everyone in this world is a fellow human, regardless of which borders they live in. Today, on this website, you will find that spirit on this website with the other discussion threads covering topics, e.g.:

Torture of Iraqis by Saddam, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, etc.

but not on this thread.

He did not say that we should tolerate injustice or evil, whether it is in Iraq, 37th St Manhattan, or Zimbabwe, or even laziness.

The problem here is that he happens to be a Diversity Professor in Maine (a "liberal" state). Some people connect that with him being a Pacifist Socialist.

By the way, Baha'u'llah, whom he quotes, said a bit more than what is quoted here - try more than 160 books and tablets worth - much written while imprisoned.

Besides, is it really so bad "for the children" that they grow learning about life in Norway?

[kulot]

Ah, America the Beautiful!

A great example of the richness that comes from a mixture of cultures and ideas.

Not sure if he was thinking in terms of America. Perhaps he was thinking in terms of the diversity of the world and an appreciation of it.

[dennisw]

Problem is our universities are dominated by idiots like him. I wouldn't mind a few but they're all over and only hire their own.

We need some hard headed liberal arts professors who teach about what made America great. We have enough multi-culti clones like the author of the editorial.

[dennisw]

A great example of the richness that comes from a mixture of cultures and ideas.

Yep. Be sure to use that tired ol' buzzword "richness". What good is the word culture without the word "rich" preceding it? Repeat it every day like a mantra.

[denydenydeny]

I'm a former Baha'i myself, now a Christian again.

There is still a lot I love about the faith, but it's people like the author who soured me on it. At some point for many people in the Baha'i community, the goal became diversity rather than unity, and it began to feel like I was part of a leftist political movement rather than a religion.

[martian_22]

You know this guy better than he knows himself!

[driftless]

You missed the whole point of this guy's exceptionally sappy article. Do you think statements like "unearned privileges" are logical? If I say that in the course of something I write that I love everybody and everything, does that make it some kind of deep statement?

This professor has his cranium jammed deeply up his anal orifice. He's swallowed the book "The Extreme Liberal Guide To Happiness" whole. By regurgitating all the current leftist drivel and cant, he sounds like he doesn't have an original thought in his head. It's like he's some sort of leftist automaton.

[Fraulein]

I value the completeness of multiculturalism. Diversity brings about beauty and enriches everything else around it, as in a multihued flower garden. Multiculturalism becomes a primary value when we recognize the oneness of humanity...

MAJOR BARF!

Once again, I have to ask: Why do leftists all sound like 8 years olds?

Throw this idiot some crayons!