The False Equivalence of Multicultural Day

Now for something a little more personal. My latest column for Civitas speaks to something every parent has experienced: multicultural day.

Here is the introduction of “The False Equivalence of Multicultural Day.”

On paper, the program seems unobjectionable. Students are asked to wear clothes from their ancestral homeland. Students can also prepare posters with pictures and other symbols from that nation. And parents can bring in food from their local cuisines. Students then group together by region: Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. They parade down the hallway, which was festooned with flags from around the globe. At some level, the day was enjoyable. I saw kids smiling as they celebrated the culture that mattered most to them. Parents also cheered when their home country was represented. What could be wrong?

Lots can be wrong.

From the conclusion:

Multicultural Day is a gateway drug to DEI. It acculturates students at the earliest age to focus on differences between races and nationalities rather than on what unites us. Efforts to allow students to represent their own cultures necessarily separate them on that very basis. Shortly after Multicultural Day ended, African American History Month began. Unsurprisingly, there was no representation of Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most influential black people in American history.