In multicultural societies, people can be in various connections, interactions, and relationships with each other and with other cultural groups. They can coexist in peace or in tension, subordinate cultural groups or respect cultural equality.
Cultures and people in multicultural communities can either recognize the existence of cultural diversity or deny it. They can tolerate cultural differences or accept them as natural and welcoming. Cultural attitudes towards others’ cultural differences and expressions can be respectful or not. They can be appreciative of what different cultures contribute to a community or not.
Two forms of multiculturalism ideologies
Multiculturalism in societies and people can have different psychological attitudes and ideologies. One position admits multiculturalism as simply acknowledging the presence of different cultural groups living in a society. People may like others of a different culture or not, consider them equal to their own group or not. Thus, attitudes toward another cultural group can be positive or negative, benevolent or malevolent, and represent an attitude from a dominant position to a minority or an equality position.
An alternative position acknowledges multiculturalism as the positive and benevolent attitudes towards people of other cultures, which not only admit, but also respect and accept these cultural differences. Such a multicultural society and multicultural people accept the people of other cultures as they are, without the limitations that cultural stereotypes impose. In these multicultural attitudes, attribution to personality prevails over attribution to culture. For example, a person is loud and talkative not because he or she is American, but because he is extroverted and excited.
Such multicultural attitudes also tend to abandon the notions of a (dominant) majority culture and a (subordinate) minority culture. This progressive multiculturalism discards the notions of “majority” and “minority.” Every culture is equal, regardless of its prevalence in a society.
This approach minimizes hot public discussions and formal collections of diversity-specific personal information. Is it really important to ask what your race and ethnicity are, whether you are Hispanic or non-Hispanic? Is it really important to ask about sexual orientation? What if a person does not know who they are or does not want to reveal their identity? What if a person is not willing to come out? I don’t think that institutional and governmental agencies should care about all this.
Scientific committees on ethics often prohibit asking some sensitive questions, such as sexual orientation. Why do social institutions dare to do this? We should respect such personal and confidential information without bringing it into public view. It is not a matter of society to intrude into a personal life. It is not appropriate to sneak into men’s and women’s beds, asking what and with whom they have sex. We must distinguish between the freedom to be and the necessity to reveal.
Multiculturalism and polyculturalism
The liberal form of multiculturalism comes up with the idea of “polycultural multiculturalism,” which is different from “traditional multiculturalism.”
What is multicultural and what is polycultural? The concepts of multiculturalism and polyculturalism are frequently treated as synonymous. Both “multi” and “poly” literally mean many, and they seem similar in their meanings.
The lay theories of multiculturalism and polyculturalism have been associated with quite similar intergroup cultural attitudes and behaviors. Yet, some believe they are different (e.g., Bernardo et al., 2016; Haslam, 2016; Osborn et al., 2020).
The proponents of the polyculturalism ideology assert that multiculturalism considers cultures as static phenomena and practices, emphasizing their differences and coexistence. It is believed that multiculturalism still admits stereotypical cultural attitudes and prejudice. The ideology of multiculturalism can prompt people to perceive cultural diversity as a threat to their ingroup’s status and power. As a result, these attitudes can increase conservative social views (Osborn et al., 2020).
Different from this, these scholars claim that polyculturalism acknowledges cultures as dynamic, interactive, interconnected phenomena and practices that are always in flux. The cultural ideology of polyculturalism focuses on connections and interactions among different racial or ethnic groups. Polycultural attitudes are associated with personal appreciation for and comfort with diversity. People with such attitudes express their willingness to have intergroup contact. They have egalitarian beliefs and positive attitudes towards liberal immigration. They endorse affirmative action policies (Rosenthal & Levy, 2012).
Advocates of polyculturalism oppose this concept to the notion of multiculturalism. They argue that the latter emphasizes differences, divisions, and separations among various cultures.
General comment
This conceptual distinction between multiculturalism and polyculturalism is important in several respects. However, because both words mean “many cultures,” they are often used interchangeably in literature.
To me personally, “multiculturalism” sounds like a general term, while “polyculturalism” is rather a specific form of multiculturalism. This is why “multicultural” and “multiculturalism” are words widely used in literature. I think it would be better to oppose “polyculturalism” to some other specific form of multiculturalism.
Polyculturalism, as a general term, can also come in specific forms like biculturalism, triculturalism, and more.
Other articles of interest:
Cultures fuse and connect, so we should embrace polyculturalism (by Nick Haslam, 2017).