Incorporation into the civil sphere through multicultural nights

By Anonymous

By Caleb Newman

 

In The Civil Sphere, Alexander says that a civil sphere is separate from the state, the economy, and the family sphere (2006:53). Furthermore, Alexander says there are three ways to be incorporated into the civil sphere: assimilation, hyphenation, multiculturalism. The picture above shows how people of different identities are being incorporated into the American civil sphere. 


The multiculturalism mode of incorporation is not about limiting the characteristics, but rather to purify them and expand the experiences for the members of the base group.  (Alexander 2006:52). In other words, it is about learning and celebrating the characteristics of other groups.


In the picture, a local elementary school in Bettendorf, Iowa is having a multicultural night. While they were having a meal together, the purpose of the night was “to learn about and celebrate the diversity in their school” (Anil 2018). If they wanted to have a meal, they could have had burgers and fries or another food that is a primordial characteristic of the American civil sphere. Rather, Riverside Heights chose to celebrate the characteristics of other civil spheres by eating food of different cultures. In addition, they had events to learn more about the cultures of others. It was not “eat burgers and fries or else” like the assimilative method of incorporation where one culture is the right one. It was also not a Mexican night, where people only ate Mexican food and then next week they would do Indian Night, like the hyphenation method of incorporation where different cultures are ranked. Rather it was a multicultural night where people embraced diversity, not necessarily the inclusion of people into culture. 


To Alexander, this is what the multicultural method of incorporation looks like because as he said “incorporation is not celebrated as inclusion but as the achievement of diversity” (2006:452).



Sources

Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2006. The Civil Sphere. New York: Oxford Press.

Anil, Susan. 2018. “We are Riverdale Heights Night.” The Spartan Shield, November 5, 2022. 

Retrieved March 31, 2022
(https://spartanshield.org/14642/feature/we-are-riverdale-heights-night/).

Susan, Anil. November 5, 2018. “Riverdale-Multicultural-Night-900x900-1541431057” From
The Spartan Shield. Retrieved March 31, 2022
(https://spartanshield.org/14642/feature/we-are-riverdale-heights-night/).

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