Multiculturalism is attacked from every direction on the political spectrum.

Evidence

Far from being a settled doctrine, “multiculturalism” is a deeply contested idea (May 1999). It is contested by the conservative Right, in defense of the purity and cultural integrity of the nation. It is contested by liberals, who claim that the “cult of ethnicity” and the pursuit of difference threaten the universalism and neutrality of the liberal state, undermining personal autonomy, individual liberty, and formal equality. Multiculturalism, some liberals also say, legitimates the idea of “group rights,” which threatens individualism. But this subverts the dream that one nation and one citizenship can be constructed out of the diverse cultures of different peoples—e pluribus unum. Multiculturalism is also contested by modernizers of different political persuasions. For them, the triumph of the universalism of Western civilization over the particularism of ethnic and racial belonging established in the Enlightenment marked a fateful and irreversible transition from Traditionalism to Modernity. This shift must never be reversed. Some postmodern versions of “cosmopolitanism,” which treat “the subject” as wholly contingent and unencumbered, are sharply opposed to multiculturalism, where subjects are more located. It is also challenged from several positions on the Left. Antiracists argue that it—wrongly—privileges culture and identity over economic and material questions. Radicals believe it divides the united front of race and class against injustice and exploitation along ethnically and racially particularistic lines. Others point to various versions of commercialized, consumerist, or “boutique” multiculturalism (Fish 1998), which celebrate difference without making a difference. There is also what Sarat Maharaj (in an unpublished paper) felicitously calls “multi-cultural managerialism,” which is often indistinguishable from “a spook-lookalike of Apartheid logic.” — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 309

Categorization

• DEFINE: Maps the contested ideological landscape around ‘multiculturalism’ — who attacks it and from what position — establishing it as a floating signifier rather than a settled doctrine.
• XREF: Connects to Hall’s own notion of contested, floating signifiers (Volosinov/Bakhtin) and anticipates how ‘Islamophobia’ likewise functions as an essentially contested concept in the downstream readings.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is the ‘multi-cultural managerialism’ phrase from Sarat Maharaj published anywhere, and how does it prefigure today’s corporate DEI critiques?