Not understanding cultural differences and similarities causes bias
Ignorance about other individual’s differences causes bias. With multiculturalism, this happens often. People often form stereotypes because they only see a small picture of a culture’s true self. These assumptions can be detrimental to the health of society.
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Context
Countries with many cultures in them have experienced issues with bias. America has struggled and continues to struggle with racism because of so many cultural differences. The idea behind biases is that some cultures have more competency than others. Unfortunately, this belief has been around since the dawn of time. It’s why kingdoms have conquered each other.
The Argument
Countries with multiculturalism have more problems than countries who have a homogeneous population. A homogeneous population is a civilization with a shared culture, language, and race.[1] Homogeneous societies include Japan, Korea, and Iceland. One thing homogeneous societies have that most multicultural societies lack is national collectivism. Instead of taking care of an individual’s needs, collectivism focuses on benefiting the group.
With a multicultural society, there is collectivism only within the individual cultures. Within these collectives are traditions and beliefs with special meaning to that culture. For example, the United States is a multicultural society. There are some states that have made marijuana legal, while others refuse to do so. This has caused conflict between cultures and biases about marijuana users vs non-users.[2] Because of the differences in cultures, biases are inevitably created.
Bias is the belief of something without proof or evidence. In a society with many different cultures, people will cling to their own culture. Because of their own cultural collectivism, these individuals don’t know how the other cultures around them work. If people stopped focusing on their culture and started learning about others, they would gain more knowledge and respect the differences of the other cultures. But, because people in a multicultural society don't do this, it creates biases which cause problems.
Counter arguments
Having multiculturalism in a society would help different cultures respect each other and deter bias. Being in one country together would cause people to mingle and intersect with other cultures. Bias doesn’t form from ignorance of another culture’s differences. Bias forms from one willfully disrespecting a culture’s norms. This disrespect comes from the idea that one culture is better than another.
Ethnocentrism is the belief that one culture is superior to others.[3] Examples of ethnocentrism exists in all cultures of the globe. Americans credit themselves as living in the freest country in the world while Japanese people consider themselves to be the best when it comes to hospitality. Bragging about one’s own culture will make them despise other cultures.
Respect disperses bias. Being around different cultures long enough will dispel any ignorance. This means that people choose to be biased. Therefore, people need to get over each other’s differences and live peacefully together. Without bias, cultures would be able to live together peacefully.
Proponents
Premises
[P1] Multiculturalism creates problems in societies.
[P2] Biases are created because of ignorance about different cultures.
[P3] Cultures disrespect each other because they don’t understand each other’s differences.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Multiculturalism creates diversity in societies.
[Rejecting P2] Biases are created from truths about different cultures.
[Rejecting P3] Cultures disrespect each other because they choose not to get along.