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mask for, and perhaps an unconscious mode for achieving, a unity which
would be broader-based and to that extent stronger. For listening to
some of those Americans who lay most stress on multiculturalism, I have
been struck by the fact that their culture is in fact American, based on
generations of American experience and on the primacy of American
values and professions.
The relation of racial minorities to their own original homelands
and to America is not so different, as is often suggested, from the equiva–
lent relations of minorities of European origin. Few of those engaged
with the multicultural agenda know much about any culture outside the
United States, and most would be extremely unhappy if they found
themselves constrained
to
live in any of the cultures for which they have
a vague, theoretical enthusiasm.
What is really going on, under the multicultural agenda and related
enterprises stressing distinct identities, is something more practical and
more American than appears on the surface. The real agenda is the en–
largement of the American national elite to include groups of persons
who have traditionally been excluded from the same, mainly for reasons
associated with race and gender. What is in view is the enlargement and
diversification of the composition of the future governing class of the
United States of America. I hope the expression "governing class," which
is certainly not politically correct but which docs refer to a reality, will
be forgiven .
That enlargement is a legitimate objective, and it is in the interest of
Americans generally that it shall be attained, as I believe it will. But
those who are in fact doing most to bring about this change do not de–
fine their objective in these terms, even
to
themselves, I think. What I am
talking about here is the circulation of clites. As a concept, this is not
merely politically incorrect but even perhaps superficially un-American ,
and it is particularly offensive to the multicultural elite , which is op–
posed, in theory,
to
all elitism. Yet the circulation of clites, however un–
American it may be as a concept, is part of American society and
American history, and what the multiculturalists and their allies arc actu–
ally trying
to
do is to remove a block in the way of that circulation:
specifically a block to upward mobility by members of their own
groupings, including themselves, into the national elite.
At a discussion I attended recently on "cultures," the thought was
offered that the distinctive characteristic of American society is
"equality." No one challenged this, yet there is some rather weighty evi–
dence against the proposition. America's is an intensely competitive soci–
ety, in business, in technology, in politics, in sport, and in all forms of
