The True Multinational Society

In Ishmael Reed’s “America: The Multinational Society”, Reed argues about that American society fails to embrace its multinational cultures, despite the fact that America and its “system of government” was founded on the propositions and regulations adopted by other countries. Although Reed had set his argument well and provided a good examples or evidences to support his argument, Reed’s argument which is based on the failure of American society does not still hold up as true to the present, since Reed had wrought this piece of writing approximately 30 years ago.

          Reed begins his argument with a quote from the “New York Times”, which was: “At the annual Lower East Side Jewish Festival yesterday, a Chinese woman ate a pizza slice in front of Ty Thuan Duc’s Vietnamese grocery store. Beside her a Spanish-speaking family patronized a cart with two signs: “Italian Ices” and “Kosher by Rabbi Alper”. And after the pastrami ran out, everybody ate knishes.” To the American with a single cultural perspective would describe this quote as completely ironic illustrations of scenes; however, realizing that America is a melting pot composed of people, foods, cultures, and lifestyles from multiple nations. Then Reed writes few experiences that were deeply related to the monocultural Americans’ mistreatment of people that were from multiple backgrounds and cultures. The first mistreatment that Reed wrote was the Yale professor’s experience of being ostracized from some monocultural intellectual circles in the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for working on the influence of African cultures upon those of the Americas. Another critical mistreatment that Reed had written was his personal encounter with an Afro-American artist whose paintings included African and Afro-American mythological symbols and imagery. The painting of the Afro-American artist, which Reed has described as so majestic and beautiful to ”grace the walls of any of the country’s leading museums”, was instead hanging in the wall of local McDonald’s restaurant. This encounter illustrates the major flaw of the American society to fully embrace the diverse, multiple people and cultures from different countries. The Afro-American artist and his painting were much underestimated and belittled only because the artist has come from different countries and has different values and does not fit into the ideal image of artist that the American society wants, which makes him not to have the same opportunities that “white” American artists are granted.

           However, as time passes, the Reed’s argument has lost its power. In today’s world, American society is now very widely open and acknowledge and accept the difference that comes from the various, diverse people, countries, and their unique cultures and lifestyles through making protectable laws for the multinational people and giving them more than the same opportunities compared to the original “white” Americans, making America a true multinational society.