[Vision2020] Interfaith Panel Thurs. May 15

[Chasuk]

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 3:26 PM, Donovan Arnold
<donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> asked:

> Why are some people so obsessed with a person's gender, race, religion, and
> sexual orientation? Does it matter?

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Mo Hendrickson
<hend5953 at vandals.uidaho.edu> replied:

> It is important that we realize the inherent worth in all people
> for what they have to contribute to the betterment of our nation and world.

And:

> We all should be trying to make spaces for diversity to enter
> into the conversation so that one day we won't need to rely on those
> categories.

For Mo's first point, unconditional agreement.  For his latter point,
I provisionally agree, as long as we are not talking about
homogenizing those categories to the point that they are nonexistent.
I'm not a melting pot proponent (an assimilationist).  I'm a fruit
salad proponent (a multiculturalist).  The Mauritian Catholic priest
Henri Souchon spoke of fruit salad and fruit compote.  I wish I could
quote him directly, but I am depressingly monolingual.  But I can
quote from someone who explicates his point very well:

http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/Multiculturalism.html

"... Souchon sees two possible scenarios for Mauritius regarding the
relationship between ethnic boundaries and the formation of identity
categories oblivious to ethnicity. He calls them the fruit salad and
the fruit compote, respectively. In the fruit salad, the components
are clearly distinct; ethnic boundaries are intact, and reflexively
"rooted" identites are secure and stable. In the fruit compote, on the
other hand, the different fruits are squashed and mixed together with
substantial use of force. (This metaphor, it may be noted, is a
variant of the American melting pot metaphor.) The result of the
compote de fruit, in père Souchon's view, would be uprootedness,
nihilism and confusion. He himself therefore supports the fruit salad
variety..."

I was in a bookstore in Vancouver, B.C. a few years ago and read some
translated Souchon expressing these ideas, and they spoke to my
cosmopolitan soul.  I've thought of myself as a fruit salad guy ever
since.

Chas