[Vision2020] Interfaith Panel Thurs. May 15

[Kai Eiselein, Editor]

Fruit salad? Or to put it more simply, "Separate, but equal"?


Now, where have I heard that before?????

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From: "Chasuk" <chasuk at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 4:36 PM
To: "Mo Hendrickson" <hend5953 at vandals.uidaho.edu>
Cc: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>; 
<vision2020 at mail-gw.fsr.net>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Interfaith Panel Thurs. May 15

> 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
>
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Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle