Lecture : Race equality directive Lecturer: Antonin Mikes
AQCI: John Rex (2001): “The concept of a multicultural society”
Student: ANCEAU Benoit Date: 19/10/2015
Central Quotation: “One might envisage a society which is unitary in the public domain but which encourages diversity in what are thought of as private or communl matters.” (p. 208)
Argument: Rex discusses the process of the British society to embrace the way of a multicultural society as a public policy goal. He develops his own model of multicultural society and warns of risks of a plural society, that is the real contemporary challenge. For him it’s a fuzzy ideal which is a risk for society. The separation and the structuration between the private and the public domain is essential in his argument, where public domain is defined by the law, the state, and the economy with some individual equal opportunity. And the private domain is defining by moral values and the family. For him you have to make a distinction and the state has to only take care of the public domain and let the minority work about the private domain with their network of associations and their religious organisation and belief.
It’s the key of a multicultural society where there is no domination from one majority against the different minority. The education and thus the school is the most important agent of the ideal because it’s like a bridge between the private and the public domain. institutions should promote diversity in the private domain unity and equality in public matters. Nevertheless, for him the conflict is one of the solutions in fact and not a treat, like Machiavelli can say, to the best evolution of common value for a national unity.
Question: He talks about the best way for him to establish a multicultural society and clearly defines what is of public and what of private order. For him the majority should learn about the minority and vice versa, but he forgets to take part in the debate on the division on real parallel society and the risk of the emergence of a massive communitarianism. He convinces me about the good issue of some conflict but how to be sure to leave the education of moral values such minorities are not risk the withdrawal of these same minorities?
Maybe reformulate this sentence, I am not sure what you mean. I want to know more about his suggestions for education, because I thinks it’s the keys of all the ethnic and minorities problems. But today we are more interested in unity on a “New
Majority Culture
” than to establish some different between the majority and the minority. Like a “civic culture” but which is not the heritage of the majority culture.
Experiential connection: Once again my personal testimony is about the French society. France has a multicultural population but a universal society on the paper. Today the withdrawal is a reality and lot of my friends are children of immigrant parents , they do not identify with the current values and history that were taught to us. Through, I do think that school and education are the answer to unite and gather, thus education is definitely the key. But that does not mean we should ask minorities to erase their culture of the public sphere because as Rex says public sphere remains impregnated by the majority culture. Today in
France, behind the equal and assimilationist system we can see a lot of inequality and a domination of the majority culture where we don’t want to see a kind of loss of values. But it’s a conservative way of thinking and the society has changed. But the theory of the conflict of rex is the best way I think to solve any problem but I thinks the conflict have to take place on the public domain to change the mentality and not to let, again, some parallel society grow with the birth of a mass marginalization. I like your resume.
Textual connection: « It is a common prospect on the respect for public freedoms, the democracy, equity, environmental protection, and more specifically a help with the poorest countries to accelerate their development, and thus to reduce to the source the migratory pressure, which can define a European political identity. The recognition of non-territorial rights of the minorities, provided it does not limit the human rights, could appear in it. To affirm that the cultural differences are a wealth and that their promotion passes by a fight against discriminations of any nature, nun, ethnic, sexed, is a sufficiently ambitious program. It does not imply either to engage in policies of quotas whose assessment, in India and the United States, appeared bad. ( « C'est une perspective commune sur le respect des libertés publiques, la démocratie, l'équité, la protection de l'environnement, et plus spécifiquement une aide aux pays les plus pauvres pour accélérer leur développement, et ainsi réduire
à la source la pression migratoire, qui peuvent définir une identité politique européenne. La reconnaissance de droits non territoriaux des minorités, sous réserve qu'elle ne limite pas les droits de l'homme, pourrait y figurer. Affirmer que les différences culturelles sont une richesse et que leur promotion passe par une lutte contre les discriminations de toute nature, religieuse, ethnique, sexuée, est un programme suffisamment ambitieux. Il n'implique pas non plus de s'engager dans des politiques de quotas dont le bilan, en Inde et les Etats-Un is, s'est révélé mauvais ») » 1
In the article Hugues Lagrange speaks of Europe today and it
’s multicultural character when some people want to talk about the Christian héritage of Europe. To him the heritage of Europe is more humanistic and universalist in values that must also make place for the culture of the minorities. But in universalism there is no more minorities than majorities, and this is for me the links but also the contribution of this text. Even if he’ not talking about a multicultural society in the national term, the difference between the public and the private sector is important but do not allow minorities to exist only in the private but given them a public place so that it is no longer of minorities as such but it is only a matter of cultural specificity. Leave out the original French quote. It takes a lot of space and I think the
English translation is enough for the reader and for those who do not speak French the quote doesn´t say anything anyways.
Just add an in-text reference to the text you quoted from.
Implication: This text has a lot of great implications for me. Today we live in a multicultural world, with the war and the different immigration, therefore multiculturalism is a reality in a lot of countries today. The distinction between the private and the public domain and the definition of the goal played by education is central. We have to take care of the future and the future only pass by school and education, the lace let for the minorities is essential for the well understanding of the society, and the thesis of the author about the majority who have to learn about the minority too. But today national identity does not mean much, so society has changed and we must learn to live in a new era, that of humanism and acceptance of cultural differences, namely respect. Economic inequality, political inequality, and injustices faced a law which, in my opinion, creates minorities
1 Le multiculturalisme est incontournable, Le Monde. 13/05/2014 Hugues Lagrange p. 1

exclusion. Today multiculturalism, through the blur of his definition, does recall the more ideal but it is the division of society This is actually a utopia, because nationalism remains strong but still left room for other identities in the debate as prone Rex signals not to leave its own identity behind and to me Rex is right.
Student’s name:
Essay title:
Sample Self assessment form
, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
AQCI ASSESSMENT FORM
ANCEAU Name of assessor:
Myself
Helene Fritzsche
Date: 19/10/15
5a) Is the textual connection relevant/interesting?
Excel lent
Go od
Aver age
Po or
Not accept able
Comments
1) Is the chosen quotation central to the author’s argument?
2) Has the main argument been fully understood (including its ‘for’ and
‘against’ sides, if applicable)?
3a) Is the question raised important/relevant/interesting?
X
X
3b) Has this question not been fully answered in the text?
4) Is the experiential connection relevant/interesting?
X
X
X
X
I Think my question is not clear enough
I think I understand what you want to imply but maybe it would be easier to formulate your thoughts in a direct question.
I think the author anwer at my question on the text but not enough
I think France is a good example to show how the state tries to create on French society including migrants from former colonies who may speak French but come to the country having another culture and religion.
Although officially the government claims that everybody who speaks French is French and that there are no minorities there are can be great inequalities between immigrants ant the majority society
Maybe it’s not enough closed with the principal subject of a multicultural society in British society.
I think it does not have to be directly related to British multiculturalism. It is interesting to see a presentation of the issue from a French point of view
1 Le multiculturalisme est incontournable, Le Monde. 13/05/2014 Hugues Lagrange p. 2

5b) Has it been cited properly? X
5c) Has it been adequately explained how the present text's argument contrasts with, contradicts, confirms, clarifies, or elaborates the other text's argument or point ?
6) Have the implications been well understood, can they have a practical impact for policy making?
7) Expression/Presentation a) Are the style, grammar and general use of English adequate? b) Is the AQCI professionally presented?
X
X
X
Sorry for the English translation
You listed the bibliography below but in-text references would be nice
I think you have understood Rex´ implications quite well.
Sorry for my English too
That is just a matter of time and practice 
You kept to the paragraph structure but please don´t use size 8, I had a really hard time reading this. Maybe try to cut down you word count a bit or make the spaces more narrow
Essay grade:
Further comments:
1 Le multiculturalisme est incontournable, Le Monde. 13/05/2014 Hugues Lagrange p. 3