Divided We Fall

Culturally and religiously isolated enclaves riot, burn, and pillage.

Conclusion, courtesy of Eugene Robinson:

The riots in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities ought to wipe the smirk from the lips of even multiculturalism's smuggest critics. Those who lobby against bilingual education or get upset when their children learn about Cinco de Mayo should look at France and realize that multiculturalism is a lot like democracy -- it's the worst system except for all the others.

The French example presents an ideal laboratory experiment. France, like the United States, bases its sense of nationhood on a set of Enlightenment ideas about the rights of individuals in a society. France, much more than this country, also draws identity from language and an ancient cultural heritage.

But then immigrants began to arrive -- mostly former colonials from North and West Africa, people with darker skin and a different cultural and religious heritage. France essentially said to the immigrants: "Look, these are our ideals -- liberty, equality, fraternity . We're not adding diversity to the list."

It was a deliberate decision, of the kind that opponents of multiculturalism in the United States would have our country make: As a matter of policy, the French refused to acknowledge that cultural and religious differences even existed....

Ah, but why was that a problem? This is why: French authorities didn't insist on integrating millions of immigrants who arrived with an alien culture. They assumed it would happen spontaneously, and when that failed, pushed the specifically anti-French enclaves out of their minds.

Robinson recommends more social divsion, though he wouldn't put it that way--we should make peace with Spanish as a second national language. Spend more time learning about Chinese history, our own population presumably renowned for its deep and unifying knowledge of America. Etc. There is one group he doesn't mind scoffing at, the "lily white" upper echelon of French society. But of course.

The opening line of his column:

Multiculturalism is such an easy target.

Yes.

Update: Cross-posted at Wizbang's generous Carnival of Trackbacks