I work in a team consisting of eleven different nationalities – we are a team of twelve. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we are a quintessentially international team, possibly even the most diverse one of its size in the whole company. We work in Switzerland and yet not one member of the team is Swiss, which means that in order to join the team most people have relocated from either their home country or from their previous stop in their nomadic life journey. We’re a good mix consisting of people for whom this is the first experience living abroad and those for whom moving around the globe is the norm. What I love about this set up is that no matter how we got here or where we are from originally, we all interact with one another as if it makes absolutely no difference at all because we are all effectively in the same boat. In fact, we only draw attention to our cultural differences when we want to know more about someone’s background; often these moments of curiosity are elicited by the exotic and tasty looking contents of one’s lunch box.

Having spent all of my adolescent years at an international school, I feel like I am re-entering a familiar environment by working with people from all around the world. It feels like I am back in my rightful place, surrounded not by people just like me in a racial sense, but just like me in an outlook on life sense. Nobody here questions your background they merely show curiosity, intrigue and most importantly understanding. It’s a very refreshing situation in which to find yourself, but it also saddens me that it can’t be like this everywhere I go. Then, on the other hand, being the over thinker that I am, it gets me pondering what kind of a world we’ll end up in if this attitude went off on a tangent and was taken to an extreme in which cultural differences became a non-entity. It’s a bit of a Brave New World-esque concept, but given the increased intensity of the spotlight on political correctness we’ve seen take over some countries, particularly Western countries, it’s not as extreme as it may initially seem.

It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the idea that people of all ethnic backgrounds should be viewed without bias or judgment and that multiracial citizens ought to be regarded as the “same” as a full-blooded native of the country they choose to call home, but would this really improve people’s sense of belonging and cultural identity or would it in fact cause people to disregard how special their unique cultural mix makes them? I’m not talking about rights, of course, people should have equal rights no matter what; I’m talking about recognition of cultural heritage from a social point of view.  If Indian people in Britain or people of African origin in the U.S., for example,  really do end up being treated exactly like “regular” white British or white American people, would they really find this a preferable situation or would they feel that ultimately they’re conforming to a culture that’s not their own to be part of the majority? I realize this is a bit of an extreme way to see things, but it’s something that’s been playing on my mind lately, though more on a vague philosophical level than as a real concern about perceived existing problems.

One thing that triggered this thought was the number of articles I’ve read in which people of Indian heritage living in the UK talk about how as children or adolescents they would will themselves to turn white overnight because they didn’t feel Indian, they felt British and wanted to be accepted as such; they felt that if only they looked the same as “regular British people” they would be seen as being one themselves. Then as soon as they reach adulthood they claim to “learn to accept” the differences between white British people and themselves; they don’t often say they end up taking full blown pride in their multifaceted heritage, it is often mere acceptance they describe experiencing. One often cited reason they felt this way is that they were singled out as “foreign” because of their features but would it really be ideal to try to encourage the British population to be blind to racial characteristics from a young age, to recognize all people as uniformly “British”? There is a significant difference, in my eyes, between discouraging explicitly race-orientated bullying and attempting to smudge the lines between cultural variations. We would end up in a sad world if our ethnic identities served purely to distinguish us from one another in a neutral way in which any other physical feature might, like being tall or short or having curly or straight hair because we all know it defines who we are to a much greater extent. If the current emphasis on political correctness in the modern Western world is left to develop at the same momentum going forward, it’s not too farfetched to say this could happen one day.

Of course, it’s an entirely personal choice whether someone chooses to disown one’s original cultural identity in favor of another but this should be done not out of wanting to conform or as a defense mechanism but as a means of solidifying your sense of belonging and being true to your perceived identity. While it’s important to feel you are accepted as an equal member of society, this shouldn’t mean anyone should have to compromise their racial makeup or that it should be overlooked or ignored in order to accomplish societal homogeneity.  I’d like to continue to be recognized as being good at cooking because I have influences from three different countries, I’d like people to carry on asking me which country I feel I belong to most so that I can keep on answering with  “both”. So, while it would be nice for racial bias and judgment to find its way to extinction, let’s not ever hope for a world in which cultural differences between ethnic groups and countries don’t mean anything anymore.

What do you think? Do you ever wonder whether extreme political correctness and a need to promote uniformity under the guise of equality could pose a threat to the appreciation of cultural diversity?