Cultureplaces

"Noting that two-thirds of young people in many of Western Europe’s major cities are of foreign origin, the authors of  Super-Diversity: A New Perspective on Integration   slammed  politicians’ calls for newcomers to assimilate, stating: 'If there is no longer an ethnic majority group, everyone will have to adapt to everyone else. Diversity will become the new norm.'

by Kenan Malek Op Ed Writer New York Times June 14, 2017 Seventy years ago, racist radio stations refused to play “race music” for a white audience. Today, antiracist activists insist that white painters should not portray black subjects. To appropriate a phrase from a culture not my own: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. In Canada last month, three editors lost their jobs after making such a defense. The controversy began when Hal Niedzviecki, editor of Write, the magazine of the Canadian Writers’ Union, penned an editorial defending the right of white authors to create characters from minority or indigenous backgrounds. Within days, a  social media backlash  forced him to resign. The Writers’ Union issued an apology for an article that its Equity Task Force claimed “re-entrenches the deeply racist assumptions” held about art. Another editor, Jonathan Kay, of The Walrus magazine, was also  compelled to step down  after tweeting his support for Mr. Niedzviecki