LAST WEEK, the State Department announced that this December the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra will perform for the first time in the United States in December. Through military invention, we brought Iraq as a country politically closer to our own. But in the meantime, we further solidified American prejudice toward its people as a cultural group. The idea of bringing over the Iraqi orchestra, while narrow in scope for certain, offers a possible tactic of promoting American acceptance of the Iraqi people: harnessing the growing popularity of "diversity."
Sixty members of the Iraqi musical group will perform with the National Symphony Orchestra and its famed musical director Leonard Slatkin. The chosen venue is the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts located in Washington, D.C., and notably, the program will be free. The ensemble is a semi-professional group, whose repertoire includes works by Iraqi, Middle Eastern and European composers. The orchestra includes a subgroup of six Kurdish folk musicians. Clearly the group has that elusive quality of "culture" that Americans are crazy about.
Being a world superpower has given America both the privilege and the predilection for being intolerant of things foreign. The American way is the right way when it comes to politics, economics, and any other category considered sufficiently significant. From our actions in these realms, it seems plausible that all this country is after is complete American globalization -- or essentially assimilation.
But there is one saving grace to Americans' seemingly categorical xenophobia. More now than ever, America embraces benign multiculturalism as not only acceptable, but trendy. This theory has been articulated David Brooks, editor of the Weekly Standard, in his hugely popular "Bobos in Paradise", published in 2000. There has never been such a boom in ethnic food industries. Chinese food no longer corners the market; nowadays the yellow pages' restaurant section reads like a roll call at the United Nations. Pottery Barn is out in favor of chic boutiques peddling "authentic" furniture bearing proud tags saying "Handcrafted by an entire Ethiopian village" or "Inspired by traditional Indonesian dining sets." The cosmopolitan crowd craves culture in the home, the marketplace, and most naturally, in the arts.
All cheesiness aside, art does transcend cultural barriers. In fact, be it literature, music, theater, or painting, art perhaps is the realm where Americans have always been most tolerant. Historically, relevant examples are abound. In the segregated 1950s, the only thing black that got into all-white establishments was Motown music over the radio waves. The result in today's pro-diversity environment is that Rodgers and Hammerstein would take second place to a West African dance ensemble.At this point, Iraqi culture has not exactly taken America by storm. But perhaps it's the most permeable part of our cultural wall to try and slip through. If the Kennedy Center audience can appreciate certain Iraqi people as artists, it could help legitimize the maintenance of their uniqueness as a cultural group.
This is not to say that had Iraqi culture been popular in America two years ago we would never have gone to war with them. No. The State Department is kidding themselves if they believe a great big sing-a-long would be the solution to international warfare. However, in the fragile post-war state, where we are still deciding what will become of the country and its people, the unique culture is a positive element that could help us justify not obliterating all the differences between Iraq and America.
It's true that many of America's decision makers and their constituents imagine a world where every country resembles America in terms of a two-party system, representative democracy, and a capitalistic economy. But in truth the last thing most people want, and no one needs, is the globe full of America franchise. Though we're ready to establish similar institutions, we want clones internationally no more than we want domestic citizens to all be identical. This affinity for diversity, recent in intellectual thought and quite new in popular feeling, ensures the survival of non-Western culture and at least hinders the absolute Americanization of the world. Whether they realize it or not, the State Department deserves praise for capitalizing on a social trend to prompt real change in American's perspective on Iraq. After all, it isn't only Iraq that is in need of post-war reform, but America too.
(Kimberly Liu's column appears Monday in the Cavalier Daily.She can be reached at kliu@cavalierdaiy.com)
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