The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Tacoma: A Pluralistic Community?
Carrie Lorensen
"Diversity," it's the twenty-first century's buzz word, and we've all heard it. Oh, yes we all want diversity, we claim (most of us) that it is a good thing, something to strive for, something we should ever be on the alert about. But what exactly do most people mean by diversity? Is it passing someone of a different ethnic or racial background on the street? Diversity alone implies simply having a variety of different things. Here in America, a melting pot of cultures and beliefs, diversity is something that you can find in almost any city, on almost any street corner, on any given day. But it seems to me that as Americans - and please think for a moment just exactly how you would define "American" we simply gloss over this wonderful and unique attribute of our country. "Diversity is good, yeah for us, look how New Aged and sensitive we are." For just a moment I want you to forget about diversity! Things are already diverse, things are diverse without any effort on our part as a society, what we really need to talk about here is pluralism. Is Tacoma a pluralistic community?
Pluralism is upping the anti on diversity. It is taking diversity and doing something with it. Beyond toleration, beyond acknowledgement lies pluralism, a place where we not only live around people of different cultures, but also actively learn from, appreciate, and incorporate their different communities, beliefs, and histories into our everyday lives and understandings of the world around us. It is being open and accepting to all ideas and cultures without necessarily losing your own beliefs heaven forbid you are ever influenced enough by another culture to change your mind about something.
This article is being written in conjunction with a class I am taking at my high school. It is a Comparative World Religions class that has greatly opened my eyes to not only the beliefs of other faith communities, but those of my own as well. It has also shown me an amazing diversity of people and cultures that exist right here in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Tacoma. Our class is working on an extension project connected with Harvard University on what has been established as "The Pluralism Project," a study that was developed by Diana L. Eck to try to document the changing face of American religious diversity in our communities and neighborhoods. Our class has been working this project and visiting and documenting different cultural centers in our area.
The Pacific Northwest has a long history of diversity. The native cultures that existed long before white settlers came to the area and endure today are not only one example of this diversity by also lend a very unique flavor to the North West. Asian immigration from China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asian countries from the late 1800¹s that continues into the modern day is another very important legacy of diversity the Pacific Northwest holds claim to. After the Civil War freed slaves worked their way west on the railroads to end up settling around the Puget Sound. In more recent decades immigrants from Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh have come to live in the Puget Sound area. Indian Hindus have also immigrated to many parts of the United States in recent years. All of this immigration and settling has led to a veritable crucible of cultures and faiths existing in our own backyard. The existence of Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Native, and Christian communities (to name a few) all in this one area gives us a wonderful opportunity to reach out and incorporate diversity and pluralism into our every day lives.
In order to get investigate my topic it was necessary to do a little bit of research into the Tacoma Community. I got online and looked at community calendars to see what sort of cultural activities were taking place. I looked up religious establishments here in Tacoma. In class I even had the opportunity to visit Temple Beth El, the only Jewish Temple in this area of the Pugetopolis, and a Buddhist Temple in Seattle to witness these faith communities first hand. My final step in gathering information was to take a small poll at the Tacoma Mall.
I asked patrons (those who would talk to me) a few question about their views on pluralism, what it meant to them, if they found Tacoma to be a pluralistic society, whether they belonged to a certain faith group, and how much interaction they had with other faith groups. The reactions were varied, but most people seemed to think that Tacoma was adequately pluralistic. Some people likened this to the fact that that the Army Base was so close by and brought different types of people to the area. Most people seemed fairly informed of the existence of different faith groups and cultures existing in Tacoma, usually naming Mormons, Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, Christians (both Protestant and Catholic), Jews, and larger national groups such as the Korean and Vietnamese populations. Some went as far to define "struggling artists" and "Goths" as groups they saw as being specifically cultural. Others defined themselves not as finding faith groups to be the important defining factor of culture, but common interest, stating that he was not a member of a faith group, but a Tai Kwon Do group. As a general rule people seemed to view knowing someone from another faith groups as "interacting" with that faith group. When asked how people felt about pluralism and diversity in the area (whether there was enough or not, etcŠ) most people seemed to think that there was an adequate amount of pluralism going on around them. One woman noted that when driving in her car things were getting much "less white," saying how when one sits at a stop-light the people you can see around you in their cars are usually (3/5) of non European/American background. Another pollee stated that he found Tacoma to be an excellent model for how the world should become, because globalism was becoming increasingly important, but he also stated that he understands that prejudices are deep-set and can be hard to overcome.
One thing I found interesting during my poll was that people of non-white, non-Christian backgrounds seemed less willing to talk to me. While many white, Christian pollees went on and on about how adequately diverse and how wonderful it all was, I was having a hard time getting much or a response from other culture groups. More than once I was refused by people of non-European ethnic backgrounds, and as a general rule they seemed more reluctant to talk to me. This made me wonder about how much of a truly pluralistic society we live in if the people of these minority groups don¹t feel comfortable talking about their views openly. Despite all of their zealous support of what they view to be pluralism how comfortable does the majority really make it for minority faith groups in the community?
The evidence for pluralism seems to be all around us. Feng Shui classes being offered in University Place, Indigenous Art Shows at Evergreen State College, a Tribal Law Major offered at UPS, and the mere existence of so many faith communities all in one area are all examples of how the diversity in the Tacoma area manifests itself into our everyday lives. But at the same time the evidence against must be considered as well. One of the largest branches of the KKK on the West Coast, Northwest Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, exists right here in Tacoma. Can a community as a whole be considered truly pluralistic as long as groups like this exist within it? A thought worth pondering. I think that the general lack of knowledge about other cultures and faiths that many people exhibit is also testament to the fact that we have not reached pluralism status. To me living in a pluralistic society would mean that children were taught at least the basic beliefs and customs of the major world religions when they were still fairly young, not when (like me) they are seniors in high school. Yet the fact that courses that teach these things exist at all is a hopeful hint at what the future might bring.