Blaming Culture for Bad Behavior

This article makes an argument against multiculturalism on the grounds of cultural judgement and misogyny. Volpp uses child marriage as a case study to explore the phenomena of casting judgement on cultures for individual actions when perpetrators or victims are people of color and/or immigrants. While white child marriage is viewed as the product of indivual choice and behaviour, non-White child marriages are viewed as a cultural byproduct. Volpp attributes this to the “racialization of culture,” in which culture is viewed as fixed and becomes almost biological. While this phenomenon is not usually applied to White people, it is significant when it comes to White people experiencing poverty, who are viewed as anti-normative in a similar way to people of color. Racialization of color also implies that people of color are somehow subservient to their culture and that they can’t act outside or resist it in order to fit into a colonial narrative. She explores a case where a forced marriage among White Mormons in Utah was not viewed as oppositional to Western ideals while the forced marriage of a Iraqi girl in Nebraska was considered “barbaric” and “anti-American.” Anti-immigrant sentiment colors the way these cases of child marriage are viewed and discussed, women’s bodies become the battleground in which “American values” are defined and enforced as they stand in for nations themselves. She closes with a call to end misogyny in all communities and to stop using it as an excuse to perpetuate racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.