I’m sure some of you will learn nothing new from this post, but this is a new revelation for me so I want to talk about it. It is about ethnonationalism; I realize this is a highly contentious subject but I’ve framed it in a way as to avoid getting into too much trouble. But before I begin I want to make clear that in no way do I support violence, bigotry, racism, or discrimination…

Until I started writing my last post I had always discounted ethnonationalism  as crude and illegitimate.. That being said, a valuable life lesson I have learned is that you don’t have to agree with someone to understand them. And also, I happen to know from firsthand experience that some people just don’t respond well to change. Basically the following is just a recap of my thought process form earlier this afternoon: I started with the basic premise that at the root of ethnonationalism is racism, but not necessarily in the traditional, hierarchal sense, rather I think that one can be ethnocentric without being discriminatory. By this I mean that it is possible to recognize cultural differences without holding one particular culture in higher esteem than others. From here I think ethnonationalism argues that because cultures are different they should be segregated, or put another way, ethnonationalism may argue for a multicultural world, but not a multicultural society (or course some will be different).

As a Canadian, grasping this notion has been a bid of a hurdle. This is because as a Canadian I define my cultural identity as one of multiculturalism. But this is not necessarily the case for all societies.

I find when I am trying to grasp a foreign concept it helps if I can relate the concept to any person experiences that I may have. When I reflect on my families roots here in Canada I feel a sense of pride knowing that 300 years ago my ancestors were the first settlers on the land that many of them still inhabit today. Also, because my relatives have put so much effort into preserving their Irish heritage I feel a connection to Ireland even though I have never been. That being said, in terms of ancestral roots in a given region, by European standards 300 years is not much. So, in a way I am envious of Europeans who are able to trace their culture and ancestry within a specific region back to time immemorial. As such, I am empathetic to the difficulty it must be for many Europeans to welcome foreign elements into their ethnic and culturally homogenous societies.

Personally, I will always remain an advocate of multiculturalism, simply because it is all I know… so in a sense – in an inverted sort of way – perhaps I have more in common with the ethnonationalists than I had originally thought.