Anna Julia Cooper was an important African American
social thinker back in her time. She studied race, sex and power and how they
all played out in society. The aspect of her studies that stood out to me the
most was her idea of pluralism. Cooper believed that pluralism was the act of understanding
and accepting every culture in a society so that everyone is treated equally.
An example that is often used to describe pluralism is a melting pot. In class,
however, Dr. Barry told us to think of it as a stew, since every culture still
stands alone (by possessing their own characteristics, beliefs and traditions)
but they also mix well and see each other as equals.
It would be nice to think that pluralism exists
fully in the United States, but I am not sure if that could ever be possible.
There are a lot of cultures within the U.S. and some people cannot come to
accept other cultures. There will always be people that are racist, or people
that just do not care to learn about any other cultures because they are
content with their own. I think it is great to learn about other cultures,
however. It opens your eyes to the fact that not everyone is the same as you
and traditions, beliefs and characteristics vary so much from culture to
culture. Pluralism is something that Cooper saw in her studies and I do think
that it is around today to some extent, but there will always be people who
will not allow pluralism to exist fully.
Although Cooper did not specifically talk about
religious pluralism, it is the same concept as regular pluralism, except it
looks at different religions instead of cultures. The picture and website link (located below) that I chose for this blog are examples of what religious pluralism is all
about. Coexist is an organization that works to help people understand and see
the differences between 7 religions. Feel free to explore the website, I found
some of the information very interesting.
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