An American History

CULTURE WARS ★^1099

vocal demands that jobs, education, and
politics reflect that diversity. As the
numbers of minority and female stu-
dents at the nation’s colleges and uni-
versities rose, these institutions moved
aggressively to diversify their faculties
and revise the traditional curriculum.
One sign of multiculturalism could
be seen in the spread of academic pro-
grams dealing with the experience of
specific groups— Black Studies, Latino
Studies, Women’s Studies, and the like.
Literature departments added the writ-
ings of female and minority authors to
those of white men. Numerous scholars
now taught and wrote history in ways
that stressed the experiences of diverse
groups of Americans, rather than a com-
mon national narrative.

The Identity Debate

Among some Americans, the height-
ened visibility of immigrants, racial
minorities, and inheritors of the sexual revolution inspired not celebration of
pluralism but alarm over perceived cultural fragmentation. Conservatives, and
some traditional liberals as well, decried “identity politics” and multicultural-
ism for undermining a common sense of nationhood.
Increased cultural diversity and changes in educational policy inspired harsh
debates over whether immigrant children should be required to learn English
and whether further immigration should be discouraged. These issues entered
politics most dramatically in California, whose voters in 1994 approved Proposi-
tion 187, which denied undocumented immigrants and their children access to
welfare, education, and most health services. A federal judge soon barred imple-
mentation of the measure on the grounds that control over immigration policy
rests with the federal government. By 2000, twenty- three states had passed laws
establishing English as their official language (similar to measures enacted in the
aftermath of World War I). The 1996 law that abolished welfare also barred most
immigrants who had not become citizens from receiving food stamps.
But efforts to appeal to prejudice for political gain often backfired. In Cali-
fornia, Republicans’ anti- immigrant campaigns inspired minorities to mobilize

This work by the contemporary Eastern Band

Cherokee artist Shan Goshorn, entitled Unin-

tended Legacy, reproduces historical docu-

ments that are woven into a basket (a traditional

Native American craft) such as the names and

images of Indian children and adults at a typical

boarding school. That history, she suggests, still

affects Indian life today.

What cultural conflicts emerged in the 1990s?