ABSTRACT
Multiculturalism is one of the hot topics of the 1990s. Cultural brokers, politicians, and academics debating multiculturalism risk diminishing it to the “affirmative action” of artistic expression; representatives from the cultures and communities determined by the power structure to be “other” are invited into cultural arenas as tokens, icons, or ambassadors. The power of art to signify becomes restricted to the extent that art is read as a sociological or anthropological document about “That Other Place/People”. Multicultural events may communicate more about their sponsors (whose invitations have earned them the badge of political correctness or have diplomatically appeased systematically disenfranchised communities) than about self-determined cultural expressions emanating from communities of oppressed and exploited people. Effective multicultural action in the arts requires the equitable participation on all levels of organization, administration, and production of the marginalized and the privileged.
