ABSTRACT
Dangerous is the possibility that the creation of space for the study of differences will blunt internal dissent by giving various identity-defined groups a share in a pluralist academy. In the struggle to make the academy more democratic, the question of how to acknowledge and incorporate "difference" has become a major point of contest, one being taken up now in part under the rubric of multiculturalism. Although some schools have tried to make multiculturalism a curricular reality, at most campuses multiculturalism is at present more discussion topic than fact. Consequently, at this inaugural moment it is worth thinking critically about just what one wants to achieve by promoting multiculturalism and how the institutional response to "difference" might go beyond the liberal agenda of giving voice to the silenced. Embrace a more radical agenda of promoting a restructuring of social relations and a redistribution of cultural and economic resources.
