For the multiculturalist, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are prohibited, Italians and Irish get a little respect, blacks are good, native Americans are even better. The further away we go, the more they deserve respect. This is a kind of inverted, patronising respect that puts everyone at a distance. (Slavoj Žižek).
Feeling guilty for the sins of colonialism often leads to a form of racism, claims the Slovenian sociologist Slavoj Žižek, who believes the emancipatory core of the European legacy is well worth fighting for. He claims that the Left should even accept the topic of Leitkultur and fight for a different Leitkultur against anti-immigrant populists.
Slavoj Žižek is a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a visiting professor at a number of American Universities. He has achieved international recognition for his innovative interpretations of Jacques Lacan, and has been called both the Elvis Presley of philosophyand an academic rock star. He is a controversial and apt lecturer, and his theories on the traps of multiculturalism has generated much debate.
Wergeland Litteraturhuset Lecture by Slavoj Žižek Universalisme 2014