Cultural Pluralism as Friendship: Alain Locke and Horace Kallen

• In Event: Alain Locke Beyond the Harlem Renaissance

Abstract

Cultural pluralism, the precursor to modern multiculturalism, is the idea that different ethnic groups can and should coexist in the same political entity, all the while preserving and developing their own particular cultures. The term emerged in the early 20th century through conversation between two friends, the pragmatist philosopher Horace Meyer Kallen (1882-1974) and Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954). For Locke, cultural pluralism formed the foundation of the New Negro Movement, otherwise known as the Harlem Renaissance. This paper reinterprets Locke’s understanding of cultural pluralism, not simply as an idea fostering communal aesthetic movements, but as an orientation geared towards interethnic friendships. Locke’s friendship with Kallen, the German-born son of an Orthodox rabbi, was emblematic of the kind of relationships both Locke and Kallen hoped would be fostered through cultural pluralism. For Kallen and Locke, friendship represented a model superior to brotherhood, for it allowed for the tolerance and embrace of diversity, rather than promoting universal sameness. In exploring the Kallen-Locke friendship, this paper uncovers the philosophical foundations of Locke’s cultural pluralism: an adherence to anthropologist Franz Boas’ biological understanding of race, a commitment to secularism, a belief that secular culture is particular, while religion is universal, and a de-emphasis of political borders.

Author

• David Weinfeld, Virginia Commonwealth University