I’m never quite sure what it is I am supposed to get out of multicultural education.

Thomas Builds-the-Fire: Hey Victor! I remember the time your father took me to Denny's, and I had the Grand Slam Breakfast. Two eggs, two pancakes, a glass of milk, and of course my favorite, the bacon. Some days, it's a good day to die. And some days, it's a good day to have breakfast.

I haven’t even gotten half way through this book when the inspiration for this week’s blog hit me in the face. It hit me so hard that I had to put down the book and immediately begin writing before this awesome idea escaped me.

As the title for this blog points out I am never sure what I am supposed to get out of learning about multicultural education.

Multicultural education classes do two things really well:

1)      They make white people feel horrible.

2)      They make people who aren’t from Alpharetta feel awkward.

The first one of these points is pretty self-explanatory. The multicultural education class at UGA is often referred to as the white guilt class. Basically what happens during the class is white males learn how they have had everything handed to them on a silver platter and they have oppressed all the other people in the world and are racists and bigots and simply horrible.

The second thing that happens in these multicultural education classes is people who did not grow up in a white-washed, white-flight suburb feel out of place. While all the white affluent people are gawking at the horrible way their relatives have treated all people of color and shrieking in astonishment to find out that some schools in Athens have no white kids and almost 100% free and reduced lunch this second group of people is shocked that a person could actually grow up in such a protective bubble.

Multicultural classes do not seem to be made to change people to be more accepting and open-minded because that would be indoctrination and Americans shy away from that, except in some forms (watch the documentary Jesus Camp on HULU). Multicultural education classes seem to focus more on awareness, awareness that there are lots of different types of people who are living in lots of different ways and for lots of different reasons.

I was already aware.

So it bothered me when I had to sit through a multicultural education class and read a book about Jewish immigrants and their struggles with assimilation.

I was already aware.

It bothered me to sit in that class because when I was in elementary school I asked my parents why I couldn’t be like some of my friends and get free breakfast in the cafeteria before school and they had to explain to me how some people get breakfast because they can’t afford it without some assistance.

I was already aware.

It bothered me to see classmates shocked at the demographics of schools that I went to.

I guess my point is that maybe some people need to learn about what exists outside of John’s Creek. I could have just signed a form at the beginning of my multicultural education class affirming that I understood that diversity existed.

If you want to expose me to a culture unlike my own take me to an all-white suburb school where teenagers drive BMWs and play lacrosse.

As for the movie Smoke Signals, I remember watching it when I was a kid. I thought it was great. But I didn’t think of it as being a story about some Indians in a coming of age tale, I thought of it as a good movie with likable and relatable characters.

So when I’m reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian I’m not thinking of this as a funny book about an Indian kid, I’m thinking of it as a funny book about a kid.

I wouldn't have a second Bar Mitzvah either!

(Kramer spits out his peach)

Bad peach?

 It's terrible!

 Did you get that at Joe's?

 Yeah, of course I got it at Joe's.

 That's surprising, his fruit is usually the best.

 You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna return this.

 You're returning used fruit?

 Jerry this peach is sub par.

Oh book, how I love thee, let me count the ways.

That is actually not sarcasm my friends. I truly love this book. I loved Pollan's level headedness and his open mindedness. I love his willingness to try different things. I loved the way he did not write this book like a super crazy extreme "my way or the highway" nut job. Mostly I love how this book took all the feelings I have towards my own struggle with the omnivore's dilemma and allowed me to finally see the light!

There was something else that happened when I was reading this book. As  I was reading I kept thinking to myself, "Self, I feel like I could have written this entire book because I feel like I already knew all of these things either in my heart or in my brain. So why are people still lining up at McDonald's to stuff their faces with horrible un-foods?"

So I sat there and tried to come up with an answer to why we pack 20,000 chickens into a small pen, why cows are force fed corn, and why people just don't care what goes into their food or where it comes from (not to mention what it does to their bodies)?

The answer quickly became clear. FOX NEWS.

OK, so maybe it isn't Fox News that is responsible for the inhumane treatment of animals or the gross neglect of our own nutritional needs. 

It's just that I can totally see Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh bashing this book and anyone who thinks that it is good.

What I mean is that there seems to be a stigma between the type of food you eat and one's political worldview.

Can't you all just hear it too: Rush: "Those tree hugging hippies with their organic beet juice and their grass fed beef are ruining this great christian nation! They are brain washing our children and trying to indoctrinate them into being anti-agriculture anti-American little tree huggers. This book was sponsored by Al Queda anyway."

Then there would be Beck: "America, yes you America (whisks glasses off his face), we are in dire times. Farmers, the backbone of America, are under attack. It is up to us to go out and eat from all the small business like McDonald's to support our fellow American farmers."

I think that this may be a bit of an exaggeration but my point is that if you only look at something subjectively you will never see the value behind a great book like this.

Unfortunately to look at this book objectively one must have an understanding of the food chain, animal behavior, nutrition and dietetics, economics, human evolution (the real one not the fake one), as well as a conscience, a desire to be healthy, an open mind, and a want to make the world a better place (those last four things are only if you want to go beyond simply accepting that Pollan is entirely correct in all the allegations he makes in this book).

Basically what I am saying is that if someone doesn't have an the knowledge to understand that Pollan isn't making up everything he says about cows not being able to eat corn, or high-fructose corn syrup being bad for you and society in so many ways, or that some fats are good for you, or that chickens need to roam free, then you can simply ignore this book.

To me, because I do understand the science and logic behind Pollan's book, made this not an opinionated read but a factual one. I agreed with everything he said. I never saw him as a nut-job or a food snob. I just saw him as someone who had the ability to put all the facts on the table (get it food joke) and then offer some ways to make progress.

If you don't agree with this book than you don't agree with education and knowledge.

Word!