Janne Knight

June 5, 2015
Response 1
The Additive System
While reading Liberal Multiculturalism and the Ethics of Hospitality in
the Age of Globalization, it became apparent that the ethics practiced by nations in
regards to such hospitality are in fact rooted in a system of value assignation to
minority groups by the majority. The additive system discussed in the article
makes it seem as though that additive system is not simply one that evaluates
minorities on a highly mechanized level, but further restricts their agency in the
name of protecting the host-countrys sovereignty. In order to avoid the
counterhegemonic force illustrated in the introduction, and to resist minority groups
and less-dominant cultures either decentralizing or affecting sovereignty, the article
seems to imply that hospitality often remains conditional. I would argue that this
type of hospitality does more than create Kants theory of the temporary sojourn,
and the host as master dichotomy that Derrida presents; it constitutes the
majority identity as one with inherent value, and positions minority groups against
one another as model and lesser minorities.
In the Lost Boys of Sudan we witnessed an example of the politics of
hospitality that this article discusses. The conditionality of their welcome and its
subsequent positioning was first implied by a member their own community, who
requested upon the boys departure that they dont wear baggy pants like those
other ones who do bad things. Instantly, the black minority in America was seen

as the other, and as inferior to a more ideal minority. The black American identity
was constituted by communication throughout the movie, and was typically made
into a less reputable other. Competition was seen between members of the majority
and the Lost Boys, but it was often expressed through economic disparity. Peter
bemoans his hopeless position against a majority whose finances have provided for
them better preparation in all regard to societal expectations, and worries that the
initial purpose of his migration, to go to school and become someone with the
means to affect policy in his homeland, is ultimately a lost cause. Agambens theory
of exclusion, the membership without inclusion seems to appear in instances like
these, where the Lost Boys are welcome guests as long as they work long hours in
sweatshops, behave according to legal, societal, and cultural normsbut they are
not a part of the mainstream, are treated like children by those who interact with
them, and their intentions to receive the same education as the privileged majority
is overlooked by the mainstream.
The attitude of Conditional Hospitality, and its additive mindset
certainly creates the divisions that the article illuminates, it strengthens the power
dynamics present, but such sovereignty seems to be secured by more than just
legal and financial limits. It appears, at least in the example of the Lost Boys of
Sudan, to create a highly internalized reaction to the other, which upholds the
privileged majoritys perception of power and inherent self-worth, the minoritys
position as having value assigned to them by their additive qualities, and positions
minorities to compete against and otherize one another in order to prove and fulfill
what the majority sees as add-ons.