What is Multicultural?

So the other day in class when we were discussing our topics for the final research areas, I tried to use the word 'multicultural' to describe people of different religions, cultural backgrounds, as well as races or ethnicities, etc. Every person I used this term with automatically assumed I meant race specifically, and I had to clarify my usage of this term.
Am I really using this term that incorrectly? I see it as two words, multi and cultural. Multi, of course, meaning multiple, many or just plain more than one. Cultural being a reference to the word culture, which I use to mean religions, traditions, races, ethnicities, whether you live in a city or in the country, etc. I do not see race as the only defining factor of a culture, although it certainly is one factor. I use the term with this meaning behind it, but it seems that not everybody has the same definition. Am I being too politically correct because of how I have been taught to be aware of my language use (as we all have in the TE program)? Am I over analyzing this? I suppose I would just like to know when and how the meaning inferred from the use of this word started to change so profoundly? Or am I the one who is confused, and race has always been the primary meaning of 'multicultural'?

Dilbert

So I was reading the comics this morning, and when I reached Dilbert, I knew that I wanted to share this strip.

I have loved this comic strip for almost as long as I can remember, and I have always thought it was a funny strip. My mother loves this strip enough that my younger brother is required to have the daily calendar be his Christmas gift for her each year. We have always loved the Elbonians because they make the situations more amusing.

But would we laugh more if it was Indians, as mentioned earlier in the strip? Or American Indians? Or African, Chinese, Swede? Why is it OK to laugh and make fun of a race that does not actually exist when if it had been a real race it could be considered racist and completely politically incorrect?

Also, the reference to "Educated Indians who speak perfect English" being more expensive, and therefore better than the "illiterate Elbonian with poor attendance and an anger management problem" shows an unofficial ranking of races. One is better than the other. One can be literate and important while the other is completely undesirable. If the Elbonians were a real race, this would be a big social issue, but because they are not it's funny. The comment on the Indians also represents a sort of running joke that many Americans have regarding the fact that a lot of companies have outsourced some of their customer service jobs to India and they are difficult to understand at times, which would account for the "speak perfect English" part of the description.

'A Shift Is Taking Place'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-8DRPCJ86U&feature=related

So we watched this youtube video in my TE 402 class last week and it really got me thinking about a lot of different things. It also got me thinking globally as opposed to just inside the US, which is sometimes harder to accomplish, and much harder to keep in perspective, at least for me.

One of the first questions this video asks is what will the world be like for children born today? Some of the facts brought up in this video were mind blowing for me. Like, the number one speaking English country will be China? And that 100% of college graduates in India speak English? But then how many college graduates in the US speak another language fluently? I looked it up on google and I could not find a statistic, but from my own experience here at MSU I know that not 100% of us are fluent in another language. Does that make us ignorant? I know that high schoolers in most European schools are required to take classes in at least two non-native languages. My high school required two credits of one foreign language. Are Americans that egotistical? Perhaps some of these facts are reasons why American tourists are not perfectly welcome in all countries around the world.

I realize that this video does not directly relate to underrepresented populations, but it does discuss some misconceptions about populations that exsist in our society, which is just as important. Americans are often perceived as being less informed than citizens of other countries, and I wonder just how true that statement is. I do not pretend to be someone who knows about all different races, religions, ethnicities, or other cultural groups, but I would like to be someone who is willing to learn about and experience all those differences. It also made me think about the average effort level of Americans to force themselves out of their comfort zones to learn about them. This video presented information about other cultures that I did not know, and probably would not have known had my professor not shown this video in class. I suppose the question is how can we as future teachers help our students to know and want to know this kind of information?