The concept of multiculuralism emerged from an era of identity politics. In the 1960s and 1970s, each ethnic and racial group in a multi-racial nation recognized and insisted upon the value of its own cultural traditions. Each sought to overcome decades of racism and assert the dignity of being a member of a unique cultural community. As a result of shifts in racial politics, schools increasingly broadened the range of literary texts taught so that students could engage in art that reflected their own heritage and background, could read about someone like themselves, and could see such literature as valuable cultural contributions. Multiculturalism, however, assumes each of us belongs to one and only one group and that this historic identity should predetermine how we position ourselves in contemporary society.

A growing percentage of Americans come from mixed race, mixed religion, and/or bilingual families. Americans grow up within multiple cultural traditions, sometimes moving back and forth between them, sometimes creating cultural practices to reflect their hybrid identities. These experiences invite us to move from the concept of multiculturalism as part of  society to multiculturalism as part of each individual’s constructed identity. Rather than negotiating between groups, we are increasingly negotiating among competing, sometimes conflicting, identities within ourselves.

As Frank H. Wu notes in his book, Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, race is increasingly situational. “Race is meaningless in the abstract; it acquires its meanings as it operates on its surroundings… The same words can take on different meanings depending on the speaker, the audience, the tone, the intention, and the usage.” Sometimes, racial differences matter greatly; sometimes they matter very little, depending on the context. Sometimes, Wu notes, he is perceived as Chinese-American, sometimes Asian-American, sometimes simply Non-White. And the same will be true for many students in the class. In that sense, race is continually negotiated through interactions with other people.

As Ricardo Pitts-Wiley explains, part of what drew him to Moby-Dick was the fact that “everybody was already on the boat.” As Wyn Kelley comments, Melville depicts the Pequod crew in particular and the whaling community more generally as multi-cultural on a social level. Each of the harpooners represents a different racial and cultural background: Queequeg, the South Seas islander; Daggoo, the African; Tashtego, the native American; and Fedallah, the Asian. Certain moments in the novel—especially the opening scenes where Ishmael finds himself in bed with Queequeg—heighten our awareness of racial difference, even as Moby-Dick suggests the ways that inter-racial taboos may be overcome through the bonding between men at sea.

For the contemporary sequence of the play, Pitts-Wiley's construction of "The One" was informed by his recognition that subcultural identities often cut across racial divides, providing a common space where youth of diverse backgrounds might construct their own identities together. He explained:

Back years ago when they were talking about the browning of America, I think there was a belief that the browning of America meant that interracial marriages were going to produce this new culture of people who were not a single race anymore. That was going to happen anyway. History has never supported cultures that didn't intermingle. But the true browning of America was not going to happen in interracial marriages and procreation; it was going to happen when young people shared a similar type of attitude about the world. They were going to listen to the same type of music. They felt isolated, sometimes alienated against some other force, together. They were less conscious of race. That doesn't mean that they were unconscious of it, but they were just less conscious of race. You would go to places and you would see black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian who were all dressed alike, they were all listening to JZ, and they all had a sense of friendship for life. There were very few racial-specific questions even though race was very much a part of their conversation.

In creating the crew for Moby-Dick I really wanted it be a much more clear reflection of a culture that put something else ahead of race and even gender in many ways. It was about us. That's why they're called "The One." We're the one. We're this crew. 

Our crew is more important than the individual, which is very much true in the case of the Pequod. The crew outweighed individual wants, desires, or needs. Also, they have a rhythm — they have a way of moving, a way of walking, a way of talking — that you can find anywhere...

(With Moby-Dick: The and Now), never once did that young crew ever discuss race. It never came up. There was a Cambodian crew leader, a Dominican first mate, a white kid, a black girl from St. Kitts, and a Cape Verdean. They were the crew. They never discussed race because in that world it wasn't important. But when it came down to the dancing and the hip hop there was a thing that they just all had in common and they could just go to it, and I loved them for it. 

While Pitts-Wiley admired the ways that subcultural identities might support multicultural communication, he also expressed concern that youth were losing touch with the cultures of their parents and their grandparents:

When I would go to Yosa Yon and say, "Tell me about Cambodia," she could tell me some things, but she didn't really know a lot about it. "Tell me about the Dominican Republic." Rudy knew quite a bit. But across the board they didn't necessarily. They had not subverted their culture; they had just relegated it to a place where it didn't have as much impact on their lives...The question becomes, how do you balance your past with your future in a way that you don't repeat the mistakes of your predecessors?

Pitts-Wiley's portrayal of "The One" in the play allows us to raise some important questions about the nature of street gangs  and other subcultural communities. Here are some questions you might ask as you examine the play from this perspective:

• Why does the gang call itself "The One," and what does it suggest about the shared sense of identity the members feel within the group?
• A number of rituals performed throughout the play designed to signal group unity. Which  ones can you identify? What do they suggest about the shared signals and practices that hold subcultures together? What similarities or  differences do you see between the gang's rituals and those depicted in  the 19th-century whaling crew?
• Subcultures often create alternative sets of values, defining success in very different terms from their parents' culture. Que dismisses the idea of being "forced to flip burgers or work like slaves for somebody else and still live from paycheck to paycheck." What other signs does he give us about how he defines success?
• Soccer Mom tells us, "Shoes are important and they cost money. They're a symbol of status and money. Status and money." Shoes are important as a source of individual status and group membership. The need to acquire shoes implicates the gang in a larger set of economic relationships, bringing them under the power of WhiteThing. What does Soccer Mom's speech tell us about the push/pull between cultural autonomy and dependency experienced by many subcultures?
• Subcultures adopt postures, embrace styles, use language that may be open to misreadings by outsiders and that may give them a sense of greater power and independence. How would you respond to The One if you were another passenger on the subway that day? How does the experience of watching this play shift your identification so that you feel more closely aligned to The One than you might otherwise?
• Subcultures often provide their members with alternative sets of identities, sometimes through the use of nicknames. Pitts-Wiley shortens many of the names from Melville's novel, talking about Daj, Que, Tasha, and Stu. What role do these shortened names play in making these characters more contemporary?
• Subcultures are defined in terms of who they include and who they exclude. Que tells us, "We try not to get too close to anything but the hood, which we love. We don't get close to anybody but each other. Which is all that we have most of the time." How does this bond affect the group's response to "that new guy," Fedallah?

Each of these questions helps us understand Ricardo Pitts-Wiley's conception of youth subcultures. Pitts-Wiley's creative process, drawing insights from incarcerated youth as he conceptualized the project and from his young actors as he produced the play, helps ground observations about The One in lived experiences. He translates what he has come to understand about the world being created and shaped by the drug trade into a narrative structure. In doing so, he invites us to think deeply about the parallels and differences between a contemporary subculture and the kind of social group formed by Ahab's crew of seamen.

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