Some say that a multi-racial society is possible while a multi-cultural one is not. This is true as far as it goes but it presupposes that the several races in a society accept or can be brought to accept the same culture. Is the presupposition true? I don’t think so.
Traditional American culture is built on what the Smithsonian has tendentiously called “white values.” These include self-reliance, “objective, rational linear thinking” [as opposed to what? subjective circular thinking?], hard work, respect for legitimate authority, ability to defer gratification, civility, and control of emotions. Here is the Smithsonian’s full list.
These values and virtues are universal, not ‘white.’ When I say that they are universal I mean that they are good for everyone, regardless of race. They are genuine values and virtues the implementation of which will lead to human flourishing. The values on the Smithsonian list are universal in that everyone can profit from them. They are ‘white’ only in that whites have excelled in their discovery, articulation, and implementation.
For example, whites are better at deferring or delaying gratification than blacks, which largely explains why, as a group, they do better economically than blacks as a group. “A growing body of literature has linked the ability to delay gratification to a host of other positive outcomes, including academic success, physical health, psychological health, and social competence.” (Wikipedia) Social competence consists of the skills needed successfully to adapt to social situations. Lack of impulse control is one sort of social incompetence. Disproportionately more blacks than whites are shot by police in routine traffic stops, not because of ‘racism,’ but because disproportionately more blacks than whites ‘blow their cool’ in such tense interactions and engage in threatening behavior which elicits predictable responses from law enforcement officers. This is not to deny that there are LEOs who commit murder under color of law. There are. But they are a small fraction of the cases in which LEOs legally shoot and sometimes justifiably kill black and other ‘motorists’ in self-defense.
The opening question was whether a multi-racial society can survive over the long term. It can, but only if the different racial, ethnic, and religious groups can be brought to accept a common culture. This will not happen unless all illegal immigration is stopped, illegal aliens are deported, and legal immigration is structured so as to (i) prevent certain groups from entering, e.g., sharia-supporting Muslims, and (ii) gives preference, as used to be the case, to the entry of assimilable groups who share our values, broadly speaking. For example, U.K. and other English speakers over Europeans, Europeans over Asians, Asians over Africans.
There is no right to immigrate and every nation has the the right to insist that immigration work to the benefit of the host country and the preservation of its culture.
In the USA that common culture is Judeo-Christian, Graeco-Roman, and classically liberal, with the classically liberal values of the Enlightenment and the Founders (our greatest generation) mitigating the excesses and correcting the mistakes of the Greeks (slavery), the Romans (cruel and unusual punishment), and Christianity (ostracism and murdering of ‘heretics’).
Do we have the will to preserve our civilization and to to mitigate its decadence (due in large part to our great but corrupting affluence and to certain extreme forms of liberalism)?
The prognosis is not good. A good half of the country now comprises an Internal Enemy that has hijacked the Democrat Party and is working to overturn the Constitution and the founding principles But it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and we fight on to the end.