Most descriptions of the multicultural encounter fail to capture it and reduce multiculturalism to inter-cultural encounter by describing it as an us-them relationship. In contrast, this essay argues that the multicultural encounter should be understood as an us-we relationship. Multiculturalism understood in this way sets up a unique relationship between the particular aspects of ethno-cultural belonging and the universal aspects of citizenship such that the right to ethno-cultural belonging can be sustained as a universal right. The multicultural speech act explains how an utterance and the field of discourse within which it normally takes on meaning may shift their relationship. Such a paradoxical relationship brings a tradition of thought into question in the context of a specific debate. In order to do this, the concept of multicul- turalism must be expanded to include the notion of a post-colonial speech act. A discourse can be said to be multicultural insofar as the cultural tradition upon which a given speech act draws for its legitimation is not the only relevant cultural tradition upon which a responding speech act can draw. A discourse can be said to be post-colonial insofar as the institutional tradition within which a speech act occurs is open to debate about the rules on which it is based, not only the practices that refer to the rules.
