This article draws attention to the growing evidence of a mismatch between sociological categorization and actors' worlds of meaning as expressed in the classroom. The mismatch is especially blatant in cases where students from disadvantaged groups are introduced to what educators and theorists presume to be the liberating discourse of multicultural education. Nurtured by recent developments in the sociology of culture, the article sheds light on this phenomenon by delving into the logic of the actors' own worlds of meaning while making a concerted effort to avoid directing prepackaged allegations of "false consciousness" at informants. The article delves into the mismatch by reviewing multicultural education sites in two national contexts, the United States and Israel. Its findings from a unique high school in Jerusalem invite researchers to explore new avenues for understanding cultural encounters at school in view of the growing multicultural reality. (Contains 10 notes.)