Multiculturalist thinkers have made substantial interventions in debates on racism and its institutional remedies. Most significantly, they have explored the connection between phenotypical and cultural stereotypes, the individual and collective functions of identity, and the racial implications of national narratives. However, their defence of diversity and representation has been criticised by race scholars for essentialising racial, ethnic and religious groups, as well as co-opting anti-racist activists and lending legitimacy to racist institutions and ideas. The relationship between multiculturalism and human rights likewise remains debated. While some human rights scholars have highlighted their complementarity, others, echoing theorists of race and multiculturalism, have argued that human rights norms and institutions are either unable to bring about structural change or themselves racially biased.