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Multiculturalism in the united states
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The United States is a country with a diverse existing population today; this country is known as a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture; differentiate one societal group from another by identification beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, Art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong, ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing culture shapes our patterns of behavior as well thinking. The Culture’s significance is so intense that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the telescope through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Trying to define the perplexing term of culture with varying component of distinguishable characteristics is difficult to restrict. Presenly, culture is viewed as consisting primarily of the symbolic, untouched and conception aspects of human societies.
The distinctive culture is not a man made object, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is still fresh in my memory the shock I got when I came to this country. This country has a unique superficial culture, I could not imagine. The way people treat each other, especially in conversations when they meet you, they may ask you: "How are you doing?" for that incidence be aware that they do not really want to know how you are, and if you make the mistake of actually giving them a detailed account of yourself, they will deliberately avoid you for weeks. In addition, you are required to immediately embrace all new knowledge with the standard response "Nice to meet you." ...
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...which has caused the changes in American culture in two centuries. It can be approached from many different views. Instead of America being a nation, we can redefine it as a multicultural society; or the lasting establishment of positive action for immigrants based on their race; or immigrant are seen as the big promoter of the America culture because they get into intermarriage relationship that expand their culture mix with American culture as the population increase. The Immigrant has been blamed of decline in educational and environmental standards in areas dominated by Hispanics. At the turn of the century a wave of new immigrants Jews and Italians were believed to be too different to assimilate into American cultural life. Today the same fears are raised about immigrants’ from Asia and Latin America, as their counterparts were in previous historical time.
In today’s society, Cultural diversity in the United States of America can be seen in all aspects of life, such as in the media, workplace, household, and schools. Cultural diversity is defined as the characteristic of diverse cultures, as contradicting to monoculture, as in a homogenization of cultures, affiliated to cultural decay. In this present stage America, most individuals inaccurately use phrases such as “American culture,” or “Western culture,” as if such common and standardized cultures exist. People, in general, neglect to acknowledge the presence of cultural diversity, and cultural differences within the American society.
It is true that the more people from different cultures that are in a given area, the more the cultures are diversified. However, with all realities, some claim that immigrants dilute the American culture. Indeed, they cause some changes to the culture. Nevertheless, these changes can bring a wealth of attraction and a source of beauty for the country that everyone should be proud of. It is obvious that every single immigrant in the US has his own culture and way of life. When all these are added together, they form a very rich culture. In addition, they bring various interesting aspects such as food, music, literature, etc. That makes the Americans rich in cultural knowledge. The importance of cultural diversity is that it teaches the people to understand each other’s views, interests, and ideas and helps people view the world in different ways. This would finally lead the society to work towards each other’s interest, mutual goals, and objectives. Tamar Jacoby in his article “Are Today’s Immigrants Assimilating in U.S Society, Yes,” he said that, “Those who are coming now are people who understand cultural fluidity, understand intermarriage and find that a natural, easy thing. This maintains unity and balances in the society” (411). Once this stage is reached, all the problems would be solved. Then it can be said that America has reached a true democracy, echoed by
In the first chapter “A new Race?”, the author affirmed that the beginning of America was viewed as an entry to a brand new life which interweaves separate ethnic strands into a new national design and liberates people from the terrible past. At the beginning, people would regard the America not so much as nation but as a world. For the society is one consists of people coming from all over the world. There were people who would depict the future of the society as without roots, without memories, without prejudices and all of people tend to have their happy time in it. There were also some people would deem the future of the society as one that would get everyone assimilated to a common customs, measures and laws, in which we will soon become one people. Also, the author mentioned that this kind of melting pot idea has an Anglocentric flavor. But such a metaphor raised a lot of doubts. ...
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
Giger (2013) defines culture as a response in behavior that is shaped over time by values, beliefs, norms and practices shared by members of one's cultural group. A person's culture influences most aspects of his or her life including beliefs, conduct, perceptions, emotions, language, diet, body image, and attitudes about illness and pain (He...
Cultural diversity is an American ideal yet our cultural experience is similar to many around the world. An analysis of two vastly different scientists’ views on the nature of cultural change and diversity sheds light on why deep-rooted cultural intricacies from generations ago are fading into oblivion. Thomas Sowell and Wade Davis clearly have differing opinions on the evolution of cultures and the significance of diversity. Wade Davis (2007) presents in “Dreams from Endangered Cultures,” that he is not concerned about the fact cultures evolve over time in a “dance with new possibilities of life,” but that power and corruption is destroying the unique expression of the human spirit in various indigenous peoples of the world. On the contrary, Sowell (1990) believes cultural changes results from a Darwinian law of survival of the fittest. He contends cultural diversity and change occur as a dynamic process that evolves from things that work over time, and if these changes don’t work, they disappear much like Roman Numerals (Sowell, 1990). Both scientists have valid points but their diverse perspectives on cultural change and diversity and its implication on society as a whole are particularly interesting.
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
Within the United States there is a huge diversity of cultures. Culture is many different things, it is a tradition, it is the values and beliefs passed down from generation to generation, and culture is the identity of any country. Culture helps to identify one cultural group from the other. Although we may live in the same country,city, or state we still differ from one another by the way we dress, our beliefs, language, traditions, music, art, food, religion, and politics.
United States usually known as the “melting pot” and it is a typical immigrant country. In the past 400 years, United States has become a mixture of more than 100 ethnic groups. Immigrants bring they own dream and come to this land, some of them looking for better life for themselves and some want to make some money to send back home or they want their children to grow up in better condition. Throughout the history there’s few times of large wave of immigration and it is no exaggeration to say that immigrants created United States. For this paper I interview my neighbor and his immigration story is pretty interesting.
Because of immigrants, we have made many advances in industry, science, politics, the arts, and more. “Indeed, if, as some of the older immigrants like to do, we were to restrict the definition of immigrants to the 42 million people who came to the United States after the Declaration of Independence, we would have to conclude that our history and our society would have been vastly different if they had all stayed home” (Kennedy 24). In “A Quilt of a Country”, Quindlen also agrees that immigrants have a major effect on our day to day life, perhaps sometimes in a negative way. If immigrants never came to America, we may not have the issues we have had concerning racial violence and segregation. “Slavery and Sweatshops, the burning of crosses and the ostracism of the other. Children learn in social-studies and in the news of the lynching of the blacks, the denial of rights to women, the murders of gay men.” (Quindlen 14). Whether it be positively or negatively, immigrants have a significant impact on American
When you think of the word “culture” what comes to mind? In our daily lives, we often hear of the phrases “pop culture”, “culture shock” and “cultural icon”. However, many of us are not exactly sure what culture is or how it applies to us. Whether we understand it or not, each and every one of us has cultural influences that help shape us into who we are. Many people throughout history have interpreted and defined culture in different ways.
An immigrant country for immigrants founded by immigrants, America was destined the melting pot of all religion, race, and culture. During the decades of fresh new freedom, rush of the west, industrial and political machines, and the hustling, bustling new America, the country’s identity was not yet established or important. The ideal American at the time was the kin of her founders, white and protestant, the first immigrants, the true natives, and the powerful. Many believed it was the duty of the ideal American to help those who did not meet the definition, thus beginning the age of assimilation. Sometimes assimilation is deeply rooted in the fear of the foreign and the desire to transfer one’s own identity and beliefs to a seemingly inferior
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
Nieto argues that culture can mean different things to different people in different context (Nieto, S.1999). Culture differs by race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Nieto explains that culture is used interchangeably with ethnicity, culture can mean the tradition that someone has, one celebrates in their family, and the value someone holds dear or the way they interact with the world (Nieto, S.1999). However, in the United States, there a strong emphasis on
Culture, a word almost everyone hears whenever there is sociological discussion that transcends various formats ranging from scholarly articles to local news station broadcasts. Culture contains a myriad of definitions depending on the perspective and lenses used to view it. Since it is a difficult concept to grasp at first, we do not realize the true scale of culture and its responsibility in dictating many actions within our daily lives. Different cultures are found all throughout the world, from the ever increasing western culture to smaller tribal cultures such as the wintu in California (“Vanishing Voices”). What must be taken into account is the fact that culture is heavily intertwined within society, since they both interact with each other in some way.