More handpicked essays just for you.
My view on cultural identity
The importance of multicultural education in today's society
Why learners need multicultural education
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Multiculturalism is not just a concept. It is an important term for teachers to integrate into their daily classroom instruction. In many ways, people are separated into groups such as Mexicans, Blacks, and Whites. Many people see and confused Multicultural with diversity and wrongly associated with reverse racism. Multiculturalism has allowed many people to express themselves without diversity our entire country would all believe in the same thing and do the same thing. There would not be any creativity among us if there weren’t differences among each other. If we did not have the diverse blend of people and cultures, we would not grow as people and still believe in all the same things. We would be stuck in the past and never develop, be different …show more content…
and having different cultures is what makes each one of us unique and besides unique is makes us more special. Women might not be where they are today, right alongside the men. Men would be a superior woman would not be able to think for themselves or be able to control what they want. Thankfully we have multiculturalism, can grow our minds and let each other differential the different aspect of one of the other and learn about one other. Diversity is what make people different, not just culturally but also defining who they are. Teenagers have a great misunderstanding of what the importance of multiculturalism and diversity. The main point of a multiculturalism is having a multitude of differences is many places such as workplaces where it gives the ability to use many ideas to reach a common goal. A person could say that a diverse group of people together in one room can carry out greater achievements than a room filled with the same types of people. Having multiculturalism in America lets us blend our differences cultures together and learn from each other. Different cultures bring a unique part of their belief into our and we each make it into more than just cultures. Many people are more comfortable labeling each other rather than focus more on the bright side such as being who they are and appreciate their culture.
Many people appreciate their culture in many ways, for example, Gloria Anzaldua in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, she argues that Latin Americans are forced to abandon their heritage and be submissive to white society, in order to persuade English speaking Americans to accept different social identities. Gloria Anzaldua discusses that on the border, the language is getting forgotten. Living in the lands between America and Mexico seems to be a place of confusion, of separation, of not knowing to which side you belong. “Nosotros Los Chicanos straddle the borderlands. On one side of us, we are constantly exposed to the Spanish of the Mexicans, on the other side, we the Anglo’s incessant clamoring so that we forget our language (62). Gloria clearly talks about the importance about getting accepted by who we are and not trying to be someone that society sees because of their culture. One of the example everyone one of us have a story to tell about how our culture personally affect us and how meeting people from another country made us more comfortable into accepting each culture and beliefs without judging others because of their
culture. When arriving America, most people must learn how to communicate with other people in English. They learn English and the culture from American people or earlier immigrants who are around them. In public activity , people must accept American cultural traditions, but in their private lives, they inevitably use their own customs, values, religions, traditional festivals and
Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
In her book “Borderland/La Frontera, The New Mestiza” by Gloria Anzaldua, Gloria talks about what it means to be able to identify, culturally, one’s self. So what does it mean to be able to identify one’s self with a specific culture? What about when the culture you identify yourself with, to other cultures, isn’t legitimate? In her writing, Gloria expresses the struggles of Chicanos trying to find their own identity with language. By showing how she had to use several different styles of English and Spanish growing up, the rejections of both American and Mexican cultures, and by showing how the Chicano language finally came about, Gloria is able to effectively convey this point.
Immigrants have helped shape American identity by the languages they speak from their home country. Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to making people know what culture really identifies a person rather than their race. For example, in the essay, it states that Richard Rodriguez “ is Chinese, and this is because he lives in a Chinese City and because he wants to be Chinese. But I have lived in a Chinese City for so long that my eye has taken on the palette, has come to prefer lime greens and rose reds and all the inventions of this Chinese Mediterranean. lines 163-171”.
In the poem Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua, the speaker connects living by the physical border between the United States and Mexico to invisible borders that exists when people struggle to express their identity. While the physical border separates the countries, she suggests the presence of a hidden border that separates cultures. Experiencing the rigid mindset of cultural segregation, the boundaries people set cause them to lose their identity in the midst of conforming to a new one. She also discusses the issue of xenophobia, creating barriers between cultures. Using two languages in her poem, Anzaldua attempts to link American and Hispanic culture, establishing an example of a crossroad. Many authors also often grapple with ideas regarding borders and crossroads to search for the origin of
While Anzaldúa makes great points about the struggles of a Chicana women in America, her arguments imply that Mexican people are the only people that have to adapt to American culture. While Mexican people should feel free to express their cultures freely, language is a much more complex issue; it is not simply solved by not accommodating to English speakers. English speakers must strive to embrace other cultures and languages, and understand that they do not necessarily have to speak that language to accept
America is a presumptuous country; its citizens don’t feel like learning any other language, so they make everyone else learn English. White Americans are the average human being and act as the standard of living, acting, and nearly all aspects of life. In her essay “White Privilege: The Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh talks about how being white has never been discussed as a race/culture before because that identity has been pushed on everyone else, and being white subsequently carries its own set of advantages. Gloria Anzaldua is a Chicana, a person of mixed identities. In an excerpt titled “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she discusses how the languages she speaks identify who she is in certain situations and how, throughout her life, she has been pushed to speak and act more “American” like.
The essay How to Tame a Wild Tongue, by Gloria Anzaldua, highlights the difficulties Chicanos have being raised in the United States. In the essay, Anzaldua also describes her problem with self identity regarding which language she should speak due to the ethnocentric views and the cultural imperialistic nature of others. In the essay it seemed that no matter what language Anzaldua spoke she was criticised for it. When she spoke English the American born English speakers criticised her for her accent. Or when she spoke Spanish the Spanish speakers claimed the way she spoke Spanish is not proper. Society tried to tame Anzaldua’s tongue mainly by making her feel like a social outcast. However, she was able to overcome this through a strong sense
For example, Espada feels if he, as an immigrant, lives in the United States he relinquishes his native language, Spanish, so he can learn English, and this means losing a major connection with his native cultural identity. He prefers Americans accept and respect immigrants speaking their native tongue and have Americans learn Spanish instead of immigrants having to learn English. Espada’s comment, “there are too many in this country who would amputate the Spanish tongue” (Espada 4) exemplifies how passionate Espada feels about having a second language as part of a person’s identity. Rodriguez and his family learned the public language, but they lost their closeness in the process.
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
Language is an important value for the nationalistic identity of a nation. Hispanic culture is the way of life of people from Latin America and Spain, and their main identifying factor is the fact that they speak Spanish as their main language. Therefore, Hispanics are not necessarily Spaniards but other groups like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans who speak Spanish are also part of this group (Shaw and Dennison 207). American culture on the other hand is mainly comprised of the people who speak English as their main dialect. Therefore, the Spaniards have Spanish as their native language while the Americans use Englis...
Like many Chicanos, she developed a strong sense of cultural belonging. This is primarily due to discrimination amongst neighboring Mexicans, whites, and anyone in between. Latinos and latinas would attack her, saying “...cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language, you’re ruining the Spanish language” (Anzaldua 412). It was this ethnic struggle that drove her to latch onto her cultural background so strongly. In the personal narrative “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, Anzaldua states “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture” (Anzaldua 419) when referring to the resilience of her native people. She states this in response to other cultural groups having abandoned their language, meanwhile they retained theirs. The Chicanos are aware of the harsh standards of North American society. By saying “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours,” she means that even when other ethnicities have been pushed to eliminate their languages, her ethnicity stayed strong; they refused to cave in. Likewise, when Anzaldua states “We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture,” she draws pride from her culture’s ability to fend off even the most suffocating adversities. In this way, Anzaldua conveys
The essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua is relevant to today’s society, because it brings to discussion important social issues such acculturation, racism, and sexism. A major social event that she lived through and was an advocate of was the Chicano movement, which influenced her in her writing. This essay is not only written solely using her intelligence and research, it also comes from personal experience. Furthermore, she says that she will not be silenced anymore, that all people deserve the right to freedom of speech and the freedom to their culture. Not to have to submit to the dominant cultures found here in the United States. This essay is directed towards two groups
Multicultural education is a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students. It challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and society and accepts and affirms pluralism (ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, economic, and gender, among others) that students, their communities, and teachers reflect (Nieto, 2000).
...xpressing her Chinese culture. Mastering a second language allows her to articulate her and her mother’s thoughts; it is a foundation for her pride and a foundation to express herself. For Gloria Anzaldua, instead of choosing one language over the other, she chose a mix of the two and fights for it. She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.