Ronald Takaki A Different Mirror Analysis

Josue Martinez
Professor Amerian
History 10
29 October 2017
1. What is the argument of Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America? How does Takaki make that argument?
The argument of Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America is that America has always been shaped by its multiculturalism and that it is much more important to know about the history of minorities and how they also shaped America instead of just hearing about this prevailing master narrative of American history which he states is “this powerful and popular but inaccurate story, our country was settled by European immigrants, and Americans are white.” (Takaki, 5). Takaki makes this argument early on in the book by first stating

it in the first chapter by out right stating that the master narrative itself is being challenged by racial diversity as the minority population grows in America and that eventually even Americans descended from Europeans will also be a minority themselves. He also brings up that this will eventually become a problem when it does occur since this whole idea of Americans being white will still be ingrained even when this isn’t the case anymore. Takaki keeps making his argument throughout the book through his various discussions on different minority groups and how their own histories in America were shaped by white America and their response to these minority groups to begin with. For example Takaki shows this in depth by how white Americans shaped the history of Native Americans and led to their current situation and place in the US and he uses this case to show how they as minorities have suffered and yet due to the master narrative this is mostly unknown by a huge amount of the population and when he talks about African Americans he shows especially how they were especially affected by racism and were made into permanent slaves just because of their differing skin color and were eventually imported en masse due to a rich and greedy class wanting to keep other white Americans poor but make them still feel superior to
2. Why did Takaki write the book? What was his larger goal?
Takaki wrote the book to mostly focus on minorities and their impact on American history that is usually left out by this “master narrative” he mentions that tends to ignore how minorities were affected by events in American history.

He attempts this by trying to show that the “master narrative” itself is currently being challenged with how diverse America as a country is becoming and that with the rise of minorities finding out their own histories it is instead challenged and diversity is instead being embraced. The larger goal behind the book ultimately was to show how each of the minorities he addresses in his book from the Native Americans, Irish Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and various others were each impacted by decisions made by the majority at the time and how these various histories will ultimately impact the future of America. Takaki also states himself that “A Different Mirror seeks to study the past for the sake of the future” (Takaki, 445). Just based of this quote from Takaki himself shows that with this book he tries to at least show that by studying the past of American history from a minority’s perspective that it’ll influence the future when we all become minorities in time so we can use these past experiences to not cause harm to others or ignore others history as we keep developing as a

country.