Yoshino

Reading review

Law is neither inscribed on the marble nor is engraved on a cooper sheet, and it should be inscribed in the inner heart in citizen’s heart (Rousseau, 1762). The belief to national law is the only way towards democracy and liberty. With the completion of law and legislation, most all of civil rights are covered and protected. However, some hidden assaults on the civil rights cannot be ignored. In this paper, Yoshino’s authenticity, assimilation and individual identity will be discussed.

1. Authenticity

As Yoshino (2006) defined, authenticity is that common human can express themselves freely and their rational behaviors will not be permitted owing to meeting national conformity. Nowadays, even though federal civil right laws regulate

that race, religion, region, and disability even as well as sex orientation should be protected, discrimination still exists, which is the deviation of rules in civil rights law.
In America, called “melt pot”, racial discrimination is strictly prohibited in the law, including impolite behavior and verbal insults. Nevertheless, institutionalized racism has never been less. Vast majority of black people are deprived the equal treatments and rights as white people because of their black complexion. The class ideology “the black should be at bottom” is still popular in certain groups. Decision-makers try to solve the problems by positioning the focus on changing black people’s culture, behavior and morality, rather than eliminating the poverty dilemma itself. That means prior to the adoption of national policy, the US government had completely denied the black culture, behavior and morals, which would determines the policy of the US government cannot get rid of black racism. Besides, in the daily life, the situations of white groups (only white people get together) and black groups are common. In a word, racial discrimination has been exciting for a long time.
Internet, as one of the greatest scientific and technological contribution to the 20th century, has an impact on the world in all aspects. With the rise and rapid development of Internet, the freedom of expression, as a fundamental right of citizens, becomes a new focus. Timeliness, autonomy, anonymity and the interactive nature of Internet put a great positive significance on the practice of freedom of expression. The right of free expression is protected in very country. In America, to realize the freedom of expression on the Internet, there are many constraints. The unsound law and legislation, the diverse culture in America society, unbalanced economy development as well as invisible control of information for citizens set up obstacles and barriers to express freely. For example, information about government determinations that should be transparent was hidden, which impedes the right of expression freedom. To ensure citizen’s freedom of expression on the Internet, government reasonable intervention is necessary. But more importantly, the government must take legal, economic, technical and educational measures to promote the realization of freedom of expression.
All in all, as for some civil rights, federal law indeed stipulates the protection on them, but in the real life, the law is not able to supervise every citizen’s behavior. It is still a long way to relieve the hidden assault on civil rights.
Assimilation
As one of the most influential works in 20th century, Philip Roth’s American Pastoral is a warning and predication of Americanized Jewish life.

The work points out that autonomous assimilation among Jews has replaced anti-Semitism to become the new threat to Jewish ethnic particularity from the sociological perspective. Concerning Jews, with special ethnic culture, social assimilation means they have to accept the mainstream culture model and alter ethnic identity awareness and thinking approach. American democracy, individualism and liberty inject a fresh blood into Jew but is this great success or unexpected failure? Nobody knows. Social assimilation promotes minority nationality into mainstream society but with the deepening of assimilation, the loss of national uniqueness is

inevitable.
Social assimilation exists widespread in a nationality let alone among common citizens.

People tend to pursue for “being the same” as most others. Take a familiar situation as example, facing the red traffic light and no vehicles on the street, one person maybe wait for the green one, but if a group of people run cross the traffic light, everyone follows. This is also an assimilation situation. Assimilation process experiences integration from the local to the whole. Assimilated groups who do not realize the superiority of a certain culture are forced to imitate unconsciously initially. Once they accept that the certain culture is better than original culture, they take the initiative to give up their own cultural patterns and traditions. Being unique requires braveness and encouragement because it sometimes is not permitted by the society. Others cannot understand it as well. As a result, in my opinion, sometimes, being authentic and assimilation is opposite. Within the scope permitted by law, everyone owns civil rights, but from the social perspective, meanwhile most people prefer to be assimilated in certain groups. In a rapid developing society, people live in a fast-paced life. Money, reputation, status become the first pursuit for most common humans. People are assimilated by the

society.
Identity
Because of the difference among main cultures, people need different identities. Interaction between main cultures leads to the change of identity. Individual identity is the cultural identity issue which consists of individual property, history, culture and developing prospects. Sense of individual identity is determined by different cultural identities. In people’s whole life, they will experience the process from self- identity that emphasizes self feeling and emotion to social-identity that underlines social property of individual. One’s social identity can be changed in multiple platforms. For example, people can play the role as a mother in family, a leader in company, or a volunteer in orphanage, they perform and contribute differently. In the technology era, Internet becomes a necessary part in life, and people realize their ideal identities in the virtual space. Although in a state with an adequate legal system, it is impossible to achieve real authenticity, which results in hidden identities. People often wear a mask in a certain group. They are afraid to express themselves bravely. For instance, witness tends to keep salient in traffic accidence to avoid unnecessary trouble. People only complain to themselves when they face unfairness instead of speak out loudly. In the complicated society, most people wear masks to hide real emotions.
In conclusion, it is difficult to realize authenticity in society. It hopes that people can keep themselves meanwhile assimilated in the mainstream culture. And they can handle different identities in multiple platforms.