1. Describe the meaning of multiculturalism in your own words.
In this essay the emphasis is to be on culture and the different variations of how cultural categories are separated and defined. The primary focus is that of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism, as defined by Merriam-Webster is “relating to or including many different cultures”. It is multicultural in adjective form. I find this interesting because an adjective is something that doesn’t stand alone, it needs a helper to make it become what it is intended to be. I define multiculturalism as a group of different cultures that must exist together to create a society a cohesive unit. It has to exist in order for society as a whole, to exist and progress. I don’t believe a single
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Those countries that had not begun to experience any significant social cultural evolution at a rate that this country was beginning to experience saw this country as an opportunity. The United States, even in its, beginnings, had multiculturalism. The act of bringing slaves into the country, bought with it other cultures and subcultures with it. Even to this day, we continue to evolve culturally on many levels. With the arrival of new cultures and also with the evolution of sub cultures within our country. With the addition of these cultures come different values (as cited in Macionis, 2008).
3. Why is multiculturalism a controversial issue for some people?
Multiculturalism is an issue for many people. Not just people of this country but others as well. Because it is believed and in reference to the Applying Theory of Culture Table(page 62, chapter 2), the idea that “Culture is a system of behavior by which members of societies cooperate to meet their needs.”, human nature, in some people’s view, is a behavioral response to a person’s situation. If they live in a culture that was in poverty and stealing was a way of survival, of meeting their needs, than that behavior would be carried with them regardless of where they were physically positioned. An example is that, when Mexican begin migrating in large numbers into southern California, they begin to move into communities. For some, it was a cultural habit to hang clothes lines or
Multiculturalism Explained In One Word: HAPA by Kristen Lee was a radio broadcast for Kristen Lee since she was leaving NPR’s intern program. The gift for her time was a segment where she could talk about anything that she wanted on the broadcast. Kristen’s broadcast followed the idea that people should not define who you are by your culture and ethnicity. Ms. Lee explains how she looks is not who she is, “ I’m a quarter Chinese and the rest is Swedish. From my appearance, people assume I am Asian, but how could a quarter measurement define who I am? “ (Lee 41). This evidence highlights that people stereotype her on how she looks, but that is not who she is as a person. She soon emphasizes how she personally benefited from being stereotyped,
Culture is the Backbone of a society, when something/someone tries to alter it or go against it everyone will notice. In this issue pointed out by Ruth Macklin, we look at the problems that can arise when an individual’s culture and autonomy clash. Every year there at least 30 million immigrants from all over the world that move to the United states of America, making America one of the most culturally diverse country in the world. Keeping this in mind, we will focus on Ruth Macklin’s issue of Multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is the co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles. Critics argue that we associate culture with a society, community and or family, but rarely with a single individual, thus placing it above the individual person. In this paper we are going to look at four different scenarios on from Ruth Macklin’s article.
So what does “multiculturalism” mean? In simple terms multiculturalism is the coexistence, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures in a singular geographic or democratic jurisdiction. Multiculturalism has been a huge part of this study as Australia as a nation is diversified into a various cultural aspects. The concept of multiculturalism has become a widely accepted and embraced fact around the world as more and more countries have adopted to the global policies of acceptance which not only helps the nation economically but also contributes towards the growth of various cultural boundaries and also helps develop knowledge about wide spread variety of customs and culture groups around the world. Ultimately the essence of multiculturalism in any society is to eradicate the feeling of an outsider and accept ethnic and racial groups as their our and build the concept of unity in
The United States has been the land of opportunity for immigrants. It is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to build a better dream and future for their families and leave from poverty, they come with nothing but determination. One thing that every immigrant brings with them is their culture. A person's culture is strongly tied to the country where they grew up. It is tied to their relationship with their family. Many people come to America from so many different places all over the world. For this reason, people call America a melting pot of cultures immigrants are striving for a better future even though when they migrate to the USA they don’t know the consequences they will face and struggle to be successful living in the United States.
Nowadays, racism, politics, and prejudices are the cause of boycotting, riots, and injured people lately, but racism is not the issue. We are constantly surrounded by several different types of race, skin color, and culture. Today, people do not pay attention if a person is different because we are all equal, but with different background and we are worth the same. We have all spoken to a person with a different heritage and shared several different priceless moment with at least of person who is different. Cultural pluralism is the best hope for a just and cohesive society.
It is in this context of “new” immigration and the upheaval of the Civil Rights movement that multiculturalism was chosen as the concept that addressed present and provided for past shifts in the racial and ethnic makeup of the United States. Faced with groups who did not fit into (the recently challenged) white/black racial hierarchy but were deemed as distinct from that of (white) US-American culture, those “natives” of the United States needed to find a new rhetoric and ideology that could represent the “new” reality of the United States. In addition, many of those arriving in the U.S. did not speak the same ‘racial language’ as U.S. Americans—i.e. they did not understand their personal identities within the framework of U.S. racial relations.
Within the United States, a variety of cultures exist. These cultures may not always get along, but it is this melting pot that makes America unique. Two stories, “A Quilt of a Country” by Anna Quindlen, and “The Immigrant Contribution” by John F Kennedy, provide differing viewpoints on how cultures contributed to make America the Nation that it is. When comparing the two stories, there were some obvious differences when looking at how cultures were perceived. In the story, “A Quilt of a Country” on page 14, the author writes about how different cultures in the United States don’t always get along.
America, land of the free and home of the brave. That’s what I have always known growing up. America is the land of opportunity and living so close to the Mexican border I truly believe America is. America is one big melting pot where so many different cultures can come together and live freely. Throughout my essay I will use “Home at Last” by Dinaw Mengestu, “Why Americans Hate This ‘Immigration’ Debate” by Herbert E. Meyer, and Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez to provide quality information of why most immigrates are forced to change their culture upon arrival and could this reason lead to the lack of divers culture?
America is a prime example of liberty that laid the foundation for multiculturalism. Ever since the discovery of the new world, America has always been a melting pot as immigrants from all parts of the world come to America. They come to seek a better life while inadvertently cultivating the area around them. For an example, in the diary, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” by William Bradford, a group of puritans who journey to the Americas struggle to survive during the cold and harsh winter. Luckily, they meet an indian called Squanto, who readily teaches them survival skills and make peace with hostile indians. Most immigrants don’t immediately make a positive impact and are shunned upon for their poor communication and lack of social norm. However, assimilation will always eventually happen and is tenacious to America and will perpetuate as different cultures intertwine into what we know of today as an “American”.
Multiculturalism phenomenon is inherent in human society since the man known commodity exchange, private property and the state. The cultural, ethnic and religious distinctions imposed by any of the distinctions in the political visions and attitudes are distinctions inherent to the nature of human society itself. Multiculturalism approve to the world of diverse and different, and became one of contemporary life mechanism constants, and how to deal and interact with them would lead one way or another, to develop self-ownership, respect, tolerance, and flexibility in our dialogue and coexistence with the other. In multiculturalism is noticed the differences in cultural identities, economic programs, religious beliefs, ethnic communities, and political systems etc... It is no longer a sufficient diagnosis of multiculturalism, but rather how to practically embody as a reality presently, as it was in the past and will be in the future. Differences or multiculturalism doesn 't mean signs of failure, error indications, or inability to reach the same answer, as some believe. The
It’s not been long since multiculturalism came into the wide public, early 1980’s. This made me wonder, why did it take so long for this to happen? It wasn’t a shock to me reading that the majority of teachers and administrative staff were white because you can’t expect for there to be people of color working this type of jobs when there are labels all over the city. But what exactly is multiculturalism? Well, the author provides us with multiple examples. A big one being globalization. “Multiculturalism also is directly related to global shifts of power, population, and culture in the era of globalization and “postcolonialism,” as nations around the world establish independence in the wake of the decline of Western empires.” (1) This means that Globalization was the first step to the melting pot, which is another aspect to multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism is also known as ethnic diversity relating to communities containing multiple cultures. The term is used in two different broad ways, descriptively and normatively. By using the descriptive term, we usually refer to the simple fact of cultural diversity. This can be applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place and sometimes at the organizational level such as schools, neighborhoods or nations. The normative term is often referred to ideologies or politics that promote this diversity or its institutionalization. The United States have been a magnet for people all over the globe, searching for a better life and bringing their own culture and traditions to a new vast country. No
Culture has many definitions and interpretations. According to Clifford Geertz (as cited in, Liu, Gallois, & Volčič, 2015), it is an interpretation of what people learn from their surroundings. Culture shapes a person’s action as well as how they view the world. Dodd’s Model of culture clearly explains the identity of an individual through three different components – the inner core, cultural activities and institutions within a culture (Liu, Gallois, & Volčič, 2015). Humans learn about other culture from what they see and eventually classify them through the perceived image of the group. They constantly form ideas of other culture groups through three stages – selection, categorisation and interpretation (Liu, Gallois, & Volčič, 2015). Individuals associate particular characteristics to cultures and categorise them according to how they perceive the culture group to be. Being in a world with various cultures, the communication accommodation theory, then allows us to understand how multiculturalism plays out in the world today (Liu, Gallois, & Volčič, 2015). In this essay I will be using Dodd’s model of culture to reflect on which culture group that I identify myself with. Being in a multicultural city, I will be sharing the perceptions that I face from people who are not part of culture group. Lastly, incorporating how the communication accommodation theory enables me to interact with other culture groups in my country.
Have you ever heard of the term “melting pot?” It is a term that can be found to describe the United States, as it is known to be one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Culture is defined as the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and are transmitted from generation through learning. Every person is entitled to their own opinion and has the choice of deciding what will impact them. With this being said, rather than having our culture determine who we are, we determine if our culture impacts us by deciding to what extent it informs our perceptions as an individual, who we surround ourselves with, our mentality towards the culture, and how we adapt to our surroundings. One’s culture occasionally informs the way one views the world because we all have the right to make our own decisions and everyone chooses to be impacted by their culture in different ways which is illustrated in the interview/essay, Happa, the novel excerpt, Two Kinds, the personal essay, Two ways to Belong in America, and the novel Siddhartha.
Multiculturalism is the view on different cultures, races, and ethnics. America serves as the melting pot where multiple cultures, religions, and ethnicities can coexist without the threat of violence. For example, immigrants are able to obtain citizen ship and build their own businesses and promote them how they want. There main purpose is to sell ethnic food and items to people of the same culture. They are also given the opportunity to advertise their business how they would like. Multiculturalism has been used for example as a term to characterize the moral and political claims of a wide range of groups, including African Americans, women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities.