American Ethnic Relations : A Historical Perspective

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.

The article ‘’What Every American Should Know’’ by Eric Liu acknowledges the struggles, the rapidly changing, and all of the multicultural issues that continually expands through every day of the culture wars. So within this article Liu is confronting a very substantial topic, which he asserts the problem of cultural diversity or the culture wars inside of the United States. In the article Liu provides the reader with many different examples all the way from cultural literacy, multiculturalism, and many examples from history over the years. Liu also expresses these examples in a way that the reader can absorb the details in a different style were the reader has to look at each example in a different aspect to fully understand what he is trying to stay. Liu evaluates E.D Hirsch and talks about the list. The list that every American should know, containing ten words that every citizen in America should know. Liu discourages people use Hirsch’s list because of the time differences between the past and the future, and how the culture war has progressed through time. Liu has evolved Hirsch’s idea and created something more modern that people can create their own list to show the people of America different opinions to have and no one is wrong or right that is what makes this list so influential. (Liu)

Joseph Healey’s “From Immigrants to White Ethnics” is a generalized comparison between the varying groups of individuals that accompanied the colossal waves of immigration to the United States from Europe in the nineteenth century. Immigration to this country resulted from a number of reason such as religious persecution, individuals seeking to find employment after industrialization in their home countries limited their livelihood, and political oppositions to name a few. On arrival the immigrants knew immediately they were of the subordinate group and faced “discrimination and prejudice” (Healey, 2012, p. 54), although some more so than others. Among the first immigrants to arrive in the United States were Northern and Western European citizens. Unlike the immigrants from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe that chose the United States for their new homeland these individuals were probably the most accepted by the majority, even if considered just nominally superior to the others. Included in this group were the “English, Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Welsh, French, Dutch and Danes” (Healey, 2012, p. 56). This acceptance was due in part to the similarities that the dominate group held as ideals such as their religion, along with cultural values and characteristics. If the Northern and Western Europeans found acceptance difficult, individuals from Ireland and the Europeans from the south and east had an even more traumatic experience. Whereas the more accepted group had

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

Many researchers have studied the immigrant assimilation in the recent years. America’s ethnic groups have been expected to come together as one and into the mainstream of american society for decades. Immigrant assimilation is a complex process in which immigrants should not only fully integrate themselves to a new country but also lose aspects perhaps all their heritage too if necessary. Social scientists rely on a primary benchmark to assess immigrant assimilation which is socioeconomic status. A melting pot can be described as a metaphor which indicates a society where many different types of people blend in as one.

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

In American society, there are multiple cultures and races exist. Since immigrants bring the various cultures to America, Americans face a highly controversial problem. Some of the Americans believe all of the ethnic groups assimilate into a common culture can help Americans distinctly identify themselves. Others argue that ethnic groups should not abandon their cultural heritages background. As a result, merging different cultures into one new culture will cause America lose its cultural diversity which is one significant charm of this country. On the contrary, if every ethnic group only focuses on building their own community and resists communicate with others, it will aggravate the separation of a nation. Although people often argue about these two ways which one is more appropriate to Americans, I think Richard Rodriguez's idea is more realistic in nowadays American society. Rodriguez resists the idea of the melting pot, and believes that assimilation is inevitable and reciprocal. In the essay Does America Still Exist?, Rodriguez explains his thought to us through his experiences.

“American Dreamer” by Bharati Mukherjee scrutinizes the problems involved with culture fusion and identity. Within the essay, Mukherjee provides her story of traveling to the United States to expose America’s problem with the fusion of other cultures. Fusion, according to Mukherjee, stands as the idea of multiple cultures uniting together within the context of a country under one supreme set of ideals regardless of previous beliefs and cultural influences. However, both resident countries and immigrants struggle to coexist with their conflicting societal influences. The refusal to accept cultural differences provokes division within society.

To begin, when the minority groups first started to cultivate in American society, one must examine the “condition of entry” for the minority groups. Condition of entry is a theory that refers to the metaphysical ideals revolving the initial appearance of the minorities in America, specifically economic and social positions in American society. What positions in the workforce and other economically influenced positions in society did these minorities receive? Were these positions voluntarily or a result of varying degrees of institutionalized racism? How did their presence affect the economy? These questions are all relevant when analyzing the historical entry of minorities into American society. Each ethnicities had drastically different interactions with America upon first arrival but had a similar strain of racism staining the history pages of

America was widely known as a “melting pot” of sorts for many generations. The country earned its title by accepting immigrants of various cultures and molding, or melting, them into the American lifestyle. However, the “melting pot” idea of America is starting to dissipate. According to a Newsweek Poll on the public, “only 20 percent still think America is a melting pot” (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.4). As more Americans push away immigrants and create stereotypes against said immigrants, America continues to lose its title as a “melting pot.” There is ethnic friction in America and people have begun to have a hard time assimilating (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.18). .America is beginning to place a negative outlook on its

States, and thus, a few individuals having a place with these gatherings don 't recognize as

How does Fredrickson distinguish between race and ethnicity? How and under what circumstances can ethnicity become racialized’ (para.2)?

Along with its economic classes, American is known for its freedom, its liberty, and the melting pot of ethnicity. This ethnic diversity comes form the immigrant population in the country. However this perfect country is a major falsehood. These untrue ideals of harmony, freedom, success, and equality are deceptive and do not show the struggles that immigrants face when coming to this class dominated country. The immigrants of today do not come from just Europe, but overwhelmingly from Asia and Latin America. “They are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today 's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation 's population’ (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle). These immigrants challenge the social myth that everyone has an equal chance in life. They

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The United States is considered a melting pot because of the vast array of different cultures, ethnicities, and religious groups who all live within its borders. Other countries with fewer cultural differences have been torn apart by the conflicts that arise between these differing groups. It is believed by some that the United States has been able to avoid such ethical conflicts as have brought down other nations but looking at American history it is evident that this is not true. America's history is one of ethnic conflict because of religion, nationalistic, and particularly ethnic differences. The two centuries that the United States has existed has been a history of racial marginalization particularly against African Americans which culminated with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the present, the United States likes to claim that as a nation, we are color blind but evidence exists to the contrary. The Klu Klux Klan (KKK) still exists, hate crimes are committed based on ethnicity, and stereotypes are perpetuated in order to minimize and ostracize. Despite these instances, the country has held strong largely because although these instances occur, they are not approved of by the government or those involved in criminal justice.