In the article, it illustrates about Peter Salins who had two types of purposes for writing the “Assimilation, American Style.” One out of its two purposes was to reveal how immigrants were a big part or played a huge contribution to mainstream America. In addition to immigrants playing a big role, they wanted the immigrants to make a change to American without them losing their identity or self-image. The reason behind that is because the immigrants wanted to stay true to themselves, without society changing them severely. The second reason that Salins wrote this article was to argue with both the political left and the nativist right for the attack on their assimilation, and as well having the immigrants follow up on a policy that had 700,000 …show more content…
He adds that there are different types of ethnic backgrounds and religious attributes to America; then goes off leading into detail about it. In addition, he clearly states how assimilation does not abandon the immigrants’ behavior of cultural and conformity, but puts a point onto the rich who have transcended American society with cultural contribution from where the immigrants are from. America is filled with different cultural tastes, which is why America is one the top countries to have the most people immigrating from different countries. In the article, he then talks about national unity. Is America really unified? Based off what Salins wrote, he points and gives credit to America for achieving a sense of unity with the law, policies, and public contributions. America has grown from back then to now. America is a country that allows immigrants to become a citizen after living in the United States for about five years. Then, they can vote and run for public office. America is the land of opportunity which inspires many immigrants to come to America and also have a chance in greater …show more content…
The down fall of being an immigrant is when it comes to going to school, especially in a public school. Salina talks about multiculturalism and how it is a anti-assimilation. Upon multiculturalism in schools, likewise a public school, Salins argues that multiculturalism promotes ethnic grievance, meaning that it removes the focus of what America is about and the contribution that were establish. Salins’ concerns about public school are that he feels as if humans are going and becoming detached from what they should learn about America, instead of learning things about the history and growth of how America became to be. By this, Salins is at struggle to understand why school is promoting to teach multiculturalism in public school or any schools that is teaching beyond American ground work of history. He, in addition feels as if bilingualism in teaching immigrants is an anti-assimilation ideology, because the bilingual studies program tend to plummet and fall behind, rather than someone who is taught in multiple subjects than just English on its own. In the article, he states “Multiculturalism is explicitly and self-consciously directed towards nurturing an acute sense of ethnic grievance and victimization among the children of ethnic minorities, with ethnic minorities narrowly defined as encompassing black, Latinos, and American Indians.” He feels that the
During this years America experience a lot of major transformations with culture because a lot of people were migrating here from all parts of the world. Some believe that people who migrated should look up to Americans because Americans believe they were superior to anyone else, and they thought it would only be fair if they follow their customs and beliefs. There was debates weather the Mexican-American culture could draw from two rich culture traditions in the United States. Acculturation was being sued at this time and many people supported because there was a lot of changes that was happening in both cultures but there was also assimilation that was occurring. Assimilation let people adapt to new changes and change their own culture to the new culture they were learning. For many Mexican Americans assimilation was hard for them because of dominant Anglo society and their exclusionary rules. Some were rejected and but they didn’t care to put them in any of the middle class white societies. Many came to a agreement that they could practice there own beliefs without interfering with the other cultures beliefs. This helped created less conflict even if there was still people who had many differences. Assimilation and acculturation is a very hard thing to distinguish where each person should go based on there culture because not a lot people want to adapt to the new life but
Hahn’s most important point is his idea that a large number of black activists put forth multi-racial and democratic vision of the nation in which birth and loyalty determined rights and citizenship rather than race. Because African Americans put forth this remarkably modern view of America, it brings up the question of who built and defined this great
The “new” immigrants came over hungry for work and were willing to work for a fraction of what the “old” immigrants would. The “new” immigrants came in unskilled and unaccustomed to American society, took the “old” immigrants jobs and shook up their neighborhoods; this created much tension between the two groups. Riis like others, hated some ethnic groups more than others, and in How the Other Half Lives establishes a general hierarchy placing the “old” immigrants on the top, groups such as Germans, Irish and the English. In the middle Riis ranks the Italians, Jews, and blacks. On the bottom of the ladder Riis places the Chinese.
I will be analyzing the essay “Class in America --2012”. The topic of this essay is talking about does it matter what your social and economical standings are, and do they play a role in if you succeed in life. I personally agree with this. If someone is hard working and willing to do the job then I feel that they can be successful. Their background, race, and social and economical standings don’t justify everything that they are. Mantsios effectively communicates the phenomenon of stereotyping certain races, genders, and social classes will be more successful than others in America.
Daniel, Roger is a highly respected author and professor who has majored in the study of immigration in history and more specifically the progressive ear. He’s written remarkable works over the history of immigration in America, in his book Not like Us he opens a lenses about the hostile and violent conditions immigrants faced in the 1890’s through the 1924’s. Emphasizing that during the progressive area many immigrants felt as they were living in a regressing period of their life. While diversity of ethnicity and race gradually grew during this time it also sparked as a trigger for whites creating the flare up of nativism. Daniel’s underlines the different types of racial and ethnical discrimination that was given to individual immigrant
There is overwhelming evidence presented by Cather for the inability of American society to coexist harmoniously with the individualist immigrant; they can accept only those who are willing to subscribe to the conformist doctrine ...
Bourne suggests that the process of Americanization has taken a negative turn in America, since people are being forced to adopt the culture, not to integrate it into their own. Randolph S. Bourne criticizes the idea of the melting-pot in favor of a cosmopolitan America. His critique of attempts to assimilate immigrants to American culture demonstrates the fragile nature of the immigrant’s beliefs in the face of Americanization. According to Bourne, “It is just this English-American conservatism that has been our chief obstacle to social advance,” (Bourne 2/11). Bourne suggests that not everyone wants to be assimilated into American society. “The foreign cultures have not been melted down or run together, made into some homogeneous Americanism, but have remained distinct but cooperating to the greater glory,” (Bourne 4/11). Bourne points out that America is meant to become a cosmopolitan mixture of America. America is form by immigrants and is destiny to be a mixture of
...d not assimilate to accepted American culture. However, by the time society learned which ethnicities were ‘unassimilable’, the cultures had already begun to take root in America. At first America had a knee-jerk reaction to this realization and began passing more resolutions preventing ‘non-whites’ from entering the United States. However, as America experienced the increase in cultural communities in reaction to prejudice formed by immigration laws, the government learned that only through a loosening of immigration law and lessening of prejudice would America become a true melting pot. The mid-1900s saw this manifestation in America, as immigration laws allowed more people from around the world to immigrate. As prejudice lessened, the cultural communities sprinkled throughout America that created a mosaic became less prevalent and have begun to form a melting pot.
"The two races have lived here together. The Negro has been here in America since 1619, a total of 344 years. He is not going anywhere else; this country is his home. He wants to do his part to help make his city, state, and nation a better place for everyone, regardless of color and race. Let me appeal to the consciences of many silent, responsible citizens of the white community who know that a victory for democracy in Jackson will be a victory for democracy everywhere” (Medgar Evers in Jackson Mississippi, 2013). This excerpt is taken from a 17 minute speech by Medgar Evers on May 20, 1963, in response to the vocal criticisms of Mayor Allen Thompson’s view of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as being ‘outside agitators’.
The author is trying to convoy that life is lived in many different levels of understanding and meaning, and how there are advantages and disadvantages no matter which way a person lives their life. Ingram wonderfully displays the mass differences in worldviews and hopes to establish less confusion when attempting to share those views with Immigrants. The author is not trying to push worldviews upon anyone, however she is exploiting the vast ways people can learn and discuss different worldviews without causing discrimination or confusion. Being open minded to worldviews can allow you to gain perspective as well as experience when trying to understand other perspectives that may seem unfamiliar to
Throughout the semester we touched on several topics, but one topic that stood out for was immigration. We watched and discussed movies like “Sin Nombre” and “El Norte” which depicted the process of migrating and the risk factors associated with it. On a personally I more interested in it because been an immigrant myself I can relate to Sayra in “Sin Nombre” and Pedro and his sister in “El Norte” to some extent.
The United States as a country has always been an entity unique amongst the world’s myriad of nations: a conglomeration of cultures, ethnic groups and religious backgrounds from around the planet, all fused together to yield something entirely new. Since its very inception, those who dwell within its borders have attempted to ascertain the makeup of the American identity, in order to pin down how exactly one can come to be considered as an American themselves. This is inherently quite a subjective issue, but the conversation primarily boils down to three core factors that make the American people who they are: a dedication to preserving the natural rights of every human being, a belief in the importance of the individual in deciding their own
Immigrants leave their countries in search for a better life and improvement of their situation. There is no singular reason for immigration; motivations range from better economic prospects to political safety. As of late, the number of immigrants living in the United States is an estimated 11 million. Those who immigrate are expected to contribute to the United States culturally, politically, and economically. Yet, full assimilation becomes difficult to achieve when the immigrant is made into “the other” by the country of reception.
One of the many important recalls is that the United States was constructed on the pride of diversity, which emerged into pursuing the strong personal beliefs, values and vision for the future. Like during the Gold Rush and now there was many conflicts regarding the different backgrounds. Once the conflicts rose during the late 1860s due to crowding of many people traveling in a fast pace to California. According to Thomas J. Osborne in “ Pacific El Dorado” states “ with tens of thousands of miners of diverse ethnic and nations origins, laboring often in close proximity to one another, problems of law and order were bound to arise given the absence of lawmen and courts”(98). Even if there was no law enforcement during the period of the Gold Rush, American eventually learned to live among each other and especially learn. The positive aspect of working around different diversities created the knowledge to understand that there’s many ways of living, building, and thinking. Meanwhile even though it seems like we are replaying our past history it will never happen again because as history repeats itself over and over again it helps people realize that we need each other in order to prosper. Without the immigrants the United States would not be what it is today, without the immigrants there wouldn’t be an American dream, and without the immigrants there would never be the
Love is powerful and could change a person’s personality. In “The Book of Unknown Americans”, the author Christina Hernriquez tells us the definition of love. It is a book combined with different stories but each story is connected to others. It talks about the immigrants that moved to America with lots of hope, but didn’t end up with a happy ending. The story is about love, hope and guilt and different kinds of emotional feeling. In the book, Mayor has an internal change because of Maribel, and the power of love. He wants to be a strong man who can protect Maribel. He used to be someone who couldn’t defend himself and he changed because of Maribel.