Seinfeld — Native American In today’s society, Cultural diversity in the United States of America can be seen in all aspects of life, such as in the media, workplace, household, and schools. Cultural diversity is defined as the characteristic of diverse cultures, as contradicting to monoculture, as in a homogenization of cultures, affiliated to cultural decay. In this present stage America, most individuals inaccurately use phrases such as “American culture,” or “Western culture,” as if such common and standardized cultures exist. People, in general, neglect to acknowledge the presence of cultural diversity, and cultural differences within the American society. The YouTube clip titled “Native Americans” on Seinfeld depicts how Jerry, the Chinese man, Winona and other characters simply become victims of social errors and biases either by their choice of words or culture. The clip began with Jerry Seinfeld coming over to Elaine’s place. As she is hangs out with friends, Jerry’s …show more content…
As a result, he ended up offending Winona who is a Native American. That awkward moment forced Winona to leave Elaine’s residence immediately. Once Jerry realized what he did, he went to Winona’s place to make amends and specify how he feels about cultural sensitivity, but his approach and word choices made it a bit overwhelming for him to express what he meant. In the short Seinfeld clip, the characters displays’ the types resistance as explain in chapter 1 of “Think”. There were different types of resistance taking place. Some of the resistances that can be noticed in the clip are avoidance, denial, ignorance, distraction, conformity and struggling. A scenario in the clip that demonstrates Avoidance is when Jerry was walking with Winona and Kramer yelled to Jerry using a racially incentive chant as his taxi drove. This Avoidance prevented him from dealing with the situation at
Indeed, in all their schools from elementary to secondary schools, they already adopted curricula that will foster cultural diversity. Through this program, students from different levels had the chance to be exposed to different traditions and customs of various ethnic and racial groups. Even the government sectors in the United States are advocating tolerance for diversity, like how they commemorate Asian American, Hispanic, and Pacific Islander Heritage weeks (Margai, 2010). Even in their postage, they developed stamps highlighting some prominent Americans along with their diverse backgrounds. Despite all these efforts, sometimes the issue concerning multiculturalism causes significant political and societal conflicts. Right now, United States is widely known as the greatest melting pot where people from different countries and with different cultures could be united as one. However, people have divided views with regards to the issue whether the immigrants should adopt America’s culture, or they should be given the freedom to keep their own culture. The majority of the Americans believed that one must learn first how to speak English before permitting to have an American citizenship. In support of the notion of melting pot, many Americans still insist that their Creed should endure, and their nation is destined to be a prime model to
Before reading the note and chanting, the cigar store Indian, he should have evaluated whether anyone in the room would be offended by the item. By doing so, this will enable Winona to be more forgiving of Elaine’s gift and Jerry’s behaviour.
First, I will discuss the influences of different definitions of diversity in cultural unification. The major problem concerning this issue is that many people differ in the real meaning of the concept and how they view their personal involvement. Brook argues that “we do not really care about diversity all that much in America, even though we talk about it a great deal” (306). However, they are the general, erroneous interpretations of diversity that are really creating this wrong image of indifference. According to Kira Hudson Banks in her research entitled “A Qualitative Investigation of Students’ Perceptions of Diversity,” many people defined diversity as race and do not include other types of diversity (153).
Kottak, Conrad Phillip and Kayhryn Kozaitis 2012 On Being Different, Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream, 4th edition, McGraw Hill Press, New York: Chapter 8. (textbook)
The United States is an immense country, with many residents and citizens descending from immigrants who have influenced many customs, traditions, behaviors and ways of life. Unlike many old world nations, the United States does not have a homogenous population or a traditional homeland. However, American culture can be interpreted as being largely based in Western Europe with influences from the Native Indians, Africans, Asians, and elsewhere.
Jerry Seinfeld's television sitcom, "Seinfeld," which went off the air in 1999, is still one of the most culturally pertinent shows today. The show dealt with little nuances of American society. A puffy shirt, for example, could be the main subject for an entire show. This show, which was derived from Jerry Seinfeld's observational humor, was voted as the "Greatest Show of All Time" by TV Guide in 2002. According to the show's official website, the ratings for the syndicated version of Seinfeld are ahead of many of the current primetime comedies ("Seinfeld" 2/5).
Cultural pluralism or cultural diversity replaces the melting pot image with what is frequently described as a “mosaic” or almost a “tossed salad.” As Christine Bennett stated “each part retains some of its uniqueness while contributing to the beauty and strength of the whole composition.” The United States still has failed to become part of the tossed salad idea we don’t diversify with other cultures, why?
Berteaux, John, and Gerrald D. Doppelt, ed. Dimensions of Culture 1: Diversity. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 1998.
A diverse union is one that values the differences in all people; Diversity can be defined as people coming together from different race, ethnicity, political beliefs, religion beliefs, and social status. Living in America, gives one the opportunity to live in a diverse neighborhood, moreover, with all the diverse opportunities we have; Do we take full advantage and live in diversity in our communities? David Brook’s say’s in People like us, “Maybe it’s time to admit the obvious. We don’t really care about diversity all that much in America…” (357) Brook’s statement is bold, however, it does state a fact American’s cannot deny; talking about diversity and actually practicing in one’s life are very different from one another. Walter Benn Michael’s
At the end of the NPR article they discuss the problem between keeping television shows diverse, “without amplifying the problems of stereotyping and prejudice” (Feld). Television shows feel that in order to a successful show with diversity, the people need to be cast-typed or take on every stereotype that is associated with that particular race or gender. The Erigha article discusses how, “many of actors were type-casted, or put in racialized roles, that fit their ethnicity” and some of these people do not necessarily fit that type, “they used Asian Actors as an example, many of the actors that were born in America, were asked to speak in a Chinese accent.”
The roles of diversity and uniqueness are a crucial part of society today. Without these qualities being enforced into the American character, people won't produce thoughtful ideas that could help shape America. Both authors illustrate the evil effect of conformity in society and support how one should be self reliant, not phony, and confident in their own beliefs and ideas.
In order to understand this immense country that we call America, we need to study the culture. More specifically, we need to study the form of society in America. Is this society changing, or does it remain fixed throughout time? There are many aspects of our society, some of which are: traditions, values, and religion. The many realms of society contribute to a conglomerate culture, which cannot be described simply.
Differences are an undeniable common thread in American culture and the global community at large. It should be expected that every individual is unique in his or her own experiences, views, beliefs philosophies and ideologies. Fortunately, these distinctive differences that have become a driving force for change and acceptance in the workplace environment. “Workforce diversity acknowledges the reality that people differ in many ways, visible or invisible, [by] age, gender, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture (Shen, Chanda, D’Netto, & Monga, 2009, p. 235). Support of individuals’ unique differences has assisted organizations in creating a business culture, which allows its workforce to thrive. Moreover, effective management of diversity has enabled organizations to better understand the many facets of the communities they reach and has allowed companies to successfully compete in an increasingly competitive global market.
The lack of cultural understanding by the American society due to a prepotent dominance is a fact difficult to hide, however, the society is the one in charge of analyzing the country's demographical diversity and make the necessary accommodations in order to improve the life quality, regardless if native born or immigrant
Coming from Guam, a place that is considered a territory with so much different cultures and people, it opened my eyes to how other people see things. Although there are differences, there were many similarities and I realized that there were more to diversity, and cultures when I moved from the island to the mainland. The move exposed me to other definitions of diversity like region of the U.S populated with one culture over another, and the different types of food people shared and enjoyed. According to Bucher (2015), “diversity refers to the ways in which people are different” (p. 2); and I took a lot out of the experience from a new place other than