One Identity “We may have all come on different ships, but we 're in the same boat now “ (Luther King, Jr. 1). Americans think only positive thoughts when they ponder the myth of the melting pot. The myth perpetuates the notion that once someone becomes an American, they are one with the nation; equal to everyone else. This notion is that to be truly American everyone needs to assimilate to everyone else to appreciate this country’s full experience. The myth, however, has a tendency to negate other cultures in the process, which is contradictory to what America stands for: freedom. Freedom is the operative word, freedom of religion, freedom to choose where one lives, freedom to be an American citizen. In blending in under the melting …show more content…
Certain stereotypes still exist with the theory of being one nation. For various reasons whether they are from past experiences, negative perceptions, or a feeling of superiority, prejudices can still lie within a community that feels only total assimilation is the way to a unified country. Also recognized by Vincent Parrillo in “Causes of Prejudice”, “In many societies, members of the majority group may believe that a particular low-status minority group is dirty, immoral…”(Parrillo 505). A person can incorporate themselves into a community, however, feelings of superiority and judgement still exist within that structure. It is not enough to just mix a society, there are underlying preconception that still prevail with our without assimilation. Certainly evident today with immigration being a hot topic, prejudices survive notably when there is economic hardship. A “scapegoat” (Parrillo 511) is needed to explain why certain financial conditions exist in a nation that is usually described as being the wealthiest. When community or ethnic group is largely recognized as being poor or undereducated, they are the first to be blamed, whether they have been here for years or not. The sense of superiority over a group means they carry the burden of …show more content…
Society would like to believe that prejudices and racism doesn 't exist in our country. It would be an atrocity for other countries to see America not creating other equally. Unfortunately, it does exist, it was there when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. After the storm, people who aghast with the images of people struggling to survive and living in severely deplorable conditions. How could these atrocities occur and why did they occur? Harris and Carbado stated, “the most relevant and dominant frame is color blindness, or the belief that race is not a factor in how we make sense of the world” (Harris, Carbado 528). America ignores that racism exists, so when tragedies occur the most vulnerable get ignored also. Then because the citizens of New Orleans were discounted, it became essentially their fault they were in the plight because of their actions, not anyone else 's. This color blindness that Harris and Carbado speak of also exists in regards to America’s highest honor, being president. The hope that was alive when Barack Obama first became President is a forgone thought. In the beginning of his campaign, Obama was for the underdogs of American society. He wanted to work to improve the lives of minorities and the poor. After he became President those strong ideologies became lost in the oneness of his political realm, forgetting some of the promises he made in order
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
In Amin Ahmad’s I belong here, the reader is faced with a sense of sympathy that makes the reader’s view of the world, not only questionable, but alterable. This personal experience, written in the year 2010 shames the fact that this world has and shows how little progress the world has made in the judgment and discrimination of immigrants. These people look differently, speak differently, and live differently; but on the inside they are the same. Nonetheless, they are looked down upon by people from different cultures. The author uses his personal ethos and pathos to support the claim of value that immigrants are not treated fairly.
Since its inception, there has always been a subsection of the American people that think that sharing a country with people different than them is unacceptable. Whether it was the 5 tribes of Native Americans relocated in the Trail of Tears, or the prejudice against irish immigrants during the turn of the century, white anglo-saxon protestants have always tried to ‘stick together’ and keep others unlike them out. With the end of the civil war and an end to slavery, this nativism present within the American people manifested itself once more. While the journey taken by African-American citizens was long and unnecessarily arduous, the backlash against them has waxed and waned as time passes. During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was at it’s peak,
Throughout history, Americans have always been intimidated by immigrants. The idea of an immigrant coming to America and easily being able to get a job scared Americans. Americans feared that good jobs would be taken from hard working Americans and given to immigrants for less pay because they required less money to live on or were used to no wages or lower wages in their Country of origin. People would immigrate to America in search of a better life, and often times they could find homes and jobs that made them want to stay. A melting pot is described as being a mixing of different cultures into one universal culture. In Erika Lee’s, The Chinese Exclusion Example, immigrant exclusion helped re-define the melting-pot
States. Everyone had to prove that they were independent, capable, and willing to integrate into the cultural melting pot with its own identity of hard work, grit, and determination, which established and fostered success in American society. However, not everyone who chooses to take the adventure and risk associated with becoming American wishes to share in this identity. Many feel it necessary to shun the American identity and observe it with a level of disdain, disregarding the reasons themselves or previous generations may have immigrated to America for.
Sociologists use assimilation theory to examine race and institutions. The perceived deficiencies of minority immigrant groups by white society has resulted in a generalized characterization of these different racial groups that is demeaning and reinforces the negative stereotypes towards minorities in the United States. Knowles and Prewitt argue that the cause behind the racial tension is the historical roots of institutional racism, which has prevented the minority from attaining equality. Following structured social inequality in the United States, institutions have consistently denied the minority groups through discrimination in education, employment, health care and medicine, and politics. Some ways that this has been done is through the use of Jim Crow Laws.
When a country opens its gates for immigrants such as America, a heterogeneous mixture of cultures merges into one whole. To cope with such diversity and attain the best results, the melting pot effect would suit best for America. The melting pot builds and develops an enriched society filled with variety. The diversity can be seen all ar...
The United States has Changed from a Melting Pot to a Vast Culture with Varying Racial Backgrounds
Immigration has always been a contentious issue in the United States. Benjamin Franklin thought that the influx in German immigration would flush out the predominately British culture in America at the time. (5) Furthermore, a continual wave of foreign cultures began pouring into the American metropolitan areas at the turn of the 20th century. The migration of Italians, Poles, and Jews across the Atlantic Ocean began a mass assimilation of cultural ideology and customs into the United States, yet many people thought that these migrants could not adapt. Today, the American society has become a melting pot of foreign influence; however, many cynics remain skeptical about the incorporation of Latin American people and their influences. Accordingly, these same critics are just as naïve as their previous counterparts, who refused to accept the many gifts and contributions these immigrants have to offer. We must ask ourselves: How long will it take to peacefully incorporate Spanish immigrants into American society? America was built on the movement of these cultures, and the current population of this country must set aside its non-democratic premonitions, and embrace the historical and positive aspect of Latin American immigration.
He mournfully tells his audience he has “moved away from the periphery and toward the center of American life, [he] has become white inside” (Liu 1). As a young chinese boy growing up in America, he was taught the way to assimilation was to abandon the language, culture, and traditions of his ancestors, and his essay is a remorseful reflection on the consequences of his sacrifice. Despite giving away so much, despite doing it all to ‘become white’, he will always be an outsider – race and skin color can never be the uniting factor of a community. Eric Liu goes on to talk about how “the assimilist is a traitor to his kind, to his class, to his own family” (Liu 2). Why does it need to be this way? The ‘a-word’ (assimilist) need not be a negative one, if only assimilation meant adapting to an ideology rather than one race’s culture. If that were the true meaning of assimilation, the idea that to assimilate is to betray would be eradicated. The current method of naturalization to American culture is unacceptable: The only thing that will unite Americans will be a common goal to promote good values and hard work within
Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...
The beauty is that we even share cultures day to day and speak different languages. There is an enormous variety amongst ourselves and there has to be a place here in the states for anyone to enjoy. Immigration policies can utterly destroy all of this and ruin the authentic mixture of cultures the states are known for. “The ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity brought by immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has shaped American history and politics.”
The statement “having a black president demonstrates that minorities have the same opportunities as white people” is an inaccurate view (McIntyre, 2015). This is an incorrect view because it is a reductionist fallacy. To elaborate, the millennial has concluded that because we have a black president, all minorities have the same opportunities as white people. This fallacy does not take into account the basis that black people or minorities are still discriminated against and have fewer opportunities than white people despite having a black president. The American society is not always obvious when acting in discriminatory behavior. In the article, “Racism,” Feagin explains that it is possible for white people to hold less consciously prejudice thoughts that stem from prior socialization (Feagin, 2015). Thus, racist attitudes can be conscious, half-conscious, or subconscious (Feagin, 2015). Examples of this half or subconscious racist attitude is found in employment settings. For example, Feagin highlights how a white person in authority may select another white person over an equally or better qualified black...
Several years ago, America was taught to be a 'melting pot,' a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society, but now America is more of a 'salad bowl' where instead of forming an incorporated entity the people who make up the bowl are unwilling to unite as one. America started as an immigrant nation and has continued to be so. People all over the world come to America for several reasons. Most people come to America voluntarily, but very few come unwillingly. For whatever reasons they may have for coming they all have to face exposure to American society. When exposed to this 'new' society they choose whether to assimilate or not. Assimilation in any society is complex. Since assimilation is not simple, people will have negative experiences when assimilating into American society.
...e, et al. "The trouble with assimilation: Social dominance and the emergence of hostility against immigrants." International Journal of Intercultural Relations 34.6 (2010): 642-650.