Transcript Race, Culture and American Society

WHAT MAKES AN AMERICAN?
ASSIMILATION
Assimilation is a process in which
formerly distinct and separate groups come
to share a common culture and merge
together socially. Differences in among
groups decrease.
ETHNICITY
Groups of a community who are
identified primarily by cultural
characteristics such as language or
religion, cultural practices, or a mutually
agreed identity based on background,
national origin or a sociological belief in
a “race.”
WHO IS A MINORITY
Some sociologists and historians believe that a “minority
group has five characteristics:
• The members of the group share a visible trait or
characteristic that differentiates them from other groups.
• The minority group is a self-conscious social unit.
• Membership is the group is usually determined at birth.
• Members tend to marry within the group.
• The members of the group experience a pattern of
disadvantage or inequality.
PLURALISM
Pluralism exists when groups maintain
their individual identities. Groups
remain separate and cultural and social
differences persist over time.
MULTICULTURALISM
A recognition that society has many
components, stresses mutual
respect for all groups, and
celebrates the multiplicity of
heritages that have contributed to
the development of a community
or nation.
AMERICAN CONCEPT OF
ASSIMILATION, 19TH CENTURY
Filled with patriotic stories,
images, and poems, the basic
“reader” was designed to
teach English, democracy,
American ways” and proper
behavior.
The “melting pot” meant remolding immigrants into
Americans from western
European ancestry.
SOMALI CULTURE
• Somalia rests in the northeast “horn”
of Africa, a spot where for centuries
Arabic, African and Indian culture
has had influence.
• Somali families are patrilineal (male
dominated) and most Somalis are
Muslim in faith.
• Somali cultural strengths include
poetic language and music, artistic
traditions in sculpture and pottery
(consistent with a faith that generally
avoids representations of the human
form in art).
ETHIOPIAN CULTURE
• Similar to Somali in some respects, but almost
65% of population is Christian (some Coptic -Greek influenced), and most of the rest are
Muslim.
• Not quite as male dominated as many other
African nations.
• Music has proven popular with westerners.
• Again, like Somalia, has had divisions due to civil
wars, strong memories of colonialism.
HISPANIC CULTURES
• Latin culture emerged in a mix of Native American, Spanish
and African interactions in Central and South America –
multiculturalism began early and no “one culture” emerged.
• The Spanish empire in the America flourished for over 150
years before the first successful English colony existed.
• When Spain dominated these regions, a caste system rigidly
defined social status by ancestry going back 5 or more
generations.
• Only the language and Catholicism served as unifying
elements after the 1820s.
HMONG CULTURE
• Hmong peoples have been a minority group in
China, Laos, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar),
Thailand – they are accustomed to resisting
discrimination.
• Culture is male dominated and clans are at least as
important as families.
• Many Hmong converted to Christianity in the late
19th-early 20th century, but Buddhism and
shamanism remain strong.
• Many Hmong are refugees, not least because they
allied with the U.S. in the Vietnam conflict.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
As to immigration reform, “a lot of questions need to
be answered about where on a spectrum between
deportation and citizenship we can find common
ground to bring people who are living in the shadows
out of the shadows.”
Congressman Robert Goodlatte, House Judiciary
Committee chairman, February 2013.
FEARS
“If the GOP does not engage in a massive Latino butt
kissing today, Latinos coming of voting age in AZ,
FL, TX, CO, VA, NC, will turn those states blue. That
will give Dems 66 seats in the Senate, overwhelming
control of the House and a forever lock on the White
House.”
Blog comment, February 2013.
HOPES
“Foreign students and their dependents added
$21.81 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011-12.
However, this figure doesn’t begin to capture
the contributions which many foreign students
go on to make as part of the high-skilled U.S.
workforce and U.S. business community.”
Walter A. Ewing, Immigration Policy Center,
January, 2013.
THE ALTERNATIVE OF
ACCULTURATION
Acculturation is a two-way (or multi-way) exchange with the all
sides making adjustments:
• Over Time, immigrants come to know “the national culture”
and the values of the “new world”
• Understanding and facility of the language
• The citizens begin to understand the Complexity of the
“strangers” culture(s), and become less likely to draw upon
misleading stereotypes
• Both (or all) groups try to act out of greater understanding
MUTUAL TOLERANCE
While rates of inter-marriage have grown, acculturation by
mutual tolerance has been the object of much legislation, but
issues of intolerance remain:
• Gay marriage is confined to 13 nations (10 states in US as
of April, 2013).
• Gender differences in pay, with women getting about 75%
of what men receive for comparable work.
• Serious examples of racial discrimination still exist in
housing, criminal prosecution, income and voting rights
violations.
• Minor issues of citizenship rose over Chester Arthur,
George Romney and John McCain, and a major issue over
Barrack Obama.
INTER-MARRIAGE
The 2000 Census counted 11.9 million identifying themselves
as Asian Americans. That total was comprised of 10.2 million
(85.7%) claiming purely Asian heritage and 1.7 million (14.3%)
claiming mixed heritage. Of the mixed-heritage Asian
Americans, 868,395 (52.4%) claimed part white ancestry,
138,802 (8.38%) claimed part Native Hawaiian or other Pacific
Islander ancestry, 106,782 (6.45%) claimed part black ancestry,
and 249,108 (17.7%) claimed another unspecified race. These
mixed-race Asian Americans evidence a notable degree of
assimilation, especially in light of the fact that in parts of the
U.S. anti-miscegenation laws (prohibiting inter-racial marriage)
weren't outlawed until the late 1960s.
TO THE FUTURE
“The greatest impact of immigration to America will be felt in the
economy. Nowhere is this more critical than in the all-important
entrepreneurial (business ownership) sphere. Immigrants by nature tend
to be entrepreneurial as most come to America to find a better life for
themselves and their families.
“The immigrant role in creating new business has been particularly
critical during the current recession. According to a recent report, the
foreign-born were the a bright spot in the otherwise shell-shocked U.S.
entrepreneurial sector. Overall, immigrants have boosted their share of
new entrepreneurs from 13.4 percent in 1996 to nearly 30 percent in
2010. Many of the areas with the rapidly growing entrepreneurial
classes among minorities—places like Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, and
Dallas – will see economic upsurges.”
America’s Demographic Future: A Cato Institute Study (2012).