America Is A Multicultural Society
Multiculturalism
Trevor Endre
Argosy University
April 13, 2016
Multiculturalism is the view that various cultures in society deserve equal respect, and academic interest. Multiculturalism became a major force in American society in the 1970’s and 1980’s as African-Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic groups explored their own history. I believe that America is a multicultural society. I feel this way because we have several different cultural history months. Some may include February’s black history month, May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage, Older Americans Month and Jewish American Heritage Month, and so on. Multiculturalism is an issue for some people because some people tend to think that their race is “superior” compared
to others. In my opinion this is a very closed minded way of thinking. The three sociological perspectives structural functionalism, social conflict, and symbolic interaction, can be used to better understand multiculturalism. First I am going to give a brief recap on what these three perspectives are. Structure-functionalism relies upon an "organic" analogy of human society as being "like an organism," a system of interdependent parts that function for the benefit of the whole. Social conflict is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society have differing amounts of material and non-material resources (such as the wealthy vs. the poor) and that the more powerful groups use their power in order to exploit groups with less power. Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of the sociological discipline. It is particularly important in microsociology and social psychology. This perspective explains how humans develop a complex set of symbols that gives meaning to the world in their perspective.
Structural functionalism states that society is like an organism. An organism has many cells, in a way a multicultural society these different cultures bring many good things into the cell, like different foods, for an example. The Social conflict theory would be possibly the polar opposite of Multiculturalism. Many different cultures have different economic backgrounds. In our society the more “powerful” group tends to take advantage of the group who is not as fortunate as the prior group. In the case of symbolic interactionism each culture has a set of symbols that hold meaning to them and explain the world to them as they know it. For example different religions, such as Christianity,
Trevor Endre
Argosy University
April 13, 2016
Multiculturalism is the view that various cultures in society deserve equal respect, and academic interest. Multiculturalism became a major force in American society in the 1970’s and 1980’s as African-Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic groups explored their own history. I believe that America is a multicultural society. I feel this way because we have several different cultural history months. Some may include February’s black history month, May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage, Older Americans Month and Jewish American Heritage Month, and so on. Multiculturalism is an issue for some people because some people tend to think that their race is “superior” compared
to others. In my opinion this is a very closed minded way of thinking. The three sociological perspectives structural functionalism, social conflict, and symbolic interaction, can be used to better understand multiculturalism. First I am going to give a brief recap on what these three perspectives are. Structure-functionalism relies upon an "organic" analogy of human society as being "like an organism," a system of interdependent parts that function for the benefit of the whole. Social conflict is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society have differing amounts of material and non-material resources (such as the wealthy vs. the poor) and that the more powerful groups use their power in order to exploit groups with less power. Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of the sociological discipline. It is particularly important in microsociology and social psychology. This perspective explains how humans develop a complex set of symbols that gives meaning to the world in their perspective.
Structural functionalism states that society is like an organism. An organism has many cells, in a way a multicultural society these different cultures bring many good things into the cell, like different foods, for an example. The Social conflict theory would be possibly the polar opposite of Multiculturalism. Many different cultures have different economic backgrounds. In our society the more “powerful” group tends to take advantage of the group who is not as fortunate as the prior group. In the case of symbolic interactionism each culture has a set of symbols that hold meaning to them and explain the world to them as they know it. For example different religions, such as Christianity,