Diversity In American Culture

American culture constantly changes as time goes on. This can be seen throughout works of art, literature, music, and most of all, the personal stories of the American people. However, qualities that have made American unique from every other country in the world have remained an important part of the American identity. Citizens of the United States encompass all ethnicities, religions, and races to represent the face of diversity, national pride, free expression, and justice.
United States history is unique and incomparable. Settlers from all parts of the world settled and explored the new world. Therefore the new world collected an great expanse of different ethnicities, races, and cultures. The accumulation and assimilation of various cultures
during the 17th century paved the way to shape an common interest in colonists. Over the course of two decades, the colonists that inhabited the land of North America developed values and qualities of an American identity that still exist in culture today. These values are highlighted in the constitution, declaration of independence, and bill of rights. Americans their freedom and independence that the founding fathers worked so hard to attain.
During early twentieth century, the playwright Israel Zangwill coined the phrase “melting pot” to describe how immigrants from many different backgrounds came together in the United States (Green, 1999).
Multiculturalism has been embraced by many Americans, and has been promoted formally by institutions. Elementary and secondary schools have adopted curriculum to foster understanding of cultural diversity by exposing students to the customs and traditions of racial and ethnic groups. Government agencies advocate tolerance for diversity by sponsoring Hispanic and Asian American/Pacific Islander heritage weeks. The United States Post Office has introduced stamps depicting prominent Americans from diverse backgrounds. The baby boomer generation is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in American history, with one third identifying with a race other than Caucasian (Howe and Strauss, 2000). America represents the face of diversity and although challenges that the country remains facing regarding racial justice, it remains the most diverse nation in the
world.
African Americans reflect the There was considerable African-American political protest in colonial and revolutionary America, despite the small amount of free slaves during that time. African-Americans engaged in protests against all of these forms of discrimination. In addition, the free men and women of color consistently protested against the institution of slavery, as it bound the majority of their family members to servitude. Slaves pushed for freedom and exhorted others to engage in uprisings or rebellions against slavery. African-American free men and women created a national organization in 1832 to coordinate, centralize, and structure the political protest of individuals and small groups. They sought to put pressure on the fledging state and national governments. (Morrison, 2003)
The ever-changing political context the 1950s and 1960s ushered in a new group of organizations that used social movement tactics to shape outcomes in the area of civil rights.
The Montgomery Improvement Association became the forerunner of a great variety of local organizations. The legislative achievements of that time for African-Americans were the most extensive since the Civil War amendments of 1860–1870. In terms of national legislation, the civil rights movement achieved the 1964 civil rights act, the 1965 billing rights act, and the 1968 fair housing act, making the 1960s the most successful protests in lobby areas. The civil rights act became widely known for its focus on accommodations although it's coverage was brought in deed making it practically impossible to legally just buy any acts of racial exclusion. African Americans have engaged in interest groups in the lobby politics since colonial America. Spurred into mobilization and action by their contextual dilemmas, protests and lobby organizations have taken numerous forms, formats, and structures. They have also deployed a vast array of protest in lobby and tactics techniques and procedures. The range of diversity in the social fabric and the sheer magnitude of the geographical landscape in the United States produces a large number of organizations. Not all of these are that Woodley or principally political. However, their existence of social entities is prominently associated with the advancement of some
interest in a large and often and personal setting. During the mobilization of the 1960s, rights came to be conceived as fundamental to the general crisis and race relations. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, civil rights leaders could declare that violence was both rational and ordain in the racist American society that some systematically used violence to repress back people (Morrison 2003).
Artists have shown throughout American history to provide a model of the cultural identity of Americans of the time. Romare Bearden and Jackson Pollock are examples of artists that have reflected the unique traits of these United States. Romare Bearden used personal memories, African-American cultural history, and literature as the source of his subject matter. Bearden is most famous for his work in collage, which he used in unique and innovative ways (National Gallery of Art 2005).
Founded loosely by age, location and a common urge to assert themselves, a group of artists working in New York in the 1940s created the first American style to have worldwide impact on the course of painting. The acknowledged leader of the movement, known as abstract expressionism, was Jackson Pollock, who made some of the earliest innovations (American Painting, 1970).
After World War II, American artists took the lead in establishing an original and powerful style that soon came to dominate the art world. Called abstract expressionism, it grew out of a number of influences, but in the end was a uniquely American product. No longer bound to European influences, the American artist struck out, employee new materials – synthetic pants, unprimed canvas – and avoiding elegant brushwork or any traditional marks of the artists hand. Most of all, these new works insisted that the artist’s personal expression should be his primary concern. Sometimes highly emotional, sometimes highly intellectual, the new abstract art dared to stand. On its own merits without the support of an older tradition and with only the force of the artists integrity and will to sustain it. Pollock’s paintings were described by an early critic as similar to "an air of baked macaroni.” They were more correctly identified by another as an attempt quote to express feelings that ranges from pleasant enthusiasm through wildness to explosiveness, as purely and as well as possible (American Painting, 1970).
America has evolved into a blend of an extensive amount of cultures. Throughout the nineteenth century, diverse ethnic and racial groups — French, Spanish, and African, Italian, German, and Irish — found common cause in their love of music. (National Park Service, 2016) Born in the South, the blues is an African American derived music form that recognized the pain of lost love and injustice and gave expression to the victory of outlasting a broken heart and facing down adversity. The blues evolved from hymns, work songs, and field hollers — music used to accompany spiritual, work and social functions. Blues is the foundation of jazz as well as the prime source of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, and country music. The blues is still evolving and is still widely played today (Scholastic, 2016). The blend of all of these cultures into a brand new type of music just as Americans have formed a united culture encompassing many contrasting cultural values.
Improvisation is the most defining feature of jazz. Improvisation is creating, or making up, music as you go along. Jazz musicians play from printed music and they improvise solos. From the collective improvisation of early jazz to the solo improvisation of Louis Armstrong to the free jazz of Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane, improvisation is central to jazz (Scholastic, 2016). America is known for a unique upbringing that has been a precedent for many nations throughout history. America has embraced new foreign policies, internal improvements, and social reforms. The United States of America embraces rich culture and diversity, which since the forging of the nation, has shaped an American cultural identity unique from any other nation. The American people encompass national pride, free expression, and justice. These qualities are also reflected in works of literature and art as history has shaped the face of the nation.