Summary: The Importance Of Covering

Americans have been covering and assimilating, which is to integrate into a society, since the 18th century. The definition of covering is “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the main-stream,” (Yoshino 552). Many people have felt the need to cover so that they would not be judged by other members in their community. However, covering is necessary in a country full of people that originate from various cultures so that they can all be similar in some aspect. The similarity gained from covering is vital for interactions among people in a diverse society. Kenji Yoshino in “The New Civil Rights,” explains how everyone has and, in some degree, covered their True Self, the authenticity of a person, and how everyone has a False Self that
It is necessary for people in a society that consists of many different cultures to assimilate and fit into the mainstream so they can coexist. By fitting into the mainstream, everyone has something in common which is vital for fluid social interactions among people in a diverse society. Otherwise, the United States of America would be a country full of different groups of people that could not easily interact with one another. Yoshino states in his article, “being deemed mainstream is still often a necessity of social life,” (552). For people to coexist, they need to be able to relate and socialize with other members of their community. That is why people often cover to fit into the mainstream, or else social interactions in society would start to diminish. For example, if a foreign exchange student from Brazil traveled to the United States, the foreign student would not fit in with his fellow classmates. He would have to assimilate into the mainstream to be able to effectively work with, interact socially, and coexist with the other students. The foreign student would not need to assimilate fully into the mainstream and act like everyone else, since the point of exchange programs is to mix cultures. Instead the foreign student and original students would have to be able to share common grounds for smoother interactions. If the foreign exchange student did not, the other students may have viewed him as an outsider and not have interacted with him as well as they would have if he had assimilated. If people in a diverse society did not assimilate, there would be no chance for the society to coexist effectively or have smooth social