The Role Of Individualism In American Culture

The American culture promotes individualism which expects people to be self-centered, independent and self-reliant. We believe in free will and personal choice. Under this cultural influence, when we hear about individuals who are poor, unemployed, in poor health, having family problems, drinking too much alcohol, or committing crime, it is natural to think that their problems are theirs alone, and that they and other individuals with the same problems are entirely to blame for their difficulties. Besides, not everyone is a sophisticated thinker. It’s hard for some people to discover and comprehend the connection between their personal problems and the seemingly irrelevant external forces. It’s simply easier to blame themselves for their
People with this perspective believe that everything bad in this world is always someone’s fault. When we use an individualistic perspective to look at issues of race, ethnicity, race relations, and racism, we will find ourselves try to hold specific individuals or groups to be responsible for those problems. For example, people with individualist perspective might think that the reason for the significantly higher criminal rates among black men is that the black men are evil. They are born criminals. A society is more than just a collection of individuals. This perspective fails to acknowledge the interrelations of individuals and the social systems they are in. It does not provide an accurate view of the reality of the racial problems. It also intensify the discrepancy and disagreement among the racial groups. Individualist thinking cannot get the conversations about rachial problems anywhere because it encourages people to blame and distrust other participants of the conversation. This leads to personal attacks among people and stalemate of
It believes that we are participating in social systems, which are much larger than just a collection of people. Those external forces influence an individual’s choices and behaviors. For example, when looking at the significant higher criminal rate among black men, people with the sociological perspective believe that the reasons for this problem are beyond individual factors. It is a result of racial inequalities that are rooted in our social systems. The black men have less chances to be successful in our society because they have less access to health care, education, employment, and wealth. Unless we start to address those social disparities, the high criminal rate among black men will not change. The reduction of criminal rates among black men will not happen unless those men have the equal opportunities available to them as white men, which won’t happen unless we change the current unfair social structures and norms. The sociological perspective provides a more complete and accurate view of the reality by focusing on large-scale social structures and institutions. People like to follow the path of least resistance to avoid conflict. This is why people tend to steer away from the topics on racism, privilege, and oppression. The sociological perspective can make it easier for people to talk about those things by