Cited: Ji-Yeon, Yuh. “Let’s Tell the Story of All America’s Cultures.” Philadelphia Inquire 30 June. 1991. Print.
Cited: Ji-Yeon, Yuh. “Let’s Tell the Story of All America’s Cultures.” Philadelphia Inquire 30 June. 1991. Print.
◆ A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki (There will be several copies of this book on reserve at Geisel Library; photocopies may also be provided.)…
For a long time racism has been present in our lives, be it in the United States or along with every other country in the world. Racism is evident in many communities across the world and many nations exhibit this notion race superiority. In the current case study, “ Conflict in South Carolina” we see how the death of a young black, African American stirred up an entire community on allegations of a racially motivated murder. We see how a community was torn apart and riled up over the death of Mickey McClinton. They felt that he was murdered and his body was mutilated because of his interracial relationship.…
The point of this essay, “The Chinese in All of us” by Richard Rodriguez, was to show that America is one giant melting pot. That there is no such thing as an “American” culture. An American culture cannot exist as one central thing because there are so many cultures that mixed together to form what we have now. It’s a never ending cycle of growth as a country. The immigrants come to America and with them, they bring their ideas and customs. While they learn the customs we already have we, in turn, adopt some of theirs that we observe along the way.…
Racism has been an issue for centuries and we keep letting it affect modern America. American’s have chosen to keep the impression that whites are superior to blacks and have used it as an excuse to put blame on individuals. There are so many issues about abuse by white police officers on black individuals that it really has taken a toll on today’s society. People are still debating that they are not being treated fairly because of race and it is because of our country’s past. A lot of minorities feel like they are targeted and are protesting when in actuality it has nothing to do with…
Frost, M. (n.d.). Culture of the United States. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from Martin Frost: http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/american_culture.html…
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing Cultural Mediation Criticism. “Works of ethnic literature -‐ written by, about or for persons who perceived themselves, or were perceived by others as members of ethnic groups -‐ may thus be read not only as expressions of mediation between cultures but also as handbooks of socialization into the codes of Americanness” (Sollors, 7). American Iilmmaker Spike Lee is widely known to create controversial, politically minded and oppositional dramatic cinema. From his fairly indie Iilms such as…
The voice in Chang’s piece engages the reader and makes his arguments hard to disagree with. As an Asian-American, Chang puts a personal voice into the piece, which makes it almost feel like a story. “Over 100 years ago, an American myth misled many of my ancestors.” (Chang, 513) He also structures the piece in such a way that he pokes fun at the media using an almost ironic tone. “First, it lumps all Asian-Americans into one monolithic homogenous yellow skinned mass.” (Chang, 515) Many of the strategies he uses to put himself in the piece are the words like, “us”. “The Model Minority myth introduces us as an ethnic minority…” (Chang, 514) “Our”: “national magazines have trumpeted our ‘remarkable, ever-mounting achievements’ (Newsweek, Dec. 6, 1982).” (Chang, 514) and “my”: “American myth misled many of my ancestors.”(Chang, 513) This makes it sound more natural and the reader will easily to connect to the writing. Having known that the author has had a personal experience around the subject gives the reader a feeling of security that in turn, makes…
Ronald Takaki is one of the foremost-recognized scholars of multicultural studies and holds a PhD. in American History from the University of California, Berkeley. As a professor of Ethnic Studies at the same university, he wrote A Different Mirror: a History of Multicultural America as a fantastic new telling of our nation’s history. The book narrates the composition of the many different people of the United States of America.…
Racism comes in different forms of stereotypes, limitation, and assumptions that affect certain ethnic groups differently than others but all have the same negative effect. This then creates stereotypical power status, giving the illusion of how one racial group is superior compared to others. An example that shows great understanding of the issue is the article, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Dr. Robin DiAngelo who explains how the topic of racism plays a huge role is social interaction between people of different ethnic groups. The author states, “It became clear over time that white people have extremely low thresholds for enduring any discomfort associated with challenges to our racial worldviews.” (DiAngelo, 36) This displays the power of stereotypes to spread around communities about each ethnic group, resulting in them facing daily obstacles of how to handle racial profiling situations that results in people not being able to protect their racial feelings and human rights, challenge white authority, meritocracy which is addressing the issue of unequal right between racial groups, and white centrality. Overall, racism is just but one of the many factors that contribute to this broken state of…
Race is the biggest issue right now in the United States. Race is main cause of social and economic problems. Racism has been around for hundreds of years. There are other problems in our society like poverty, gender issues, and environmental issues. Some may believe that poverty is the biggest issue because of the amount of people in poverty in our country today, some may believe gender issues is the biggest problem right now because it doesn’t allow people to express themselves, and some may believe environmental issues are the problem because it affects the whole world. Others may believe that race is the biggest issue because it has been around for so many years and it’s one of the first problems the society faced in the U.S. It is hard to determine which of these issues is the biggest issue because they all affect our lives in one way or the other. Even though this is true, racism is the biggest issue. Race deserves our immediate attention because racism is the cause of the majority of people in poverty, racism affects your upbringing, and racism has been around for a longer period of time.…
For this assignment I chose to reflect on the interview from “The Whiteness Project” by a 17 year-old girl named Leilani whose interview is titled “Stop talking about racism, just stop.” I chose to write about what she said because it really does reflect almost exactly what I feel about the topic of racism and “Whiteness” and everything related to the topic. In her interview, Leilani talks about how she feels that if people would just stop talking about race and making it such a big issue, then it would become less of a big issue and essentially less problems would arise from it. Although I am aware that race issues are real and that in the past they have had some very serious consequences, I have to admit that I agree that we, as a culture in the U.S., may have swung to the other side of the scale to…
There are many different cultures in America, every one of them unique and plays an important role in our society. The very definition of culture: an individual’s world view, experiences, symbolism, behaviors, values, morals and all other learner attributes are what collectively make up any one culture. Within our American society, there exists many different co-cultures or subcultures as they may be referred too. Among these co-cultures are two dominants; the Hispanic and Chinese communities. The two co-cultures account for roughly 37 million and three 323 million of the US population respectively. (WorldAtlas)…
In modern American society, we ask ourselves about the importance of our cultures. How does our cultural identity define us, if at all—and what exactly does it mean to be an American? Throughout history, and despite a past peppered with racial discrimination, America has always been an amalgamation of countless cultural identities. With this in mind, it can be safely said that in today’s society, race most definitely matters. Before the reasons of why race matters can be determined, we must first define what it means to be an American, the concept of race, and more importantly, ethnicity.…
Racism has been a problem in our country for decades upon decades. This problem has never gone away, it just spikes and lessens throughout the years. During 1930’s and 1940’s tensions between the two races were tense. It was still normal for African Americans and Caucasians to not particularly get along. Racial slurs were said in conversation like it was normal. It was so normal that even black people used these slurs against each other. Race relations became intense when blacks grew frustrated with segregation and discrimination. In southern states poll taxes and literacy test were in effect to prevent blacks from voting (Native Son.). They even made a black pay more for a loaf of bread then a white person would. Bigger describes this in Native Son. They thought of African Americans as a different species of humans and this enraged many people across our country. “African Americans walk along the streets like other people, dressed like them, talking them and yet excluded for no other reason except that they’re black” (Wright 308). They see blacks so different that the rape and murder of Bessie Mears was swept under the rug like she did not matter. The murder of Bessie was exceedingly more gruesome than the murder of Mary and people simple did not care. Bessie was not white so her life did not matter to the eyes of the white society. Her family was left to mourn for their daughter without any justices served. Proving that white supremacy was so great that a death of a young black women did not matter. As long as the death of the white women received justice, everything was…
“We can not separate ourselves from where we are from,” and that may be either aiding or detrimental to our success (221)-- it is both why Asians are “good at math,” because of their long history of intense rice agriculture, leading to a culture of hard work; and why Korean airlines crashed so many planes, because Korean culture itself does not encourage speaking up, even in danger; and it is why Americans perform poorly on exams. Society, he says, must reorient itself to support and foster success (given these two impactors: opportunity and…