Assimilation
Assimilation into a culture is not an easy thing to do. Many people talk about it and many people choose to not assimilate into the defined American culture. The expansion of people from other countries and races has expanded the definition of what you have to be to be American. With the country expanding with the growth of other races many people are afraid to interact with them. This causes many people to become racist if they weren’t already because they think that they are being taken over and their land will be stolen from them.
Many new Americans from other countries are fighting the assimilation. In the past we haven’t taken lightly to people not wanting to conform to our beliefs and have taken action. Our history started by conquering North America and killing many natives that were already here. We then enslaved Africans for many years and truly the only people who had power were rich white men. “Through this the great white origin myth was created” (From Inquiry 209). With the creation of the myth the white race thought that it was the best race and the other race were nothing. “The myths omissions are grotesque. It ignores three major pillars of our nationhood: genocide, enslavement and imperialist expansion” (Reinventing America 209).
The massive extermination of indigenous peoples provided our land base; the enslavement of African; labor made our economic growth possible; and the seizure of half of Mexico by war (or threat of renewed war) extended this nations boundaries north to the Pacific and south to the Rio Grande United States America
With these omissions the history of the United States looks so much cleaner than it really is. The omissions that are made leave out important parts of our history that kids don’t find out until later. Their whole childhood is just a brief summary of our history that leaves out facts. This is one of the problems and also why people of other races should resist assimilation. If everyone who moved to America and had assimilated to become the ideal American then this country would be so bland and a lot more boring than it is. The diversity in this country is what makes it a great country. If we lose this important part then the whole country will lose an important key to its own culture. One reason that many people should be happy is all the days of celebration that we have for everyone. Days like Martin Luther King Day where we remember all of the things that he did not only for his race but the things that he did for everyone. There are also all of the parades that take place everyday celebrating different things. Another key part of everyday life is the influence on the food that we eat. If everyone assimilated then all of the different flavors and colors of food will diminish and it will get boring very quickly. This would again diminish our own culture since ours is a mix of many other cultures in and of itself.
Many people have a hard time with the whole issue and the definition has changed over time. Elizabeth Martinez states “Today’s origin myth and the resulting concept of national identity make for an intellectual prison where it is dangerous to ask big questions about this society’s superiority” (America 211). This is a very true statement and explains why so many people don’t worry about our past and how that it has affected so many people not just the Whites. Since no one is talking about our history many forget how cruel it was and how we could have done what we did.
Barbara Ehrenreich states that she has an ethnicity of none. Not only does she have this ethnicity but so do her grandparents, parents and children. She states that she has no ethnicity. She does not relate to any culture or heritage. She was taught not to relate to the past because times have changed and there are new ways of doing things. This is good because if people who moved here had completely forgot their origins then she would not have eaten all of the ethnic foods. Barbara says that she doesn’t believe in god. To her knowledge no one believed in god all the way to her great-great grandparents. With her family not bringing down traditions from their past eventually they will be forgotten and a part of history will be lost. Her mother never showed her by telling her she always showed her how to do it. Barbara’s parents thought that new things were better than old things and she also thought this “because what was the past, as our forebears knew it? Nothing but poverty, superstition and grief” (Cultural Baggage 44). This is true that the newer things are better than the old stuff but you can’t forget the past. The history of many things has helped make the new and better things that we use every day. If you forget the old things that people used, then the past and history again will disappear and be forgotten which will cause people to forget their past possibly. Many choose not to look at their past and choose to only look towards the future. It’s ok if some look at this but if everyone does then all of the history will disappear.
Another problem with our ever changing cultural background is the fact that many of the people who move here do not know how to speak English. This can restrict them in many ways because we are not the nicest when it comes to changing our policies for learning new languages. Since the majority of the people who live in the United States only speak English this causes problems with the newcomers to this country. We won’t be able to understand them and they won’t understand us. With this they will not be able to get a job in a company of high standards. As a country we aren’t very open to change and either you learn our language or don’t and become another nobody in the society. To many a nobody is a lazy person and not motivated since they don’t know the language. They will never become anything and will always be in the lower sect of the country. Shirley states in her book “the public media today give much attention to the decline of literacy skills as measured in school settings and the failure of students to acquire certain levels of literacy” (Protean Shapes). If the media covers this then it is a pretty big deal. The coverage on the topic shows what we have to change to continue with our own language. It also is a kind of realization that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world in important aspects. If the United States can’t even keep the literacy skills up in school then how are we going to teach newcomers who want to learn our language? If many of our own can’t write or read how are we going to teach someone who doesn’t even get the basics of our language? The answer is that we won’t even try most of the time to teach them and we force them to either learn it themselves or not learn it at all and be at a disadvantage the rest of their lives. If the United States tries to incorporate the newcomers with classes that help them learn the language and some of the background of the U.S. I think that the country as a whole will be a better place. If they learn the language and some of the culture of America they could then keep their own cultural backgrounds.
With so many new people becoming Americans everyday it is crucial that they keep their heritage with them even though they are in a new country. Many tell them that they have to assimilate to be happy but that is far from the truth. If they want to be happy they have to stay who they are and are proud of that. As long as they keep their background the newcomers could learn a little of the language and some of the country’s history to make their integration easier.
If the newcomers forget their past and history then all of the ethnic things that they could bring to this country will be lost and the country will become a little less diverse. If the newcomers to America assimilate then all of their cultural backgrounds will be lost and eventually there will be only one culture.
Works Cited
Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Cultural Baggage.” 25 Jan. 2011. 3. Print.
Heath, Brice Shirley. “Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and Literate Traditions.” 3 Feb. 2011. 3. Print.
