Enculturation In American Culture
Instead of focusing on the topic of African American plantation slavery, Ira Berlin decides to focus on an earlier time period, starting as early as the fourteen hundreds, and to look at a broader geography, looking at Africa as well as America. He discusses the development and the success of the Atlantic creoles, or “the charter generation,” by looking at the place and time of the societies as well as the creoles’ history. Because of their knowledge and skill set and due to the frontier societies of the New World, these pre-plantation slaves managed to prosper and assimilate. Ira Berlin is a history professor and a dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland.[1] He has written numerous books which have won many
Stuart gave well historical accounts of how the much mixing of people from different cultural background and race conglomerate to form cultural setting currently present in the Caribbean islands. The literature from this novel can be successfully applied in learning institution teach race and ethnic relation courses to assist students in gaining a significant understanding the Barbados inhabitants history. Though the author of the book speaks of the assimilation race in a very compassionate way, she efficaciously demonstrates the how the spectrum of color originated in this Island. According to her, this societal predicament connects to colonialism; the slave trade from Africa to American as well as the oppressive injustices came with the expansion of sugar plantations to meet the booming market demand during the period. The slaves worked under a harsh environmental condition where their masters denied them fundamental rights of human being.
This impacted the slave communities culture by changing their cultural constructs. "Africans and Indians fought with each other, claimed to be each other, and allied together for common goals" (Document 9) This document proves that trans-Atlantic slave trade inflicted a new culture upon African slaves, also know as the maroon community. The maroon community was made up of ex-slaves or runaways. By being apart of this community, it gave them a new outlook on them being away from their previous home.
The effects of colonialism are intergenerational, this story exposes the raw feelings of victims of colonization and the internalization of racist ideologies that often occurs as a result of Caribbean history being wrongly painted. Conforming to the standards of society is often easier than bearing the challenges associated with being an outlier; however, conformity leads to resentment and hatred. Cynthia chooses to conform to society's standards of white supremacy, which results in her discarding her own body for the figure of a white woman. Unfortunately, Cynthia begins to form a deep hatred for herself and her culture which her parents and strangers are subjected to.
Native Americans were assimilated into the American culture through strict reeducation, which they could neither avoid nor escape. This reeducation was brutal and unnecessary to achieve the desired effect. Unfortunately, the assimilation of Native Americans through reeducation was unfair and caused a lot of
Intimate Colonialism is when the government tried to set up a policy that would encourage Indian Service staff members to intermarry with Native Americans. During the late 19th century, immigration was rising and the big thing in this era was assimilation. Assimilation is integrating people to be accustomed to the United States culture, behavior, value and norms. Though Native Americans have lived in America longer than anyone, the federal government thought that instead of ostracizing them for wanting to value their traditional culture, they created an assimilation policy for Native Americans. “The government’s assimilation policy sought to destroy Native nations’ cultural and political identities by replacing them with Anglo – American norms of behavior (108).”
In the film Coming to America describing the two cultures in the film are the African and American cultures from Africa and Queens New York. The African and American cultures in the movie are different in some ways but similar in other ways by the way the characters in the movie are all family oriented with the respect they show their parents and the way the parents only want what is best for their children. Then there are subcultures in the film that go a little further with style of living. The culture in Africa is that people are to wait on the royal family for everything they do, but in America, the family cares for themselves without the help of servants. The rites of passage are a cultural norm in Africa for the Royal family by having arranged marriages.
“You know, most of this feminism business was nothing more than white American women telling non-white women what to do and how to do it, with this patronizing if you become just like me you’ll be free, bullsh*t.” (James 192) In this quote it uses racism to show the problems involved in the country at the time, showing how the whites often told the black women what to do and how to do it, and telling them that they’ll be free because of it, and as you can see the black women didn’t agree. Another factor that went into Jamaica’s problems was sexism. “Woman breed baby, but man can only make Frankenstein.
In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to choose between the culture imposed on her and her authentic heritage. First, the narrator explains the metaphor “blackness” for the colonization her country that fills her own being and eventually becomes one with it. Unaware of her own nature, in isolation she is “all purpose and industry… as if [she] were the single survivor of a species” (472). Describing the annihilation of her culture, the narrator shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers.
Culture, an assortment of human activities and principles, leads a group of people with common beliefs and values; but after it was taken away by the Europeans, all they felt was lost and with no identity. (Arowolo 2010, 4) Colonialism caused an abrupt decline of culture and tradition in the colonies because the Europeans imposed a new culture on the African’s traditional one. Due to Africa’s subjugation and it being controlled by the Europeans, Western civilization and life style began shaping the colonies. (2) One can say that European culture is characterized by a Christian worldview and individualism. (7) Consequently, imperialism caused African cultural heritage to become replaced by a prosperous European-based one.
As immigration from other countries into the United States grew, conflicts of culture have been a prominent issue that have affected immigrants, resulting in cultural alienation. This sense of isolation has been established and enforced by the white Americans, dating back to the early 1900’s, due to the beginning of non-European immigrants coming to America. In the two excerpts from Bless Me, Ultima and The Buddha in the Attic the speakers are people who have experienced immense cultural isolation from other cultures where they are not accepted. In Bless Me, Ultima, the speaker talks about how he was publicly ridiculed by teachers and other children in his class, alluding to how many immigrant children have felt when their culture is not accepted
Everyday people are constantly constructing Gestalts about those they meet and interact with. People are trying to determine the sort of influence that you could potentially have on their life whether it be positive or negative (McCornack, Chap. 3, Constructing Gestalts). According to Amaeze, she has seen me as “dependable, caring, and kind”. Overall, Amaeze says that I’m “always willing to help others.” Reflecting on this, I think I am seen this way because I feel the need to meet others expectations of me.
However, most of the time, it is not as extreme as Faith’s. In Faith’s case, she has only had a goal to fit into a culture that she grew up with which is Britain’s culture. She does not have any interest in Jamaica’s but when she saw violences that her people get because of racism, she is deeply hurt. Thous, she comes back to look at her whole life and learn to appreciate her culture after coming back from Jamaica, her life was changed.
American Culture. America is a big country, consisting of a number of cultures which explain their community belief and values that are express in its own way. It’s said that a country can be defined by its, which can be true and it’s important for America to teach the youth of America about core American values such as, freedom, individualism, achievement and success and also many more that will make them remember their culture and values. America has undergone constant change in technology development and but this development is make it hard to detect the changes in cultural values. In consumer behavior, America like to have wide choices and unique products, so that they can have a version of their own lifestyle.
Ethnocentrism and its prevalence in U.S culture Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric judge other groups in relation to their own ethnic group or culture. I think The United States likes to refer to themselves as the “big mixing pot” of cultures. I would agree, we do have a wide range of different cultures, but that does not mean that we do not “evaluate and judge other cultures based on how they compare to our own cultural norms.” I think us as Americans feel this way, because we are too scared to change what we have learned and known since birth.
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