Assimilation is the process of cultures being intertwined. This occurs when many ethnicities blend in the community. Americans have mixed feelings about this process. The ones that oppose it believe immigrants should leave their customs and ways for those of the natives here. Cultural pluralism is when minorities try to participate in the society with the use of their cultural differences. This are some of the many ways that immigrants, those that want to, blend in to the American ways and yet hold on to their old ways of life. I guess in reading my comments this can be seen as a total loss of identities for these people. America is a melting pot of different cultures, customs and languages. Should they be asked to amalgamate into a society for the sake of their right to live here?
5 comments:
So do you believe that people should assimilate of culturally pluralize? Personally, I feel that immigrants from other countries should not lose a sense of their own culture when entering a new country.
I agree with the comment made before. I think that assimilation is a dirty word, one that is loaded with the enslavement of Africans, the subjugation of the American Indians, and the sentiment of white supremacy. Western(European) Culture, is important, and it is true that we as Americans share much English culture; from our nursery rhymes that we learn as children to the holidays we celebrate. However, we are also in many ways German, African, Irish, and Italian in our ways. Subscribing to the belief in total assimilation to me is subscribing to the tradition of Eurocentrity that has plagued America from the beginning. The topic of illegal immigration aside, any immigrant group that has a substantial effect upon the consciousness of America, should, and will, somehow work their culture into ours. America is a nation of sharing cultural identities, hence suburban white kids listening to rap, or African American women wearing hair weaves, a trend that started and was associated for many years with the aristocracy of white Europeans. Being a multicultural country depends on the acceptance and tolerance of other's cultures.
I agree with anonymous above...why the hell would i want to forget all my culture for a new one?
I don't think that immigrants should have to assimilate. Changing your culture is changing your identity. I would like to think that the more cultures there are in the world, the better the world will turn out to be.
I agree with all the comments left. It should be up to the immigrants to decide to really assimilate but it would be better for them and us if they learned how to speak english.
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