Mixed Races
Mixed Races and Cultural Groups: Should We Be As One or Separate?
Sherdava Lopez-Sandoval
ENG122 English Composition
Christy Spindler
March 5, 2013
Mixed Races and Cultural Groups: Should We Be As One or Separate? No matter where we are today, if you were to look around you, what would you see? You would probably see people of all different races, different cultures and people that come from all different walks of life. The United States has become a very diverse country. People from all different countries and all different cultural backgrounds have come to America to “live the American Dream.” The question is should this come with a price? Although most races and cultural groups that have migrated here have contributed to the country’s economy, there is the underlying question of whether they should be treated as a separate entity? Or if being just an American minus the hyphen would really make a difference. The United States thrives and prospers from the contributions of these different races and cultural groups; therefore they should be treated as a separate entity.
This has been a topic of discussion since the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the phrase “melting pot” was introduced to describe the United States and the vast amount of different cultures and races. Many agreed and many disagreed. Both facts and opinions were abundant on both sides. In fact, Eduardo-Bonilla Silva stated “Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into the pot. They could be used as wood to produce the fire for the pot, but they could not be used as material to be melted into the pot.” (Silva, 2009).
Multiculturalists supported the argument that the mixed races and cultural groups should indeed be treated as a separate entity. They felt that assimilation could hurt minority cultures by stripping away their distinctive features. (McDonald, 2007). Although they felt this way, they also warned that forcing
Sherdava Lopez-Sandoval
ENG122 English Composition
Christy Spindler
March 5, 2013
Mixed Races and Cultural Groups: Should We Be As One or Separate? No matter where we are today, if you were to look around you, what would you see? You would probably see people of all different races, different cultures and people that come from all different walks of life. The United States has become a very diverse country. People from all different countries and all different cultural backgrounds have come to America to “live the American Dream.” The question is should this come with a price? Although most races and cultural groups that have migrated here have contributed to the country’s economy, there is the underlying question of whether they should be treated as a separate entity? Or if being just an American minus the hyphen would really make a difference. The United States thrives and prospers from the contributions of these different races and cultural groups; therefore they should be treated as a separate entity.
This has been a topic of discussion since the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the phrase “melting pot” was introduced to describe the United States and the vast amount of different cultures and races. Many agreed and many disagreed. Both facts and opinions were abundant on both sides. In fact, Eduardo-Bonilla Silva stated “Blacks, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, etcetera, could not melt into the pot. They could be used as wood to produce the fire for the pot, but they could not be used as material to be melted into the pot.” (Silva, 2009).
Multiculturalists supported the argument that the mixed races and cultural groups should indeed be treated as a separate entity. They felt that assimilation could hurt minority cultures by stripping away their distinctive features. (McDonald, 2007). Although they felt this way, they also warned that forcing
References: Clark, W. (2003). Immigrants and the American Dream: Remaking the Middle Class. New York: Guilford Press. Donato, K. M., Tolbert,Charles M.,,II, Nucci, A., & Kawano, Y. (2007). Recent immigrant settlement in the nonmetropolitan united states: Evidence from internal census data*. Rural Sociology, 72(4), 537-559. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199340685?accountid=32521 Gold, M. (1977). In praise of diversity: A resource book for multicultural education. Washington DC: Association of Teacher Education. Lerman, Antony (2010-03-22). "Guardian.co.uk". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2010-12-10 Nagle, John, 23 September 2009). Multiculturalism 's double bind: creating inclusivity, [[cosmopolitanism]] and difference. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 129. Rumbaut, R. G. (1997). Assimilation and its discontents: between rhetoric and reality. The international Migration Review, 31(4), 923-960. Silva, E.-B. (2009). Race: The Power of an Illusion. Race: The Power of an Illusion, http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-about-03-01.htm, retrieved 5 Feb 2009 Taylor, Charles Pluralism Vs Melting Pot www.diversitybenefitseveryone.com/pluralismvsmeltingpot.html Zangwill, (1908). The Melting Pot play. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot.