...Running head: A Checkered Past: America’s Melting Pot A Checkered Past: America’s Melting Pot Abstract According to Sociology.about.com a melting pot, “is a concept referring to a heterogeneous society becoming homogenous with the different element “melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture” (Crossman, 2015). The issue with the notion of viewing society as a “melting pot,” is that the viewpoint fails to recognize the importance of preserving cultural difference within a society. Within a “melting pot,” there is a right and a wrong, with those going against the cultural norms being wrong. For example, in various African nations polygamy is a cultural norm, as it was once viewed as a sure way to build a successful empire. Fast-forward to today’s society where many Africans come to the United States to try and provide a better life for their families. However, polygamous living is strictly banned in the United States, as it is in most westernized societies. Often, individuals are forced to give up ties to native cultures in order to fit into a particular society. This is exactly the case in The Melting Pot, a play by Israel Zangwill. After surviving a pogrom, an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group David Quizano, one of the plays key characters, makes the tough decision to break his ties to Judaism for the sake of becoming American. This paper will examine Zangwill’s 1908 play and how transitioning into a society can lead to a loss of cultural...
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...The Melting Pot Illusion: Understanding Race and Power by Rethinking American History Race in Media Mid-Term Paper April 18, 2014 When it comes to race in the United States, America has always thought of itself as a racial and ethnic melting pot. This “melting pot” message has always been known throughout the world as a key aspect of America’s national identity, built on the promise that all people of various colors, races and ethnic backgrounds are afforded basic civil freedoms and opportunities to pursue their dreams within a democratic society. In fact, in school classrooms throughout the United States, where most of us received our initial understanding of American history, we often witness a romanticized narrative of Americans striving forward towards progress with limited or partial understanding of race, the complex story of Native Americans and their removal from conquered lands, and the enslavement of African-Americans. The purpose of this essay is to rethink prior understandings of American history and what race means, as well as how it has determined and limited citizenship and opportunity for some Americans, by exploring the voices in author Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove’s book Voices of a People’s History of the United States and other literary sources, and what American citizenship means to those not designated white, rich or male. The definition and concept of race, a human classification system used to group human beings into large and distinct...
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...Unit 5- Discussion Board: Overtime as the United States progressed and became more culturally diverse, the melting pot theory and the American mosaic concept were formed (M.U.S.E., 2010). During the 19th century, the melting pot theory was formed and described as a blending or fusion of society where different cultures and nations and mixed together to form a common culture. More recently, the American mosaic concept was shaped essentially stating people from different cultures and backgrounds come together in harmony adding their own unique contributions to society, otherwise known as multiculturalism. The American mosaic appears to be a bit more realistic in regards to our society. One reason behind this is everyone is different. The blending of different nationalities, cultures, and religions and forming of one common culture seems a bit outrageous. I think it would be truly unrealistic for individuals to give up their true identity, language, and/or culture to become basically one in the same. Additionally, I do not think it’s possibly for one and all to be considered the same when problems such as discrimination still exist (Carliner, 1975). As stated by Xiao-huang (1998), “the Asian-Pacific population in the United States grew from one million in 1965 to over nine million in 1995”(para.2). This is just one example of one ethnic group who has dramatically changed the American demographic. Asian Americans have made many contributions to American society. This group...
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...live at Mizzou as a freshman. Teams I would cheer for would be St. Louis teams like the Rams, the Cardinals, and the Blues. Since I go to Mizzou, I would also cheer for Mizzou teams, whatever the sport. Places like gyms, stadiums, fields, and courts gather people together. The gym everyone is gathered in (like the one in the picture) is a place where diversity can exist, and nobody questions it. Individuals come to meet friends, family, even strangers to become one fan base for their favorite team. No matter what differences these people have, they still manage to bond because of this one similarity. Everyone cheers for the same team, unless you’re in the wrong section of seats. This group, and any other large group of fans, represents a melting pot of people with different ethnicities, sexes, cultures, and/or religions. This picture of Duke fans gave me an appreciation for my hometown and the fact that so many of my friends and I love sports. It reminded me of the connection people feel when they are together, as one, cheering. Going to the baseball stadium, football dome, or ice rink, with my friends helped me grow closer to them. Through the excitement of everyone in the picture, the unity of school colors on each individual, and the diversity of sex and race, it can be determined that Duke's basketball team serves as some kind of social captivator for Duke fans, who are together watching the game. This picture shows the excitement of some people cheering on their school's...
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...groups of people, rather than the peace that unity can bring. • Have you learned something new about your own racial, ethnic, or cultural history? Mostly everything I read about my culture was a re inforcement of what I already thought , I did learn a lot about my husbands race, (African American) and our bi racial children and how, I am glad to know that America is moving forward in acceptance of Diversity and hopefully will continue to learn and embrace each others culture. • Trends in immigration will continue to shape the demographics of the United States. What will the U.S. population look like in the year 2050? Why do you think so? The United States in the year 2050 will be more of the melting pot, often referred to in our society. We have many from various races now, but in the future that number will be far larger. It is noted by Kotter, “From 2000 to 2050, the U.S. will add another 100 million to its...
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...Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts MGT-307 September 12, 2011 Farid Dalili Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts I will be discussing in this paper how the organizational culture, organizational behavior, diversity and communication is analyzed at Kaiser Permanente. I will define and explain how Kaiser Permanente uses the terminology and concepts in our hospital. Organizational Culture Organizational culture is the shared beliefs and values that make a difference in the behavior of organizational members. Culture plays an important role in stability and safety in an organization. Organization culture defines an organization's leadership and in order to understand its leadership, it is a must to first understand its culture. “Although it is relatively easy to conclude that what works well in one culture may not work as well in another, it is far harder to specify exactly how cultural differences affect things like motivation, job satisfaction, and ethical behavior.” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2008). The organizational culture at Kaiser Permanente has started a program called “Live Well Be Well” for their employees. This program has really made a big difference at our facility. The employees have better understanding of their health, motivated to come to work everyday and work ethics have improved as well. . Employees rely on culture for the ability to respond to any circumstances, culture becomes hard core in many organizations...
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... Introduction The novel Ragtime takes place in America in the early 1900's. It illustrates several life stories and destinies all woven together in different ways. Most of the characters in the novel are pure fictitious but some historical men and women from the era are featured. We get to met Houdini, the biggest illusionists of his time, JP Morgan, one of the wealthiest men in America, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and Emma Goldman, an anarchist and political activist. One of the main characters, and the main focus of this analysis is the Latvian, Jewish immigrant referred to as Tateh. We follow Tateh and his daughter Sha's progression through the different stages of becoming assimilated in the American melting pot that is the American culture. Main Body Tateh and his family arrived to America in the beginning of the nineteenth century. This was a time in history when immigrants, mostly europeans were flowing into New York. Between 1901 and 1910 as many as 8.8 million people arrived from overseas (Duncan and Goddard, 2009:66) all stepping of the boat filled with dreams and hopes of a better life in “the land of opportunity”. The reality in New York was different. The streets were dirty, crime was increasing along with the growing population and assimilation was not easy. “The officials changed names they couldn't pronounce and tore people from their families... “They were despised by New Yorkers. They were filthy and illiterate...”Every...
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...Diversity Thomas "Drew" McIntyre ETH/125 May Nineteenth, 2013 Jeanette Carney Diversity There is an abundance of information available on the topic of diversity in the United States. Some of it slanted in either one direction or another. However, I have found interesting reading material presented by National Geographic on this topic. In it, there is an enlightened view point of the state of diversity in our country presented in a way that is easily understood and easy to relate to. In addition to National Geographic, I have found useful information on diversity in our text book. It is a comprehensive and well written piece of academic material that covers a wide base of topics. The drawback to this source material is there have been a few statistics presented in which I did not find to be as accurate as portrayed. This also served as an upside as it caused me to think beyond what was written and investigate the material. By looking at and understanding other cultures and how we should embrace them. There was a bit of eye opening on my part in the ways that my particular racial group has approached it in the past and the strides that still need be taken in order to bridge the gap. I have learned about my own racial history that we too were also slaves. In fact, it was a common aspect of early European warfare to conquer and enslave their foes. At one poi t of time all of our ancestors have been enslaved for one reason or another. It is not simply the plight of Afro-Americans...
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...cooperatively in the social, economic, and intellectual world. Diversity is valued because it helps to encourage growth, personal and professional (Schaefer, 2012). The important thing to learn is that as a society we can remember that it’s not about Black, White, Asian, Hispanic or Latino ethnicities but constantly focused on being one with my brothers or my sisters. We could use these words in our everyday lives to face any situation at hand (Kolb 2009). At the end of the day it’s about all our differences, melting into one pot and being stirred only to make a change. “The fusing process goes on as in a blast-furnace; one generation, a single year even—transforms the English, German, the Irish emigrant into an American. Uniform institutions, ideas, language, the influence of the majority, bring us in similar complexion; the individuality of the immigrant, almost even his traits of race and religion, fuse down in the democratic alembic like chips of brass thrown into the melting pot” (Munson-Coan, T). This article though written in 1875 says a significant amount about America. I think by 2050 the U.S. population will be going strong (www.newgeography.com) In the varying cultures, there are some that believe in ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is one of the...
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...Fondue or Salad? American became known as the “Melting Pot” when people from different countries, having different cultures, languages and religions blend together into their new homeland. ("Credo", 2013) in the early 1900. Since that time the “melting pot” seems to have turned into a “salad bowl.” (“Cultural Savvy,” 2011) Now America is becoming a salad bowl culture. With the melting pot title, every culture immigrating to America blended into one culture. Since then, we have been receiving people from countries that have never been part of the melting pot before. We are now beginning to take on the flavor of a salad. When you have a salad, each ingredient maintains its own distinct flavor apart from each other ingredient. With this type of culture, we have become a nation that is no longer blended as one culture. The reason for this dramatic change in the culture of America is that people relocating to America are not as willing to adapt, and those already here are not as accepting as they once were. Even though out of many one, remains our country’s motto, multiculturalism does not work because one culture is not accepting of another and new cultures do not want to change and adapt. For many years, people who immigrated to America were mostly of European heritage. These immigrants wanted to become part of the “melting pot” culture. When these immigrants came to America, one would have thought that the first thing they did was to begin to learn the English language...
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...DEFINATION OF RACE Name of Student Institution affiliation DEFINATION OF RACE Social constructionism relates to the socially create nature of social life. Social constructionism is therefore created by a group within a society by happens due to the fact that the society encourages and supports it. Social constructionism can therefore be considered as a social norm and it continues to be relevant as long as people put timeinto practising it and talk about it.A race can best be described as a group of people who are perceived to some physical characteristics which are quite distinctive; which mainly include skin colour and facial structure. These two distinctive racial characteristics are perceived to be inherited biologically.This paper, therefore, aims to highlight on the view of race as a social construction. The human race is not only dependent on the distinct physical attributes and skin colour but alsoreligion, language and nationality play a significant role in distinguishing race in human beings. In most cases race is used as an ethnic intensifier where it often try to justify or exploit one one group over the other.In the American society, the idea of race seems to be so fixed that it seems impossible for the society to take up an open-minded approach when challenging this idea.In the American society, race is perceived as a discrete scheme of classification. Therefore, it is mostly considered as a social construction. On the other hand in these society race...
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...Khyati Joshi’s “Multiculturalism”, readers receive knowledge on the history of how America became socially diverse. America being referred to as a melting pot is received as a positive thing. We accept different people’s cultures, heritages, and traditions and become one society. While reading this I felt great, because of how far America has come with diversity and acceptance. Today, people of all races can go to school and develop an education of their choosing. Years ago this was not the case, schools were opened up for people of certain races. These people were not welcomed at the other schools available because of the color of their skin. It is sad to think of a world that treated people so poorly because they were not considered “normal”...
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...Illegal immigration should be allowed in the United States because they bring culture and diversity. BBC News states that “ the melting pot imagery has been contested by the idea of multiculturalism, the “salad bowl theory”, or as it is known in Canada, “the Cultural Mosaic”, whereby the immigrants retain their own national characteristics while integrating into a new society” (“Melting pot America” par.20) . BBC News put into words that while immigrants are trying to settle into a new society and new culture they can express their lifestyle along the way. The process of integrating into a new civilization is all about coming together as a whole which creates “America’s Melting point” status. BBC News explains that immigrants have been coming...
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...Managing Diversity in the Workplace At workplace, valuing diversity means creating a work environment that respects and includes variation individual by maximizing the potential of all employees or in which every employee feels included. It means acknowledging that other people, other races, other voices, and other cultures have an equal claim on the world. Valuing diversity is the recognition that there are many ways of viewing the world, solving problems, and working together. Diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Businesses and organizations are living up to the great melting pot image the United States has always been popular for. Employees now reflect a diversity of cultural perspectives, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, physical abilities, and levels of education. This wave of multiculturalism is here to stay and cannot be ignored. It is in need of attention in order to uphold the well-being and success of businesses and organizations all over the country. . In the workplace it is very common to have co-workers that are of a different ethnic background than yourself as well. I believe that it is a huge benefit to work with people from a different ethnic background. The workplace needs all types of diversity. It is said to have a positive effect. In the workplace, we need diversity to become more inventive and open to change. The behavior of an employee is shaped by relationships with co-workers. To succeed in this highly competitive environment, we must...
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...Multicultural working force training Diversity can create several challenges to the work force if the employees are not educated on multicultural management. According to Matt Alderton, employers have “got to educate themselves, train their employees and seize interpersonal opportunities that they may previously have skirted.” (Alderton, 2008). Training employees on the different cultures of their co-workers will make it easier for the employees to work with one another and therefore will make for a more trusting and productive working environment. Training employees on the benefits of communicating among themselves should be one of the primary concerns to the multicultural workforce. Not only is communication among co-workers important, but it can help to eliminate frustrations among co-workers and it can also help in the avoidance of serious safety hazards. If you have workers who cannot communicate well, and do not understand the safety regulations and requirements that the company has enforced, they could be endangering themselves and others as well. Communication barriers can easily affect a company and its employees. According to Myelita Melton, president of SpeakEasy Communications, who specializes in diversity education, there are several ways to communicate with employees who speak different languages. These strategies are: 1. Ask questions 2. Offer English instruction 3. Study important words 4. Hire a translator Asking questions to those who do not speak...
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