...Ronald Takaki’s, A Different Mirror, sets off a voyage of retelling American history, however, the difference is that he includes the many minorities that took part of it. He does so by including pictures, songs, and firsthand account stories of people that lived in that era. Takaki talks about the great importance these races have in American history and how they, in fact, are part of it. He mentions that most Americans see America as a white country and view people who are not white through the “Master Narrative” filter. He defines the Master Narrative to be the teaching of American history from a white perspective, therefore enforcing the idea that Americans are only white people. Takaki challenges this idea by telling the history of a multicultural America in his book; he does so by telling a history that is inclusive of minorities, such as Mexican Americans. Therefore, teaching a more inclusive history vanishes the social distinction that separates white people and people of color. According to Takaki it is easy to misunderstand why many immigrants are not considered American; it is why he states that the master narrative is at fault. Many Americans see Mexican Americans as “aliens” and very foreign to this country. However, one...
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...America is taught to believe that this country was found and colonized by European immigrants. Historical and mainstream America is ignorantly taught, that anyone who does not have European features is not considered American. Whites are the Americans. Any person who is not of European descent is categorized as “other” or ethnic. This is a filter of the master narrative Ronald Takaki focuses on, on dismantling in his book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. He challenges this history by including the stories of the true diverse America. America fails to teach that this country is built upon the bones of Native, African, Irish, German, and Mexican American ancestry. Takaki’s motive on writing his book is to confront and explain...
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...In chapter 5 of the book, A Different Mirror, written by Ronald Takaki, it talks about slavery and many different slavery stereotypes. In chapter 6, Takaki talks about women in the work force and the factory and house servant jobs, and he also touches up on Irish immigrant. To continue, Takaki talks about the Mexicans control over California in chapter 7. Furthermore, in chapter 8 Takaki discusses the experiences of Chinese immigrants during the late 1800’s. In one lecture, we discussed some key terms and we also went over the Privilege Score Index. In the following lecture, we discussed more key terms such as: Mise-en-scène, ethnicity, and epistemology. The film, Dances With Wolves, is about a man by the name of John Dunbar, who is sent an outpost in the west and eventually befriends an Indian tribe and becomes...
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...In chapter four of Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, the text primarily focuses on the relocation and removal of Native Americans. Initially, Andrew Jackson was instructed to encourage Native Americans to settle down as farmers, only to later take away their land anyway. As president, Jackson twiddled his thumbs as states such as Mississippi and Georgia succeeded Natives with whites. In their book, Voices of a People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove referred to this period of time as "an early example of...ethnic cleansing" (Zinn 133). By 1838, the federal government forced the Cherokee people west of the Mississippi, killing one-fourth of their population in the process...
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...Native Americans shared the bottom of the American social ladder and suffered from prejudice and discrimination, their lives were somewhat different. Both suffered at the hands of whites, but Native Americans suffered more due to the fact of destruction of their society and land lost. On the other hand, African American were being more challenged in term of improving the condition from nothing. One thing is certain that America must always remember the hardships it forced African American and American Indian to endure for no other reasons than the greed, hatred, ignorance, and racism that allow discrimination to thrive. During the period of the...
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...Over our country’s young existence, the democracy that America is so proud of has often had flaws, hypocrisy being one of them, that can be illustrated in many ways. The hypocrisy that can be inexplicable at times, is illustrated in some of the realities depicted in the following articles and film clips described. W.E.B. DuBois describes the phenomenon where after the Civil War, there was still a great divide. It was even physical where different demographics of the white population and the black population in the south would live based on “social grades common to all communities” (DuBois Ch. 9). Though one difference is that the “best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity” (DuBois Ch. 9). In the South after the Civil War, the African-Americans were often taken advantage of. The Crop-Lien system, which was a credit system for farmers to obtain supplies and food from local store keepers, took advantage of the black farmers. DuBois describes how if they weren’t able to pay their debt, then the storekeeper would just take what they feel is owed to them without any warrant or law to back them up. This would leave many black farmers in debt and stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder. When it came to politics, many black people felt that why should they bother. If “reputable men leave politics alone”, then “politics becomes disreputable” (DuBois Ch. 9). They felt that the laws were created by people who had no...
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...RESEARCH and WRITING CUSTOM EDITION Taken from: Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide, Eleventh Edition by James D. Lester and James D. Lester, Jr. To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments by Gilbert H. Muller and Harvey S. Wiener ISBN 0-558-55519-5 Research and Writing, Custom Edition. Published by Pearson Custom Publishing. Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Custom Publishing. Taken from: Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide, Eleventh Edition by James D. Lester and James D. Lester, Jr. Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc. Published by Pearson Longman, Inc. New York, New York 10036 To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments by Gilbert H. Muller and Harvey S. Wiener Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc. Published by Pearson Longman, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Custom Publishing All rights reserved. Permission in writing must be obtained from the publisher before any part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system. All trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, and registered service marks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 0-536-97722-4 2005240359 AP Please visit our web site at www.pearsoncustom.com ISBN 0-558-55519-5 PEARSON CUSTOM PUBLISHING ...
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