How Does Diversity Affect Our National Culture?
Diversity has affected America's culture since its inception. The various immigrant groups who came to America's shores brought with them their individual beliefs, religious practices, unique craftsmanship and inventiveness which collectively helped to create the colonies and eventually the United States as one nation. In contemporary America, diversity of culture has taken on a different connotation. The concept has expanded from cultural and ethnic heritage to the interweaving of social ethics, gay rights and marriage. In addition there is now the notion that America must adopt and adapt to foreign customs and legalize the use of many languages on street signs, government documents and in the public classrooms across America rather than immigrants adapting themselves to America's rich culture and language.
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Melting Pot
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The social fabric of America is built on the very foundation of diversity of culture. Yet according to the organization Ethnic Majority many of America's ethnic minorities have not been assimilated into America's diverse melting pot. In fact, while America's minority groups have enriched the nation through literature, art and social customs, African Americans, Middle-Easterners, Haitians, Mexican-Americans and other open-and-obvious minorities still encounter racial and ethnic discrimination.
Cultural Distinction
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Cultural distinction is perhaps the single unifying element which allows ethnic and cultural groups to maintain their group identity while creating blended American mores. The very essence of American diversity is predicated on the notion that America can celebrate the ethnicities of its various cultures. Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Cinco De Mayo, Black History Month, Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Chinese New Year and many other cultural and religious observances. Celebrating and embracing the diversity of the nation's various cultures has worked to solidify America's symbolic identity of being a nation of many that has transformed itself into one distinctive nation.
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Language
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The development of the American language is unique. Unlike Germany, France, Egypt or Poland which all have one native tongue, America's language is a collection of many native tongues which have been transformed over more than two centuries into a blend of distinctive sounds and dialects. The varying dialects are mostly dependent upon where the various ethnic immigrant groups settled geographically in America. So while the American language can be correctly considered English, it is American English with ethnic and culturally diverse undertones. The English Language Political Action Committee (ELPAC) has documented the changes in America's language as well as efforts recently by several states as well as Congress to make American English the official language of the nation.
Education
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America's students are growing up in a nation and a world that is increasingly becoming more diverse in how it interacts in the workplace, in institutions of learning, as well as in the media and on the Internet. According to the organization Teachers of Color, it is the frontline teacher who must prepare the students to understand how these diverse cultures will quite possibly impact them and their families as well as the American culture they are being raised in.
Population
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The minority population in America is growing at a quicker rate than the Caucasian population and may directly affect how the American culture defines itself over the next couple of decades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the white population---while it's the largest of the five race/ethnic groups---will be the slowest-growing among the groups between 1995 and 2025. On the other hand, the Hispanic population will outpace every other ethnic group by growing from 32 million to a total of 72 million persons added to the nation's population rolls. As a result, an historically Euro-centric focus may eventually give way to a representation of emerging minority-influenced art, entertainment, language and other cultural manifestations.
Future
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As America's population continues to grow, the social dynamic the nation's citizens will have to confront as an increasingly diverse nation is what should be the defining identity of America. According to a social/cultural anthropological study from Palomar Community College, as the nation becomes more diverse, Americans may begin to favor non-assimilation which advances individualism of cultures. The study goes on to suggest that many Americans may continue to advocate for a one-America based on the melting pot belief. America always has been in an ever-transformative state, and growing cultural diversity allows for its continued unique national quality and character to reinvent itself.
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- Photo Credit american independence day icons image by Lisa Fischer from Fotolia.com
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this is the life.....
