Growing up, I attended a Jewish orthodox school for 12 years that promoted Judaism and aimed to preserve the Jewish culture. Therefore, I never really felt the pressure to be more American – I actually felt the opposite. This school made me felt like being American came second to my religion – I am a Jewish American, not an American Jew.
However, despite never experiencing the pressures of Americanization/Anglo-conformity first hand, I am well aware that it happens all around me. I believe that such concepts as Americanization and the white mans burden will never go away. As long as more immigrants enter this country the more prevalent Americanization becomes. Which in a way makes sense because if we all want to live together in one country under unison we must come together and embrace the country through nationalism (and if we don’t agree on nationalism then that within itself creates conflict among the people, look at Israel for example). However, I guess many people feel that if immigrants have strong ties to their culture, tradition, and their previous country, it prevents them from fully committing themselves to America. This leaves American people with an uncertainty of immigrants and their motives. After all, there are some immigrants who come to America, get jobs, make money, and then ship that money back to their homeland, which clearly doesn’t help the American economy. After all, the American perception of immigrants is said best by Gordon, “their coming has served to dilute tremendously our national stock, and to corrupt our civic life.”
However, it is safe to say that things aren’t the same as they were back in the day; this statement is in regards to politics, social reforms, and even economics. Therefore, for everything to have evolved expect for our mentality and approach towards immigrants is pretty absurd. There must be a way people of different ethnicities and different religions can coexist, maintain their beliefs, and still be American. I believe that we are living in a time where this is very possible and I’ve even seen so myself. However, the media and big industries play a major influence on this. Who they cast in movies, who is elected president, what kind of people are successful in America is all a reflection of American mentality and the way they few those around them. However, I have hope that the media will use its influence and power to shed light on immigrants and enlighten Americans who wouldn’t normally put much thought into this subject matter.
