I agree with Ashley that America is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. We discussed in history last semester a number of attempts to turn America into a melting pot: everything from the role of eugenics to banning the teaching of foreign languages in school. However, I think this is impossible–especially in a place like New York where there are new-comers every day. One major reason, I think, is that even if you could somehow get everyone to speak and act the same way, our physical differences are too much. There will always be people with blue eyes and people with brown. There will always be the variety of skin tones, from albino white to dark as night black. For a lot of people, unity isn’t just about actions–it’s about appearance. Racism happens, which is counter-acted by cultural pride. It’s the way it is, and the way it always will be. I think that cultural pride has to do with what Ashley pointed out about second generation immigrants being more successful native-born counterparts. When you’re America, you’re just…American. But when you’re African-American, or Italian-American, or Pakistani-American, you’ve got to uphold both sides of the hyphen.
While cultural pride is good, too much isn’t a great thing. It leads to ethnocentrism and as Greg points out, ethnocentrism “provides a means for making moves guilt free”. I also want to comment on what he said about non-white people tending to reserve American terms for whites, and using their cultural ties to identify themselves. Even people who come from mixed cultures (example European father and Asian mother) like to point out both heritages when it comes to describing themselves. In fact, the diversity is often a form of pride for them.
One last comment on Morrison’s obvious disdain of hyphens and her use of the term Africanist–I think to lose the hyphen is to lose half of one’s identity. Half of one’s identity comes from one’s genes, and the other from one’s choices–and living in America counts as a choice.
All in all, I found the articles to be informative. I won’t lie and say that they were always interesting, because they weren’t. But I could relate to a lot of what they said, and I was able to appreciate the views they presented.
