Race and Ethnicity in the United States - Assignment Example

Race and Ethni in the United s Question Culture refers to a distinct set of behaviors and ways of doing this shared by a group of individuals living in a community. The African Americans are such a distinct group of people who moved from their continent to a new region taking their traditional cultures with them to the United States. The interactions of the African Americans and the Native Americans among other population groups in the country have corroborated the claim that culture is a dynamic social concept as people trade values. As the African Americans interacted with the rest of the American population, they traded values thereby influencing the cultures of each population. Currently, the African Americans are among the largest populations in the country with the fear that the whites are likely to become a minority within the next few years. This implies that the African culture is manifest in the mainstream American culture. The Africans moved from Africans taking their cultural facets with them to the new country. Among the cultural features that the African Americans influenced in the new country include religion, music, dance, cuisine and dressing among many other fundamental cultural features. Within the last forty-two years, the manifestation of the above African features owing to their increasing population is evident as mainstream American culture continues to infuse African concepts thereby diversifying their cultural features. As discussed above, culture is a dynamic social concept that changes with time. As people intensify their interactions, they shed cultural features that they consider redundant while adopting new cultural features that they consider appropriate. The African Americans have therefore also shed some of their cultural features and adopted new features while influencing the expansive American society as other population groups also shed their cultural features to adopt African cultural features they consider appropriate thus validating the influence of African American culture in the mainstream American cultures in the country. Advent of hip-hop music in the country that would later revolutionize the music industry globally is purely and African concept resulting from the infusion of rap, new jack swing, go-go and hip house. The contemporary music genre has influenced the development of the African American population in the country providing the talented Africans with a platform to exercise their talents thereby expanding the music industry to different parts of the world including Europe and Asia. This implies that the African culture did not only influence the mainstream American culture but had far reaching influence globally (Johnston 71). The fact that the music got unparalleled media coverage within the last decade provide the African American celebrities with an effective opportunity to influence both the American and global cultures. Additionally, the music improved the economic might of the African American population in the country thereby improving the American economy. Most of the African communities believed in the worship of ancestors and the role of caring for their natural surrounding owing to the religious connotations of the forests, rivers and mountains among other natural features as espoused in different African cultures. While most of the African Americans adopted Christianity, they upheld the value they had accorded to their natural environment a feature that has contributed to positioning the country as conscious to their environments (Kontra 54). Different African American groups championed conservation movements thereby preserving the country’s natural resources in the country. Successive American governments, political leaders and other pressure groups have since adopted different initiatives to conserve the environment. The interaction among the different races in the country has progressed throughout the years owing to the changes in the American society. At the beginning, Africans served as slaves and interaction between the African Americans and the whites remained at the master to slave level. This way, Africans could not influence the cultures in the society. Additionally, the intense oppression coupled with the separation from their societies resulted in the Africans losing some of the cultural values. However, after the emancipation of the African Americans, the population began enjoy fundamental rights in the country thereby obtaining effective opportunities to influence cultural changes in the society. Within the last forty-two years, the country has become increasingly permissible and liberal with the African Americans enjoy myriad freedoms thus succeeding in assimilating other races. With such a liberal society, the African Americans could express themselves through art, dance and attire thereby succeeding in influencing the American mainstream culture as other races began appreciating such fundamental cultural features. Besides music, African Americans have influenced the country’s economy, politics, education and language among many other fundamental features of the society. As slaves, the African Americans toiled in large plantations in inhumane conditions as the literally steered the country’s economic growth (Lacombe 88). However, with the last forty-two years, the population’s contribution to the country’s economy has progressively increased since soon after their emancipation, the African Americans faced intense discrimination that when coupled with their inadequate education denied them formal employment. They therefore remained backward and unemployed thereby constituting of the country’s poorest population. This led to rise in crime as most of the African American youths ventured into crime thus rendering most of the country’s city streets impassable. The trend changed progressively as most Africans sought education thereby improving their resources. With their contribution as an elite group in the contemporary society has improved the country’s economy by increasing the labor force thus improving the country’s gross domestic product (Lauder 44). The involvement of the African Americans in the country’s politics also had a progressive pattern. During the slave trade era, the white elite political leadership did not consider the Africans as American citizens. They therefore did not take part in the country’s politics. However, the trend changed especially after their emancipation. Within the last forty-two years, the African Americans have formed a fundamental political force in the country culminating in the election of Barrack Obama as the first black American president in the year 2009. The increase in the population of the African American has played a significant role in ensuring that they become a fundamental voter block in the country thereby contributing to President Obama’s reelection in 2012. Currently, the Africans Americans are influential in the society with most of them having different investments in the country. The artistic talent of the population for example has contributed to the development of the American entertainment industry, which employs millions of Americans. Additionally, the group has been influential in the development of different languages and the education system in the country. while most African Americans did not appreciate school in the early years, currently they constitutes the professional elite in the society a feature that contributes to their appreciation of academics. Because of the effects of their African languages coupled with the fact that they remained uneducated for long during the slave trade era, the African Americans has influenced the development of languages in the country often developing numerous pidgins, intonations and slangs in the country appropriate to their numerous social groupings. The development of the hip-hop culture further enhanced the development and use of particular pidgins developed specifically by the African Americans. Question 3 That the whites are soon becoming a minority group in the United States is not an estimation anymore as statistics continue to prove a continuing increase of the African American population in the country. Through assimilation and cultural exchanges especially through intermarriages, has succeeded in limiting the population of other ethnic groups in the country as it increases the population of the African Americans in the country. Current estimates state that in the next five years, the Hispanic/Latino ethnic groups will constitute a fourth of the country’s population. This portrays a rapid decline in the population of some of the most conspicuous Caucasian groups. The decline in the population of the group results from the increase in the population of African Americans among other non-Latino ethnic groups and races in the country. The United States is a cosmopolitan society consisting of myriad races and ethnicities thus the existence of numerous cultures in the country. The increase in the population of Americans of Asian and African descent thus threatens the population of the Hispanic/Latino groups who are currently becoming a minority group. The history of the United States favored the whites key among which were the Hispanic/Latino ethnic groups. The group is among the longest living Americans and is among the most educated in the country (Hakutani 43). As an elite population, the group is advantaged over the other previously minority groups including African Americans. They enjoyed numerous employment opportunities in the country owing to their high standards of education a feature that contributed to their expensive and healthy lifestyles. The group that has ancestry as some of the Native Americans thus interacted with the whites and African Americans at different levels throughout the history of the country. While the British colonizer subdued them during the colonial era, they enjoyed relative freedom and were among the enterprising slave and plantation owners during the early years. They interacted with the British colonizers freely and contributed to the high white population in the country at the time. However, through such cultural interactions their positions began becoming threatened. They readily intermarried with the other white groups a feature that curtailed the future of the groups as most of their descendants continued became increasingly half casts. The situation has since worsened owing to the contemporary liberal American culture in which people intermarry freely regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. Through such cultural interactions, other groups continue to manifest thereby contributing to the sustained diminishing population of the Hispanic/Latinos and other Caucasian groups in the country. As explained, cultures interact with the people often abandoning retrogressive cultures while adopting better cultural practices. Intermarriages are a major cultural feature that portrays the manifestation of cultural interactions in the country. The Hispanic group just as any other population group began intermarrying freely with appropriate groups as the history of the country evolved. Currently, the Hispanic cultures permit intermarriages with every other racial and ethnic group including the Americans of African descent. Currently, the Hispanic group constitutes 16% of the American population a statistical feature that proves that the group is already a minority group. However as discussed earlier, the group still is among the most elite and enterprising group in the country. The relationship between the group and other racial groups in the country include myriad stereotypical mindsets most of which however do not affect the raise in intermarriages among other types of cultural interactions. Majority of the African Americans for example feel that the Hispanic group increase pressure in the country’s employment thereby denying them chances of employment (Joseph 32). Additionally, their close relationship with other groupings from south American countries further perpetuate the development of such stereotypes including assertion of drug trafficking and contribution to the rising crime rates in the country. The increases in the number of criminal gangs in areas they habit are among the social factors that perpetuate the development of different demeaning stereotypes. In a summary, the statistics that portray that the population of the Hispanic group in the United States is diminishing is a portrayal of the social stratifications in the country coupled with the changing economic features. The changing cultural features in the country are resulting in new stratifications thus influencing the cultural and social changes. The population of particular groups are diminishing thereby giving rise to a new generation of nearly impossible racial profiling. These typify cultural interactions providing factual results for an increasingly cosmopolitan society such as the United States. Works cited Hakutani, Yoshinobu. Postmodernity and Cross-Culturalism. Madison, NJ [u.a.: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press [u.a., 2002. Print. Johnston, Hank. Social Movements and Culture. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1995. Print. Joseph, F. Healey. Diversity and Society: Race, Ethnicity and Gender. New York: Sage, 2009. Print. Kontra, Mikos. Language, a right and a resource. London: Central European University Press, 1999. Print. Lacombe, L. Developing informed citizens: how to bridge multiculturalism and content area instruction through a student-centred social justice framework. New York: Sage, 2009. Print. Lauder, Hugh. Education, globalization , and social change. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20006. Print. Read More