All people have a similarities and differences. You may say compared to a plant humans- black, white, red or yellow- are almost identical not only genetically, but in behavior and reasoning (not that it matters what you think). But your not a tree, you’re a human being, the product of thousands of years of environmental and social conditioning. Assuming or thinking that Blacks or Arabs people assign the same values to things both material and sentimental as Whites or Asians is just naïve.
This is a hard thing to talk about, but it’s just up in the air. Blacks in America have different values then Blacks in Africa or even Canada and the UK. Like Whites in Ireland have different values then those in the US or Russia. Differently, you can’t group people by their nationality or religion either. In short, any generalization is going to be inaccurate, even this one.
Ask your parents, if your white they probably never even seen a non-white person until later in life, especially if they lived in a rural community. Racial segregation is still in effect in some parts of the United States, at least on a commercial level. The law can’t force you to like anyone; it’s not a crime to be racist. And in most parts of the world, being white is a crime in it’s self. I certainly would not want to visit Pakistan or Saudi Arabia even before 9/11. I worked with a Pakistani Christian, whom was brown skinned, and his whole family was ambushed and murdered while leaving their church in Pakistan. I will also go out on a limb and say most Americans don’t like Pakistanis very much, again, even before 9/11.
However here we all are, Tootsi and Whotoo, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim, Jew and Gentile, all living together acting like we are one big happy family… kind of on that don’t ask don’t tell policy. It’s sort of a huge gamble. Why the big about face now? Why now, more then anytime in history is the ruling class actually pushing for racial tolerance and understanding? Of course there was the threat of the universal fraternity of eastern block communism and the economic gains of emancipation, just a couple of well rooted arguments. But are we taking it to far? It’s one thing to tolerate difference, it’s another thing to try to assimilate it, perhaps at the cost of our own uniqueness.
Sure we have something to gain by embracing our differences, but there is a lot more to lose. If you don’t embrace differences, they will remain differences. But if you totally embrace other cultures, what is going to happen to your own? What if there were only four people left in the world (it’s just a hypothetical/metaphorical point, don’t get all genetic, especially you Christians), A blue man and woman and a yellow man and woman. If they pair racially then their species will continue. But if the blue man goes with the yellow woman and the yellow man with the blue woman then we are left with no divisible racial groups and a world full of green people. America and Canada are often scrutinized as countries without culture, to which they rebuttal the classic ‘we are citizens of a world, yada, yada, yada, the global village”. It makes me think. Why is Star Trek on like 8 hours a day? Do people really know what communism is? Will we be assimilated? Is resistance futile?
wow.......thats alot of writing, and most of it is true. only one thing, what do you mean you Christians? the only religious person who would take that offensive is a Catholic priest, i'm baptist so I don't really care of anything that might contridict my religion. still, good point
Saying that America has no culture is just stupid. We have our own uniqeness, trends, and collective idiosyncracies, some that other countries even try to imitate. It may be true that beyond inital settlement and many land disputive wars, America lacks any sort of root or tradition, but we do have an identity. A diverse melting pot of other nationalities combine to create one international character to which most born Americans can relate to. Besides, Canada and America are two of the youngest countries in the world, it takes time to develop a truly distinctive culture as deep and intricate as that of Eurasian and African nations that have been around for many more centuries.
I'm going to have to agree with Mecanon on this one. I've been an exchange student to Japan, so I've seen first-hand what effects America, as a 'culture,' has had on other countries and other groups of people. The fact is that diversity and multifariousness IS the root of our culture, and they are what makes our country unique.
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