Sociology 255

I just got back from performing in InVUsion, and what really disappointed me was that literally no one came.  The audience was mostly composed of other performers.  This just makes me question about what people think of other cultures.  Do people not care about the other cultures that exist?  InVUsion is a free show, so people cannot use money as an excuse.  My friend that I performed with also performed last year and said the turnout was pretty much the same.  There was also another event last night – Garba, which not many people who were not Indian attended.  Why is it that people seem so uninterested in learning other people’s cultures?  What do you all think?

Being home for spring break, I found pleasure in being immersed once more in my Puerto Rican heritage. It was like a party once I got home. There was food, music and family love. What else could I ask for? Yet, when my family asked how school was and if there was anything interesting to share with them; I immediately thought of this class. It was like a light went off in me and I had to spread light on how we may not get considered as a race or rather not considered a race because what we have is just a culture and an ethnicity; nothing more. In saying this to my family it was a mix of rage and saddness. Their emotions highlighted on their faces as it did mine that day in class. My grandfather, bless his heart, actually stood up in outrage claiming that he is a person too and deserves to be counted as a Latino; nothing more or less. He went on and on, on a rant that is not appropriate to retype, but the highlighted points were that we are just more than our food and music. The rest of the family looked at me in awe of what I had said and all they could ask was why? Why wouldn’t they be counted as a race, why can’t they be in their own category? We’re different. I had no answers because I felt the same way. Why do I have to choose another “race” just because many feel that my race is just a mere culrture?  How can I just eliminate the identity I thought i was for so long just because others don’t know how to categorize my group?

I think the genius of American culture is that anything can become a part of it. Immigrant groups don’t have to dress and talk and eat like Americans (which itself is a bit of a generalization), their culture becomes an indelible part of the fabric of this country. For example, the idea of a Federation of States governed by a central body was taken from the Iroquois League. Do most Americans know this? Probably not. However, there is no debating the fact that the form of Government we know and love(?) was adopted by America. (And yes, I am aware that at the time, “Americans” were the immigrants) Tacos, once an exotic and decidedly ethnic food are now popular all over the country. It’s not that Mexican food was merely imitated by American culture; it became a part of our national diet. Such is the story with all characteristically “American” foods (with the exception of the Sundae). The point is, if it tastes good, looks good, or is simply a good idea, you can bet it will eventually make its way into American culture. Because that’s what America does, it appropriates things from other cultures, and in a society like that there should always be room for new people and new ideas.

A lot of people seem confused about what exactly qualifies as an ethnicity.  Here is my take. I think the points people were bringing up are more or less about culture–shared practices and beliefs.  Southerners have a different culture than Northerners for example.  Often times, however, people of different races can share the same culture, as someone brought up Eminem among other examples.  I consider culture very fluid yet real in differences, and I think the examples people brought up demonstrate that idea.

From the U.S. government to academia (their fixation on the trilogy of race, class, and gender), society tends to draw distinct lines around culture to construct ethnicities, historically based on similar biological features.  That is not to say ethnic differences are a myth and society just tricks us into differentiating ourselves from other people. The differences are real and have real implications, but where the boundaries are drawn amidst the fluid system of culture are determined by society.  Not everyone, as others’ examples have shown, fit into a neat label.

While today the way you look in many ways is predictive of your culture, I think in the future as people continue to migrate all over the world, where you live and grow up will be the most accurate predictor of culture, thus rendering the idea of ethnicity useless ie. a Black person and a White person from New York will have a much more similar shared beliefs and behaviors than a Black person from New York and a Black person from LA.

For anyone interested in race, ethnicity, and culture, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell, a Fellow at the Hoover Institution.  Here is a sample essay.