Around the world, Americanism and true Americanism have become questions and statements, which put many people in dilemmas of different kinds. Cultural diversity has become one aspect, which is ever increasing with age, and within various institutions that affect social beings. The Bradley symposium focused majorly on how one is considered a true American within the United States; however other topics were covered in the precious talk. Globalization was termed a major topic and subject that is constantly making true Americanism to fade. Americans today do not know their real identities as people and individuals of the United States. Americans no longer have specific ideals and devotions to their own cultural aspects. What Americans are willing to sacrifice and fight for seem to be narrowing down to individual levels.
In a vivid essay by Theodore Rosevelt, 1894, cultural diversity is becoming a challenge to the Americans. Americanism now needs a lot of involvement by all the stakeholders within the United States. Several scholars have noted that Americans lately have very many threatening evils to fight and also many deeds. As it is considered one of the richest nations on earth, America has been exposed to interference from all groups around the world with malicious gains (C-Span Video Library, 2011). Senior fellows and scholars who attended the Bradley symposium reported that America is not enabling true Americans to benefit from their own country just like other natives within their own countries. Leaders at the symposium sought to know exactly about positive content regarding true American identities and its attachment. The American equality and why it matters became a subject of discussion because the legal system allows foreigners to benefit as much as the natives do.
Multiculturalism and Why It Matters
Multiculturalism and ethic differences must be acknowledged in the American society it has become one subject with lots of contentions. The subject is receiving both positive and negative reactions especially from dominant group members. Multiculturalism is one of the topics that high profile leaders attempted to understand during the Bradley symposium. Positive reactions foresee that multiple cultures within the American soil will root out unnecessary prejudice among various sectors of the economy.
On the other hand, negative reactions perceive such presence of many cultures to be sources of perceptual threat. During the symposium, several members acknowledged the presence of multiculturalism within the American soil. However, they noted that multicultural exhibited high levels of social dominance over their white cultures. The leaders were concerned about their true identities because multiculturalism is becoming another monster which robs the nation of its true Americans and patriots (Morrison, Plaut & Ybarra, 2011).
American society has increasingly grown throughout the past decades. There is diverse environment due to multiple cultures attempting to fit into the true American system. Multicultural ideologies are now creating backlashes among the white Americans in the forms similar to those of intergroup biases. Encouraging people to appreciate and recognize differences can produce several reactions that were not earlier anticipated. The white Americans tend to have disproportionate levels of power in the society and therefore negative responses towards multiculturalism may cause a lot of repercussions on diversity efforts and other inter-ethnic relations. It is therefore important for leaders to evaluate and understand the sources of backlash together with different forms that they may take.
Highly identified white Americans will always perceive multiculturalism as a big threat to their own core values. These groups may react to such threat by way of biases against several out groups within the American soil (Roosevelt, n.d). Many scholars have noted that living in a multicultural society is healthy because it will create avenues for competition. Societies with diverse cultural tend to have more stable events and are not normally affected by various changes within the economy. Attitudes that are more inclusive will develop over time if multiculturalism is allowed to be within a given set up.
References
Morrison, K. R., Plaut, V. C. & Ybarra, O. (2011). Predicting Whether Multiculturalism
Positively or Negatively Influences White Americans’ Intergroup Attitudes: The Role of Ethnic Identification. Retrieved on 22 January 2013 from http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Morrison_Plaut_Ybarra_(2011).pdf
C-Span Video Library (2011). Immigration and American Identity. Retrieved on 22 January
2013 from http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/BradleySy
Roosevelt, T. (n.d). True Americanism. Retrieved on 22 January 2013 from
http://www.hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/Theodore%20Roosevelt%20_TrueAmericanism_.pdf
