Quote: (01-28-2014 07:01 PM)speakeasy Wrote:
Quote: (01-28-2014 05:08 PM)MidWest Wrote:
The thing about this is that America is an immigrant nation. Every single American can trace back his or her roots to another country unless they are Native Americans. Our culture is influenced by many others and we have always pride ourselves in being an immigrant nation, but when it comes to brown people, that fuzzy feeling starts to sway away.
I have to respectfully disagree. American culture is not influenced in any significant ways by "many others". America is basically a European nation located outside of Europe, just like Australia, Canada, New Zealand or Argentina. The cultural norms were handed down from Britain. The social norms of Africa, Asia or Latin America played no role in the organizational structure of America or the founding documents. Sure, we may have music and food influenced by a bit of this and a bit of that, but fundamentally, America is an Anglo country. Even the women's attitudes should tell you this as we speak of women from other countries coming here and becoming corrupted by the Anglosphere feminist values.
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We aren't a homogeneous people like the Japanese or Chinese.
The racial homogeneity of America has been all over the place. Obviously at the founding there were huge numbers of Native Americans, huge numbers of Africans and whites. Maybe even in equal parts. Then by the 50s I think America was like 90% white IIRC. Now the trend is reversing since immigration patterns changed. Btw, it's a trip when I look at old vintage photos of downtown Los Angeles or Hollywood blvd or even Times Square and there's only white people walking around. It's like whoa...this is NYC??
You think so? I don't think that's true, Speak. Even if you go up to Quebec (Montreal), the vibe and culture is latin not anglo at all.
Same with South Florida. Miami is completely latin. Try getting ahead without knowing Spanish and you'll find life more difficult than it needs to be.
Also, American culture was a melting pot from the very beginning. There were many languages spoken in the colonies (French, English, Spanish, Native languages) which is one reason why the founders didn't establish English as an official language. The US actually has no official language, unlike most countries.
If you look at a lot of the original documents from the founders you'll see how broad-minded those guys were (maybe not in practice but in how they shaped the country). They were painstakingly careful not to show preference to any nationality, religion, etc. Way ahead of their time.
Culture is local. The culture of New Orleans is different from Denver than from New York. That's what Midwest is getting at.
Sure, we imported British Common Law (except for Louisiana which has Civil Law), but beyond that, every wave of immigration challenged the facts on the ground and people had to forge a way to live together.
Every succeeding generation had to "take their lickings" when coming over to America (Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, etc). The first time these groups encountered a racial hierarchy was when they came here. The first arrivals suffered, but their children were able to assimilate and have it better off. Germans used to have their own schools and teach their kids the language until the government banned it.
There's mountains of literature on this. If you go to most cities in the American south, the African-American and British farmer influence is undeniable. Even in linguistics, they've determined that African-American vernacular is heavily influenced by British "redneck farmers" who settled in the South and both cultures influencing each other in turn. Keep in mind some of these cities, like Richmond, VA, had slave populations that made up the majority of the city's population.
If you go to Texas, the Southwest, California, the Mexican influence is undeniable. Go around the country and you'll see how different the regions are. We really are a bunch of states that are bound together by federal authority (remember the south wanted out of this shit altogether), but our cultures are uniquely different.
For example, this white girl I smashed from Vermont was talking to me on Skype the other day. She moved to a southern state to attend some prestigious med school. She feels she has more in common with me - as far as my values and outlook on the world - than white southerners she goes to school with. The culture there is utterly weird to her (i.e. people going to church on Sundays, etc).
Man, I had to laugh reading your post because it reminded me of this video someone sent me the other day.