Some Shared Aspects of American Culture

Sociological theory and public discourse raise concerns about division, fragmentation, or attenuation in our collective life rooted in, among other things, racial or religious differences, but we know very little about how ordinary Americans imagine themselves as similar to and different from their fellow citizens. In a recent, nationally representative telephone survey (2003, N = 2081) we asked over 2,000 Americans whether the members of ten different racial/ethnic, religious, or social groups " share your vision of America. " We used cluster analysis and found three patterns of responses to this set of questions, patterns that reflect differences in social location and correspond to different views of diversity, group stereotypes, and understandings of American society. We argue that what we find reveals different dimensions along which Americans draw symbolic boundaries in public life, and that how these boundaries are drawn is rooted in three different visions of America. Optimistic pluralists believe in the positive value of diversity and are unwilling to exclude people on the basis of religion, ethnicity, or lifestyle; critics of multiculturalism are critical of diversity and are wary about contemporary social changes and political and social " out-groups; " and cultural preservationists imagine an America with a moral order underpinned by shared values and a history of a unified white, Christian culture. In the conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for scholarship on multiculturalism and the " culture wars, " and we call for more research on how ordinary Americans interpret the meanings and implications of social differences in public life.

2012

Within the United States there are seven (7) population groups as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each population group can have numerous categorized subgroups. There can be one or more cultures within each subgroup resulting in multiple cultural identities which came about from the diaspora of other cultures or nationalities. There are commonalities and differences behind the cultures as well as a concept of fairness, or absence of, that prevents any one population group from agreeing on all the things that go into defining a universal culture. It is impractical to attempt a full examination of all seven population groups within the space constraints of this thesis. I will examine the population group defined by the United States Census bureau as Hispanic, exploring the cultural and political commonalities and distinctions between Hispanics and the dominant population group defined as White. I will further examine relevant laws enacted by Congress and their cultural impacts, to determine if a universal American culture exists, and if a universal culture exists does it demonstrates equality and fairness. I will further analyze the commonalities to answer the question, who gets to determine what the universal culture will be. The conclusion drawn from this empirical study will provide insight into the resultant failure to identify and agree on a universal culture. iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the faculty of Georgetown University whose patience, understanding, and excellent scholarship made it possible for me to reach this point. Additionally, I thank my family for their patience, understanding and support throughout the entire process.

Sociological Forum, 2008

This essay examines social relations and cultural values in the United States, paying special attention to recent characterizations of Americans as increasingly isolated, disconnected, and dangerously individualistic. In this essay, I refute such claims. And building on earlier work , I show that U.S. social relations and cultural values are more multifaceted than such ''new individualism'' arguments suggest. Indeed, as Robin M. Williams Jr. discovered 50 years ago, when studied in a systematic way, U.S. values and beliefs present us with a multiplex system-a system in which individualism plays only a supporting role. This is true, I suggest, because Americans' ''value focus''-that is, the prioritization of one value over another-shifts in concert with certain social events and structural conditions. In this way, we can think of U.S. values as part of a ''cultural toolkit,'' with actors selecting or foregrounding the values needed to support certain strategies of action.

This is a succinct text intending to provide an overview of diversity or more precisely cultural diversity from a philosophical viewpoint. Specifically, the text strives to delineate between the concepts of assimilation and plurality in the U.S.

Available at SSRN 1491317, 2009

Problem statement: There exists misconceptions about the roles and characteristics of diversity and multiculturalism is American Society. The definitions and interrelationships are skewed as there continue to exist unanswered questions about to what extent the society is multicultural. Approach: The objective is to illustrated and discussed a theoretical construct where it will be possible to define, examine and test specific variables that define cultural neighborhoods. A group of Defining Intracultural Traits (DITS) creates a clear picture of how diversity and multiculturalism remain distinct entities within the United State societies. The DITS variables include: Language, Food, Religion/Ideology, and Comfort with Customs Results: Models are introduced which show the force field relationships between cultural entities. This paradigm illustrates the opposing fields which prevent the free sharing of culture on anything but a superficial level. This position prevents anything but a casual sharing of cultures within public settings such as the workplace, schools and sports events. Conclusion: American society does not exhibit many of the characteristics of assimilation and cultural integration which is often touted. American culture continues to be neighborhood bound. Future study is indicated in an effort to test whether the paradigm is a valid tool for representing cultural interrelationships in the United States.

National Review of Black Politics

American identity has become a racialized norm that is primarily applied to those racially identified as White. We examine what it means to be an American from the perspective of racial and ethnic minorities who may not be viewed as prototypical Americans. Because we know comparatively little about what American identity means for those who are not White, it is important to understand this attachment in order to understand how “other” Americans articulate their identity and how their political actions and attitudes are influenced by those sentiments. Using the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, we examine attachment to American identity for racial and ethnic minorities (i.e., Blacks, Asians, and Latino/a people) to evaluate levels of political participation and sentiments toward discrimination. Using a novel measure of Americanness (measured here as the extent to which people feel “allegiance” to America and their sense of “belonging” as Americans) we describe the ...

Legal Science Series: themes and crisis E-BOOK 1 Theory and Problems, 2019

The article discusses what Americanism is, its theoretical and practical roots, and the implications of this "ideology" in the current American political debate.

PROSPECT-LONDON-PROSPECT PUBLISHING …, 2004