Thursday, August 29, 2013

American Culture

Some of the poets I've been watching on Button Poetry seem to mention issues with their native culture (Asian, European, African...) being drowned out or "white-washed" by American culture. They say their heritage has disappeared or become "Americanized".

I was thinking about this earlier. And as I looked around I observed: I was sitting in a L&L Hawaiian Barbeque Restaurant in Northern California. The food served was Asian-inspired and mixed with "Hawaiian food". In line was an overweight white woman in a blue sundress, her friend who was black woman in black slacks and a purple blouse, a white couple, an elderly Asian woman, two Hispanic women, and a bunch of Asian guys sitting at a table. 

As I observed all of this I thought: Who else is noticing the ethnic diversity this restaurant is currently holding? Oh yah, NO ONE because everyone's hungry and only focused on their food. Nobody cares what the race, creed, ethnicity, or nationality of the person standing next to them is. It's irrelevant. 

And what does it mean to be "American"? Would you say that any one of the people in that restaurant did not "qualify" as being an American because of their race or native background? NO. Can you say that anybody in that room doesn't have some cultural heritage from some foreign land they could trace their lineage to? Unless someone was secretly a Native American, NO. European decent, African decent, South or Central American decent, Asian decent... everyone had a country outside of the U.S. they could have traced their ancestors to.

So where does this stereotype of "white-washed American culture" come from? Classical music, art museums, Victorian architecture -that's all stuff that was inherited from the Europeans who came in. But what about (especially for countries near Mexico) the Hispanic art, architecture, music, food...? And Hip-hop that's become so popular these days -is that not also American? And rap? And what about the Asian cuisine, clothing, art...? And INDIAN presence. Thai food, Buddhist temples, yoga, whatever. 

Why does it matter for you to say that you're obligated to adhere to ONE culture -only ONE? Despite the billions that are out there like stars in the sky, you can only have ONE you claim and associate yourself with. And the way you speak, carry yourself, behave, dress, walk, and what you eat, where you go, everything you DO and ARE must be defined by that ONE culture. Aren't there as many people b*tching that they are smothered by their culture and can't break free of it and BE THEMSELVES as their are those who say their culture is being oppressed in some way? And in a country that allows anyone to be ANYTHING they want to be. 

Bottom line: Nobody cares. Embrace life in all its flavors and colors. Don't act like your culture is being oppressed or erased because there's an entire country out there (England,  Korea, El Salvador...) that is currently 90% that ONE culture. You can do everything you want to do to bring that ONE culture to your life, the lives of others, and America as a whole and the only thing that will end up happening is America will become that much richer ans varied and you will become that much less.

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