Do Americans Share a Common Culture?
By:
Professor Gregory Jay
What common beliefs, values, and cultural practices make up the culture shared by most
people in the United States? The term “multiculturalism” suggests that people in the U.S.
belong to many different cultures rather than all belonging to a single “American” culture? Isthis true? Or is there a common culture shared by most Americans? How would we define and describe this common culture? Below I have attempted to identify and describe some key
elements of a common American
culture. They include:
Individualism
Capitalism
Modernism
Religiosity
Secularism
Create 2 questions for each other in regards to the American Culture. Select 2 or more questions and answer them.
BE SURE TO WATCH THESE VIDEOS AND COMMENT ON THEM AS WELL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg87sSaTZSc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdfOMthpuWs
Do you believe that there truly is an American Culture or do we represent smaller cultures that simply co-exist within a large mass of land?
ReplyDeleteWhat defines our culture? What is our culture? Who are we and what do we represent?
Abby- This is a great question! I think that there is a true American culture different than the cultures that make it up. Each of the various cultures in the united states add something into the "pot". Each of these additions combine to make up the American culture. It is a very expansive culture with many different 'norms', but i do think that we do have a distinct culture.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think people from other countries think of all American's as being white?
ReplyDeleteIn what ways could our generation help reshape others' views of Americans?
(I hope this 2nd question makes sense. If it doesn't let me know and I will think of another one.)
So today in class we named a bunch of things that are American culture. However, Most of the things that we mentioned were nagative. So my question is, why do people continue to follow along with these traditional 'norms'?
ReplyDeleteMy other question is, do you think the characteristics discussed in class, are stereo types of American culture or do you feel that they are American culture?
Josie -
ReplyDeleteI think it is good of you to point out that most of the things we discussed were 'negative' culture traits. You asked, why do we continue to follow them?
I think that one reason is that people, in general, don't want to 'stand out,' so they do what every else does. However, I think that as people mature and become more introspective, they start to define their own values, rather than try to fit into the 'norm.'
My first question stems from Josie's -
Do you think Americans continue to follow these 'negative' cultural patterns because that is what is portrayed so heavily in the media? (Television, music, music videos?) Or, is media portraying what American culture is really like?
Has anyone watched the second video yet? Its very good - my second question stems from it:
Deaf people, even though they have their own Culture, must still living in a largely 'hearing world,' and accomodate their daily lives to this hearing world.
How do you think hearing people would respond if they were required to accomodate their lives (every day) to Deaf Culture?
Josie- I do not believe that the majority of Americans still follow in these norms. I think that a lot of what our "culture" is portrayed to be is because of sterotyping. Maybe we have been greedy, fat, & self-centered, but do you believe that the majority of americans are?? In class today when we put up what we thought American culture was it kind of surprised me because yeah thats what were precieved to be on t.v. and stuff, but the majority of people and families I know do not fall under any of those things. Talking about American culture makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteWhat would it take for America to get rid of those sterotypes?? Is it even possible??
FROM MONICA PLEASE READ!
ReplyDeleteIf this is course is called Introduction to Deaf Culture, why would I focus so heavily on the American Culture? What do you think is the significance of this?
We will be continuing this discussion next week. We will however focus more on the Deaf Culture and their social norms.
BE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS INCLUDED IN THIS POST AND COMMENT ON THOSE AS WELL!
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Monica
Erica- I think that America is portrayed at white. In movies, books, television shows and various other places. For a large part of history that was how we were portrayed. In history it was the "white" people that took over the new land. Which might have been the start of the idea, America = White. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteMonica- I believe that your focus on American Culture is in part due to the fact that we are indeed in America and the Deaf Culture is a culture inside the American Culture. I might be wrong, which is fine, but it is the first thing that came to mind. Also, you might ben using the American 'culture' to show us that America is kind of lacking a culture and the people in America believe that the Deaf Culture is truly a culture... when in fact America doesn't really have a culture.. at least not one that can clearly be defined. Therefore by looking at the two in comparasion we are able to see how obsurd it is for Americans to believe that the Deaf Culture isn't tuly a culture when they have a more distinct language, set values and norms, a history and so on. Those are just the first things that came to my mind, I am sure there will be more! Hope everyone is having a great week! See you Tuesday!
Abby- Good questions. I like your second one. I think that we are definitely made up of many different cultures across the country. I mean there are many differences even from the West coast to the East coast. The ways that they talk and dress are just a couple to name the many. But I also think that we show some of the characteristics that show we are all one nation. One that springs to mind is what we do (occupation). Americans are very interested in what our occupations are. Who knows why? It's just what we have grown up with.
ReplyDeleteI watched the 2nd video. Very good! One thing that struck me was when the boy's mother brought him to the boarding school and didn't even explain to him what was going on. I can only assume that times have changed and families don't do that anymore, but at the same time every person deals with situations differently.
Monica- I think that the reason we are discussing American culture is part due to the fact that we need to understand our own culture before we can understand a different culture. We need to see how Americans feel about things before we can just dive into what other cultures think and feel.
Why does the media do such a good job at sterotyping our American Culture? Movies, tv, and radio all make our culture seem either like the "perfect" world or they have absolutely nothing nice to say. Our American Culture almost seems like it wants to be set in the sterotypical world, but why? Isn't that just misleading everyone around the world what America is like? Kind of like creating a "false" culture? Does that mean we don't even have an American Culture, or at least a non realistic one? Or are there many different "cultures" in America?
ReplyDelete-Jeff
Monica-I think the reason why you are stressing the importance of American Culture is because that many view our American Culture negatively and also probably view Deaf Culture negatively. In some ways they are similar as to how they are viewed in society. Or maybe its something completely different but maybe you just want to show the connection between the two cultures and how they are viewed.
ReplyDelete-Jeff
Josie-I think that those "norms" are just the stereotypes of the culture not how it really is and that some of us follow those aspects but not all. If we all did we would all be greedy, fat and buisness people that have Dunkin Doughnuts and coffee every morning. I think that some people still follow these "norms" because that is how they percieve themselves should be. I think there are many parts to the American Culture but the most that comes out is the sterotypical parts of it, kind of like we remember all the bad things that happen and hardly remember all the good things that happen in the world. The good things are not as socially interesting as things that went bad and therefore get forgotten or overlooked, just like much of the good parts of the American Culture. At least that's how I see it
ReplyDelete-Jeff
Jeff -
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your reply to Josie, it struck me that we (Americans) seem to confuse 'culture' and 'stereotypes.'
Maybe this is something that Monica is trying to point out by having us look at both cultures.
Many of the things we discussed in class and saw on the video about american 'culture' were stereotypical, don't you think?
To say that ALL Americans are fat, money hungry and only eat fast food seems like a stereotype to me ... not necessarily a cultural trait. Yet, people from other countries think that about us.
Julie,
ReplyDeleteYou are dead on! Yes, that is what I am trying to do! I want us to see those stereotypes, be aware they exist and see how we confuse stereotypes and culture. Being able to see beyond that, allows us to build better understanding of our own culture and the cultures around us. In order for us to learn about culture, we must be able to see the difference so we may truly learn about other cultures. Stereotypes hinder our ability to really be able to communicate with people. How can we communicate with Deaf people successfully if we believe that they are just people that lack hearing and are too blunt for their own good?
Excellent observation!
Monica
I think that it is very easy for us to use stereotypes to make assumptions about people before we know them very well. People are subjected to the culture around them. They learn how to do things within that culture, things that are accepted and things that are not. I think we also stereotype people from different cultures when we do not know that much about them or want to make generalizations about a very large group of people. However, if we only rely on those stereotypes and never really get to know people, we are not able to learn anything about them. I would be very disappointed if someone did not take time to get to know me and relied heavily on stereotypes of Americans, blondes, women.. etc to classify my character and personality. I think this is also something we need to keep in mind with people of the Deaf culture. Getting to know the culture may help give us a heads up of major dos and don'ts and cultural norms in Deaf culture. However, it is important that we get to know Deaf people personally instead of relying on stereotypes. This will enable better communication because we will not have made embarrassing assumptions and put ourselves in awkward situations. I think that it is important that we are not stereotyping but looking at real parts of the culture. For instance, not looking at the stereotype of "fat American," but the cultural aspects that Americans see value in food, time, family, self, youth, jobs, and independence.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the first video clip it made me think that people that haven't been to America just go by what the movies make America to be. They don't know what its really like to live in America. They don't know all the different backgrounds that people come from but are still Americans. But then I thought we do just the same. If we haven't been to a different country we go by what we see on TV what others talk about and what we see in movies also. We don't know the true country.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we, Americans, idolize fame?
As American's I feel like most people judge people by the cover. Why do we judge things before we even meet them or get to know them?
As Americans do we see the things we do as positives even though most other cultures see them as negatives?
ReplyDeleteAlso, do a lot of the negativities about American culture feed off of previous negativities?
I liked watching the second video and remember watching it before... maybe in ASL two years ago, but there was something that stuck with me when watching it that is still with me now. I liked how the one guy explained that being deaf or hearing is similar to being male or female, and that was the comparison. That comparison is great!
Abby- I like your first question. I think that American culture is just a bunch of clusters of other cultures all co-existing in the same area. There is so much representation of many different cultures that have come to America as well as just a mix of cultures that are American but emphasize different aspects of each other.
Emily- I think Americans idolize fame because we need something to make us unique or different. We strive for excellence as a culture. I think it's kinda sad that that is what so many Americans see as defining being successful. Feeling success should not come from being famous or winning a top prize, being successful should be about what each person sees as achieving something... smaller accomplishments. Because when we really think about it, how many things do we REALLY idolize about those that are famous, a lot of famous people have nasty reputations.
hey everyone! so we are all "americans" right? so why can't we properly define what we are as americans? Why does the rest of the world associate us with food? fast food to be exact? "those americans eat cow" haha :)
ReplyDeleteErica- thats a great question. I don't knoy why the rest of the world thinks all americans are white. Maybe they sereotype us all as being white, blonde hair, blue eyed people. I don't know where that came from since all of us are very different, not only in how we act but how we look as well.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I think we all have a hard enough time trying to define what our own culture is let alone our whole country's culture. If you define the culture you live in with a culture from two states away, it will be somewhat different...let alone across our country. The difference in our country from North to South, East to West is incomparable. So why do we try to put our entire country into one cultural group? It doesn't make sense because we are so different.
ReplyDeleteTowards the discussion above about stereotypes...
Why does it seem like all stereotypes are bad? Whenever we talk about culture we always seem to come up with the negative. As americans we always seem to do this. Why can't we ever see the good in anything? Why can't there be good stereotypes?
The videos were very interesting. I liked the first one. It really shows how differently we and other people view us.
ReplyDeleteIn our class when we listed off things about the American culture the majority of the things were negative, but most Americans seem to view America as the greatest place ever. How do these both go together?
Americans have a difficult time defining our culture or believing that there is a specific American culture, do other groups have that same difficulty?
Jenna that is a god question. I think we have a hard time because we know what it's like to be an American but we can't describe it. Many people have different views on what it is like to be an American because their are many different places in the United States and people live differently in all of them. Some peoples lives are easier then others and others just use others or things to get through life. And why America is associated with food is another good question. I think because in most movies that is what is shown and thats what people outside of the States know.
ReplyDeleteSally- I'm sure that other countries, just like ours, have a hard time defining what their culture is. Just like we have our stereotypes placed on us we give them back to other countries. For example, we see Europeans, Asians, and Africans all in a certain way, which for the most part is never correct. They too wonder why everyone thinks their cultures are viewed that way.
ReplyDeleteEmily- I think Americans, in particular, judge people before we ever meet them because all of these stereotypes we have been talking about have been pounded into our heads since birth. Through television, movies, and magazines we have seen every type of person, and they are almost always portrayed the same way. Because of seeing these different types of people in the same light all the time, that is what we will think of them when we meet or see them for ourselves. It is a shame that we can't forget about these stereotypes and learn to know people for who they are.
I was also wondering why in the first video most people from different countries saw Americans as white blondes with blue eyes. When I think "America," I think of the melting pot of many ethnicities and cultures. Are there also sub-cultures within Deaf culture just like there are some sub-cultures in American culture?
ReplyDeleteTyler-I really liked your question about Americans focusing on negative sterotypes. I agree that recently America has been painted as the "bad guy" in the media, but just look at the stereotypes we came up with for the Deaf culture at the beginning of class. None of them were positive either.
ReplyDeleteRelated to that, the second video starts with a Deaf man discussing how hearing people always think about what they couldn't do if they couldn't hear. Do you guys think this is a result of the negativity that seems to plague us?
Jenna- You question about why americans can't seem to define themselves is a head scratcher. I think part of our problem is our diversity. As we saw in the first video, America has a huge number of different climates, each region seems to have it's own subculture.
How do you think the Deaf community being seperated into small satalite settlements has influenced the development of their culture?
I believe that the reason that other people view Americans as blonde and white is because that is the stereotype American media tends to display. It's gotten a bit more diverse in showing other people who don't necessarily fit that stereotype.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Abby's first question, I think America has it's own unique culture. There are some variants within it because it is such a large area and different needs in different areas affect culture. For instance, there's the tendency for things to be fast in the northern areas, but in the southern parts, they're more relaxed about time. This most likely happened due to climate differences. But there are ideals and tendencies that are pretty overarching like the ideal of freedom and the importance placed on work.
Becky - I like the question of 'sub-culture' within Deaf Culture... I'm trying to think of ways that this would happen. I know that there are 'regional signs' that change from location to location.
ReplyDeleteBut since Deaf Culture is ASL based, they certainly have a 'solid core' from which the culture is built around.
Monica, will we be talking about this? Hope so!