Who Cares About Culture?

[Junket]

Y'know how ethnics will immigrate to a different country and then fight the assimilation into the domestic culture? What's up with that? In fact it seems many groups try to assimilate the domestics into their culture.

Why can't people just let their cultures die?

Worse is when individuals will try to change common law to accommodate their groups "needs".

[Gigabitch]

I pretty much agree with you. When you move here, you become Whatever-American. Denying it is bullshit. I just listened to an interview with a guy the other day who said that he moved here 60 years ago but never assimilated into our culture and how proud he was of that.

I thought, "Then what did you contribute, you old fart?" He moved here because his country was all screwed up and then basically spit all over America because it wasn't good enough.

Don't get me wrong- I'm not a flag-waving conservative and I don't want to get into a political debate, but I think what you describe, Fras, is just... bad manners.

[misombra]

culture is beautiful. it would suck for everybody in this country to be the same. do the same things, eat the same foods. no way. you're crazy if you think culture should die.

[Gigabitch]

It shouldn't die, but it should evolve.

[misombra]

i don't get it.

[Junket]

Culture is beautiful.

But when culture creates this bold dividing line amongst people of the same community, same nation, then I would have to disagree.

Maybe my usage of the word "die" was a bit strong. I think families, groups will always preserve aspects of their culture of origin, but when it comes to rejecting the domestic language, morality, even law, then somebody has got to re-think their moving in the first place.

[Gigabitch]

If my family, for instance, refused to eat anything but Scottish food and wouldn't celebrate 4th of July because it's not a Scottish holiday, that would be unreasonable to me.

There are people who do stuff like that, though.

[misombra]

so? jewish people don't celebrate christmas. i'm not getting my pannies in a bundle over it.

[Junket]

I think public school's quest to promote tolerance has verged on promoting indifference. I think there's too much emphasis placed on people's ancestral origin. I was disgusted when I traveled to Los Angeles to find how segregated that city was. I wasn't just classism, everybody just kept to "themselves". The asians had their own little walled in community, with their own schools and own library. It made me sick.

But above all else, language is the biggest divider of humans. While spanish may be the 2nd most used language in the United States, where I'm from, people speak dialects of russian, korean, and hindi. There are far too many that put little effort into learning English.

[Gigabitch]

There are far too many that put little effort into learning English.

I used to live in Mexico. You know what I did before I moved there?

I learned enough Spanish to get by. I would NEVER expect someone in a foreign county to speak English to accommodate me.

My knickers don't get twisted about the religious holidays, but when people refuse to participate in society and take care of their civic responsibilities (like jury duty, for instance) it pisses me off.

[misombra]

why? people only hurt themselves when they don't learn english. it doesn't hurt english speakers.

as for the segregation, well people want to do their thing. so the hell what?

[vashti]

I tend to see white Americans having a bigger problem with non-white cultures than the reverse.

I'm with misombra. I enjoy different cultures. I *want* to go to a traditional Indian wedding, and a quinceanera (sp?), and a black church service where they wave their arms around and yell "Hallelujah".

Frasbee - the Chinese aren't obligated to live in China town. Some *like* to live there because they can speak in their first language and buy groceries they are familiar with. If I went to India, I would be looking for foods I was familiar with, too. It's human nature to be more comfortable with things you are familiar with. Anyway, you'll be happy to know we have an Asian neighbor, and a Pakistani neighbor, and Hispanic neighbors. (No blacks, though, that I can think of.) And we live in the white suburbs in Los Angeles.

[Gigabitch]

I *want* to go to a traditional Indian wedding, and a quinceanera (sp?), and a black church service where they wave their arms around and yell "Hallelujah".

I see this as being an assimilation of cultures. I'm not talking about people all becoming white, middle-America. I'm talking about people who don't want to have anything to do with the people around them if they aren't exactly the same.

[vashti]

Isn't that what (some) white people want? People who are exactly like them? else why should they care what other people are doing? I don't care, so long as they arent hurting anyone.

[Gigabitch]

Well, **** them and their racist agenda.