Two Ways To Belong In America Summary

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Throughout history, industrialization, mechanization, and the development of transcontinental travel has allowed people of all different ethnic and racial backgrounds to intermix in ‘melting pot’ countries such as the United States and Canada. These countries now contain proportions of ethnic and racial diversity never seen before. While it may seem that having a larger presence of people of different races and ethnic backgrounds in one place may ease historically prominent problems like racism and xenophobia, such issues are still prevalent in these countries. Although many modern societies may seem to be increasingly accepting of immigrants due to their population’s racial diversity, the sense of nationalism and national culture of those countries …show more content…
The racial majority in countries like America use their elevated status to patronize racial minorities every time they attempt to express themselves in a way that is unique to their cultural background or ethnic expression, all in an effort to subdue them and create one nation made up of one culture that everyone else was forced to assimilate into or suffer. Racially diverse countries also attempt to limit the cultural expression of their minority populations by making them feel excluded from the larger national community if they do not sacrifice their culture for assimilation. In some cases like that of Bharati Mukherjee in “Two Ways to Belong in America,” to give up one’s cultural identity and replace it with the new culture of the country of residence is to guarantee oneself a spot in the national community. Mukherjee describes herself as being ‘American’ because she embraced American culture, while she refers to her sister as simply an expatriate because she “is here to maintain an identity, not to transform it”

Two Ways To Belong In America Summary

In the passage “Two Ways to belong in America”, the two Indian sisters are living in America. One Assimilates to the American culture, while the other one remains with the Indian culture. We see that same thing in “Everyday Use”, where Dee (Wangero) Assimilates to the American Culture while Maggie stays with her birth culture. The impact your culture has on your life is dependant on what you want to do with your life, your personal thought process, and the amount of respect you have for your culture…

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