Cultural Heritage
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1. What people gain, at least in theory, from leaving their cultural heritage is twofold: membership in a new community that they choose to enter and opportunity to access the social and economic goods of that community's mainstream. What they lose by leaving behind their cultural heritage and joining or attempting to join the mainstream is, potentially, at least, their identity of origin. That is because the mainstream has a culture of its own at once independent from and a composite of people from disparate cultures. Thus in the context of the new environment, the forces of that environment exact a cost, in the form of some manner of exclusion, for failing to absorb and/or adopt the values, language, customs, and practices of the mainstream--that is, for not acculturating (Phillips 251).Phillips says that "recognizing, even celebrating, ethnic differences brings back the enduring issue of community: insiders versus outsiders" (249). The tension between access to or exclusion from mainstream culture's goods on one side, and the overwhelming pressures of mainstream culture vis-a-vis members of marginalized groups who want to retain original identity while also accessing the mainstream on the other can foster a richer community or dynamics that are "ugly, glowering with misunderstanding and hate" (249). There is opportunity to gain from and contribute to mainstream culture, but there is a chance that opportunity will not be available, thus leaving the new community entrant o
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ws that they are basically trapped by their relative lack of education and inability to break out of the pattern of quasi-subsistence living. Also, Phillips cites the "growing inequalities in America" due to the "capitalist blowout" of the 1980s in particular (278). Ehrenreich does not focus much on the role lifestyle choices and habits of the workers she describes in trapping them. That tends to have the effect of slightly romanticizing them, as if they were morally perfect while the capitalists were not. Even so, it is not necessary to accept them uncritically to see that these workers are economically powerless vis-a-vis employment work rules and socially powerless before, though on the front lines of, the relationship between their employers and the employers' customers--as with such as the fussy diners in the Florida restaurant (47-48) and the snooty Maine woman who hired the maid service (83-85).
3. The concept of being in a situation where the social order is more fragile makes sense to me because of the relatively recent history of Southern California, where mass disturbances had a lot to do with the clash of different cultures. The biggest impact that I am aware of came in the early 1990s, when the police officers videot
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Some common words found in the essay are:
, Wright Martin's, Los Angeles, Brea California, Southern California, City Brea, Society Brea, Brea's Internet, Rodney King, African American--and, los angeles, internet site, brea california, mainstream culture, brea city, city brea, southern california, city council, council hires city, original identity, site 22, site 22 2005, leaving cultural heritage, internet site 22,
Approximate Word count = 1416
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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