‘Americanization’ of Immigrants for the 21st Century
In the early 1900s, immigration in the U.S. reached a high point, which prompted Americans to educate immigrants about the culture. The “Americanization” movement focused on helping immigrants to become “civic-minded and participatory.” While naturalization was the end result, the process was designed to teach them American values and to foster a sense of civic responsibility. Government agencies, the education system, community organizations, faith-based organizations, and others were involved.
Encouraging immigrants to assimilate into their new culture was necessary, but some considered it presumptuous at best and racist at worst. We were stripping immigrants of their culture and pressuring them to live according to our standards. Americanization began to wane after World War I, as the U.S. passed laws that limited immigration. So-called national origin quotas remained in effect until 1965.
Between 1966 and 2008, the population grew from 200 million to 300 million people, with immigrants and their U.S.-born children accounting for 55 percent of the growth. By 2025, the foreign-born population is projected to exceed the previous century’s peak of 14 percent. By mid-century, the foreign-born population is projected to reach 19 percent. According to the U.S. Census, whites will be a minority at 47 percent of the U.S. population. Hispanics will comprise 29 percent, blacks 13 percent, and Asians 9 percent.
The Americanization concept made a comeback in the late 20th century. In 1997, the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform issued a final report to Congress calling upon federal, state, and local governments to welcome new legal immigrants and help them integrate into American society. The commission recommended that the U.S. admit more high-skilled immigrants and fewer low-skilled immigrants, acquire better controls against illegal immigration, and reduce legal immigration. For good measure, it added:
The Commission decries hostility and discrimination against immigrants as antithetical to the traditions and interests of this country. At the same time, we disagree with those who would label efforts to control immigration as being inherently anti-immigrant. Rather, it is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
Eleven years later, the call for Americanization has been renewed. In 2006, President George W. Bush created the Task Force on New Americans, part of the Department of Homeland Security, by executive order. Last month, the task force released a 67-page report titled, “Building an Americanization Movement for the Twenty-first Century.” (PDF)
Not only are immigrants entering the U.S. in record numbers, their countries of origin are more diverse, and they’re setting in areas outside city centers like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, according to the report. These immigrants need to be integrated and assimilated into American civic culture. While immigration is a federal responsibility, immigrants don’t settle in a federal sphere; they settle in local communities. Consequently, all spheres of government and the private sector must work together to achieve these goals.
Diversity is fine, reads the report, but unity is what keeps America successful. Being an American is more than a matter of citizenship; it’s an identity that new citizens should embrace for the sake of strong national unity. The report’s recommendations include providing high quality English education, strengthening history and civics education at the primary, secondary, and collegiate levels for all Americans, creating more laws to facilitate integration and citizenship, enhancing the celebration of citizenship and American identity, and fostering political integration and political attachment.
Pro-enforcement types (as opposed to open-borders fans) will be pleased to know the report emphasizes helping legal immigrants, those who obey our laws, to embrace civic culture, learn the language, and become Americans.
Why it took an executive order and two years merely to repeat what was stated in a report to Congress 11 years ago is a mystery. Why did Bush, in the waning days of his administration, create this task force? He issued the executive order before his amnesty-for-illegal-aliens immigration reform bill was defeated in the U.S. Senate in 2007. Bush knew the bill was unpopular among Republicans. Perhaps he anticipated its defeat and saw the report as a last-ditch effort to fix America’s immigration mess before he left office.
What’s President-elect Barack Obama’s position on immigration reform? According to his web site, he believes in protecting the border, increasing the number of legal immigrants “to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill,” and requiring illegal aliens “in good standing” to pay a fine, learn the culture’s language, and “go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.”
Looks good on paper, but will Obama follow through with the task force’s recommendations or even maintain his own position on immigration?
I’m not a racist (I have no problem with people of different colors, ethnicities, what have you) but I do have a problem with the idea that all cultures are as equal and benign as all races are. While I’m not a racist, I definitely am a culturist, and I defy anyone who disagrees with me to explain how other cultures, beating their women, selling their children, and otherwise being very obnoxious, aren’t inferior to ours. Frankly, the only multi-culturalism I’m really in favor of is in the choice of restaurants. Other than that, immigrants should leave their culture at the door, as far as I’m concerned. If they don’t like it, well, then they can stay wherever it was they were. Perhaps a bit mean, but after all it is *my* country, and at least for the moment it *isn’t* theirs.
Jusst think how inferior your culture is to many european ones. 1) your country is engaged in 3 wars, and all the people meanwhile are watching reallity tv, and fight over $150 lap tops on black friday, are obese, dont want universal medical healthcoverage, etc,etc, etc
Spot on, La Shawn!
‘E Pluribus Unum’ will not be making a comeback in this age of entitlement and identity politics.
DavidN.
My family emigrated here from eastern Europe in the decades of the 20th century. They struggled with, and learned, the English language. They built up businesses and raised their children as Americans. The proudest day in my grandfather’s life was the day he raised his hand and took the oath of citizenship. He was truly American.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, multi-culturism seems to be the acepted norm. I fought and bled for this country and am patriotic in the extreme. If individuals wish to afford themselves the quality of life this country offers, they should be willing to embrace the American culture. If they are unwilling to do so, then they should, by all means, stay out of “my” country.
Immigration should be STOPPED until those here have been fully assimilated. There is no rational reason why people in Nebraska should have to press “1″ for english.
“The commission recommended that the U.S. admit more high-skilled immigrants and fewer low-skilled immigrants”
watch out, mohamed atta, who crashed himself in the twin towers would have been considered high-skilled immigrants.
Do not exchange the poor low skilled buddist Buthanese in favour of the (allegedly) high skilled muslim egyptian or saudi. It will pay back and not in a positive way.
As a immigrant myself, I am very proud to be a USA citizen. I even learned English, and it upsets me to have to push “1″ for English on the phone. Also, when I came to this country, we did not go to the food stamps office, we had jobs after the 5th day in this country. Our sponsor told us, don’t even get a speeding ticket, keep your nose clean, and you won’t be deported. I am very sad to see that this country is leaning to the left more and more after every election. Pretty soon I will feel like I am back in the “old country”.
Good article La Shawn. Living as I have in Az under a Governor who markets herself as a ‘moderate’ on immigration – and whose about to ascend to run Homeland Security – after watching Latino immigration here explode in the past five years, two points rise in response to your essay.
Since ipso facto amnesty granted in ’86 with Simpson Mazzoli, you’ve had a generation of Americans who’ve been educated by multiculturism, lived in a posperous country where the majority of adults divorce, and abortion has been codified as legal AND normal. Beyond millons of abortions – how many have been incarcerated (Thousands or Millions?) during the war on drugs?
When my 15 year old Nephew has a hard time finding an afterschool part-time job – because Phoenix is flooded with illegals who fill those jobs – how can we expect ex-con’s to find a pathway to legally rejoining society? And why shouldn’t I and his parents get infuriated when his school system is court ordered to allocate millions for english immersion while this state is perennially at the bottom in educating ALL it’s children?
Immigration remains a volatile political because of the virtual failure of government – federal & state. We need a moritorium on ALL IMMIGRATION – and a suspension of birth right citizanship!
“Consequently, all spheres of government and the private sector must work together to achieve these goals.”
Good luck with that.
Immigration has always been a two-edged sword for the US. Some of its consequences have had less than beneficial effects on the country. Yes, there was Caruso but the Mafia, too, accompanied Italian immigrants to our shores, as well as did a lot of bomb-throwing anarchists.
Yes, Einstein was a good catch for the US but many of the turn-of-the century Jews came to this country with anarchism on their minds. When the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917, many US Jews joined up. In the 1920′s half of US communists were Jews. Some of them worked for the Soviets and at least one of their groups stole the secrets of the atom bomb for delivery to Stalin. Rosenberg and Sobell and Harry Gold were all Jews. Left wingers are a problem- many of them are not great admirers of the US and so tout something called multi-culturalism. In that respect I agree with Barber. That is not good for this country.
Americanization is voting, civic participation and more important than all, living the way YOU wish and raising your family as YOU wish. i.e., living free from the constraints of the state or your myopic racist neighbors like davidN who demands proof that his superior culture is not superior. davidN, no proof is required. you have no right to what language your neighbors use, what they eat, how they talk or how they raise their family. nor do they have the right to dictate to you. that is the issue, not multiculturalism bs. the issue is the individual right to autonomy from the state AND your neighbors.
i have been far right all my life, resisting the further intrusion of the state into my life, resisting the fools from ssi, medicare, public schools etc. now come to find out the new social right wing christian moron racist brigade claims they are right wing and want to tell their neighbors how they should live. you deserved to lose. you will always lose. it is because those are loser ideas. myopic. racist. no brainer stupid. you hate non English speakers. you want to constrain immigration causing further illegal immigration. you hate anyone that does not want to emulate being a wasp. you wish to demand that others eat, speak and think like you. what you are is pathetic. do not even try to hide behind the benign stupidity of “superior culture” or what part of “illegal” don’t you understand. you wish to control others with the state. a pox on you and your fascist kind, it is you that have ruined America’s freedoms as much as any socialist left wingers. America land of the free exists no more. today,it is all about controlling others.
Immigration reform would be easier if we followed the example of other countries and opened up more toward single immigrants and childless couples than families. It is far easier to integrate single immigrants and immigrants with just a spouse, than immigrants with children who have known a foreign lifestyle. Furthermore, one advantage to this approach is that it will tend to force immigrants to marry Americans and raise their kids entirely within an American cultural context, which would help integration proceed more rapidly.
Hate to pee in your cornflakes, but nothing will be done to change this because too many powerful interests like things the way they are. And the most powerful interest of them all, the Democrat party, wants illegal immigrants to vote. Why do you think they passed motor-voter? Let me be clear: the Democrat party wants law breaking.
By keeping immigrant groups culturally separate and apart, it also serves the cynical interests of the party of “this for this group, and that for that group”. Assimilation means that many won’t perceive themselves as needing the donkey any more.
So no; nothing’s going to change. The donks want more votes, and the wealthy want cheap, servile domestic help, and cheap construction labor. And they’re not the least bit interested in the fact that African-Americans don’t like this immigration, because they’ll vote for a yellow dog as long as there’s a D after the name.
The first step in the program of Americanization must be the elimination of “dual-citizenship”.
cg blouse you sound very stupid
“you want to constrain immigration causing further illegal immigration. ”
a country with no borders is not a country.
su sans brains,
you sound very stupid.
a country with walls and guards is a jail for unfree people.
Why, exactly, would one want to move here and not assimilate? To take advantage of our society, without becoming part. This is not something we should allow. If people do not want to assimilate to US culture, they should not be allowed to move here. I don’t understand why that is a hard concept, or racist. If their culture was that great, why move in the first place?
GCblues is an idiot ad was certainly never a conservative, with that attitude. It is our business what our neighbors do. When they refuse to learn english, and therefor don’t teach their kids to speak it, then OUR tax money gets WASTED paying for teachers who can not teach to children until they learn english. The public schools near me all teach in spanish now. Every class. Excuse me, but when did I emmigate to mexico?? These children will not be employable, meaning another generation living on welfare. Or businesses will require employees to speak spanish. Again, when did we become mexico??
The key term here in illegal immigration is ILLEGAL. WHy do we not treat them like the felons they are, instead of like visiting royalty, who seem to have diplomatic immunity because everyone is so afraid of offending them?
And we certainly need to end the automatic citizenship grant for children of illegals. What nut-job thought that up, anyway? rewarding them for 1) breaking the law and 2) having kids they can’t support? That. or we could let the kids have citizenship but deport the parents. That’d slow up the bunny-breeding pretty quick.
My husband is hispanic, his family had lived/ranched here since this land was in mexico. He and his family HATE the illegals. They hate the illegal’s sense of entitlement.
geee momof300,
maybe its because people do not move to the usa to eat hamburgers, get fat in front of the tv and live and speak the way you demand. people go places for their own reasons which is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. where the heck do you and others get the idea that usa citizenship grants you the right to tell others where and how they can live?
yes, your ideals are racist, controlling and facist. clearly America, the land of the free is no more. you social right wingers have poisoned freedom.
[ open on suburban kitchen, Wife and Husband arguing ]
Wife: New Shimmer is a floor wax!
Husband: No, new Shimmer is a dessert topping!
Wife: It’s a floor wax!
Husband: It’s a dessert topping!
Wife: It’s a floor wax, I’m telling you!
Husband: It’s a dessert topping, you cow!
Spokesman: [ enters quickly ] Hey, hey, hey, calm down, you two. New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping! Here, I’ll spray some on your mop.. [ sprays Shimmer onto mop ] ..and some on your butterscotch pudding. [ sprays Shimmer onto pudding ]
[ Husband eats while Wife mops ]
Husband: Mmmmm, tastes terrific!
Wife: And just look at that shine! But will it last?
I’m sorry, but some of the dialogue just reminded me of the classic SNL skit. So please accept my apology to interject some levity as we examine what is one of the most difficult balances of a free society. How does one balance the intersection of individual freedoms of all while respecting the rights and principles of those who have come before and made huge investment in blood, sweat and taxes to make this an attractive place to live.
I respect my neighbors right to privacy and pursuit of happiness as long as it doesn’t impact mine. But when immigrants don’t carry their share of the total load of their residence (I think most do),when they spew hatred about the US or when they are unwilling to assimilate and it creates a problem for me or my neighbors, I think that I have every right to complain and take action.
Admission to live in the US is not a right or privelege available to every citizen of the world, and we need to play this card far more intelligently than we do today.
” . . . I definitely am a culturist, and I defy anyone who disagrees with me to explain how other cultures, beating their women, selling their children, and otherwise being very obnoxious, aren’t inferior to ours . . . ”
I’m not aware of any cultures that promote such activities but, if there are, they are superiour to your culture in that Americans commit those acts DESPITE what they say. This makes Americans hypocrits as well as wife-beating, child abusing obnoxious citizens of panet Earth – and, thus, inferior.
gc blues, if you enjoys third worlders invading the country you live in, I hope they decide to invade your home.
And I would call you racist if you do not let those people stay at your place.
Hey Blip
Rather then admit how woefully misinformed you are on a website. Try using the net to do some research here’s a couple of phrases to google “female circumcision”, “Honor killing”, “Hindu Caste System”. Note that none of these are practiced in the USA.
I love LaShawn And anyone else who “tells it like it is”. I look forward to your next column, LaShawn——-
11. gcblues wrote:
Americanization is voting, civic participation and more important than all, living the way YOU wish and raising your family as YOU wish. i.e., living free from the constraints of the state or your myopic racist neighbors like davidN
Peter responds: I agree that everyone should have the right to live and raise their family the way they want, but when that want conflicts with the existing laws or the immigrants demand I change MY culture because they refuse to change theirs, then I say they should just go back to wherever they came from and leave MY country just the way I want it.
12. Mike T wrote:
Furthermore, one advantage to this approach is that it will tend to force immigrants to marry Americans and raise their kids entirely within an American cultural context, which would help integration proceed more rapidly.
Peter responds: The biggest flaw in this arguement is that most immigrant groups, particularly those coming from the middle east, refuse to assimilate into ‘normal’ American culture and will only marry within and associate in their own cultural enclaves. They flee their own contries, move to the US, and then demand to live in their own, seperate ‘states’ as if they never left their own country to begin with. What’s the point of even coming to the US then? And it’s within these self-isolated enclaves that most of the anti-US sentiment within the US is originating.
19. gcblues wrote:
geee momof300,
maybe its because people do not move to the usa to eat hamburgers, get fat in front of the tv and live and speak the way you demand. people go places for their own reasons which is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Peter responds: As has been said a few times on this thread, if they don’t want to assimilate to US culture, then WHY ARE THEY HERE? Obviously if their own culture and country were so great, they should have just stayed there. When my ancestors reached this country they learned English, they got jobs, they earned their way up the ladder of success and, while proud of where they came from, they BECAME AMERICANS. Americans FIRST, whatever country you came from LAST.
If the immigrants don’t like the US culture, there is nothing forcing them to stay here. Don’t expect me to change my history and culture just because you don’t want to change yours.
21. BLiP wrote:
” . . . I definitely am a culturist, and I defy anyone who disagrees with me to explain how other cultures, beating their women, selling their children, and otherwise being very obnoxious, aren’t inferior to ours . . . ”
I’m not aware of any cultures that promote such activities
Peter responds: Then you obviously have never visited or done any research on the middle east.
Now Blip and GCblues are idiots. Don’t like the USA? Don’t want to be like us? DON”T COME HERE!!!! I have no right to move to Saudi and walk around in hot pants. Why would saudi women think they can move here and walk around in burkas? Don’t want to be an american, don’t be one. It’s very simple.
People who move here, and then expect america and americans to provide all their needed services in their native language-and for free- while making no attempt to learn the language of this country, are so full of themselves it’s unreal. Talk about hubris.
I am all for LEGAL immigration. My neighbors in Houston were from Mexico, and went through the process of legal immigration over several years. The man and his wife both learned English before applying. They were serious about becoming Americans. We welcomed them with open arms. They are good Christian people, and hate Illegals. We love the family. (The kids call me Mr Marc)
Now we have moved to the Boonies, Brookshire, TX and have a rising population of Illegals to contend with. In Katy, there are about 75 to 100 men standing around hoping for a day labor job. They trash the area, not caring about any of the peoples homes or businesses. They remind me of Geese this time of year. This has to stop.
The solution to keep the Mohammed Attas of the world out is simply red flag Muslims. We should be a nation of high walls and wide gates. Keep out all who would do us harm, but if you’re here to work and make a better life for yourself and your children, we’ll open wide the gates so you can come in.
Good theme “Diversity and Unity”. Those against immigration need consider the importance of encouraging and providing an orderly process of immigration into this great country of ours. Unless we continuously grow the “bottom of the pyramid” with tax-paying citizens, how else are we going to pay for our social services and baby-booming retirement class? You won’t see this angle anywhere in the MSM or from our elected “leaders” though I suspect it accounts for at least a part of the motivation for amnesty programs. If we can’t stop the politicians from tax & spending, let’s at least call in for taxpayer reinforcements via new immigrants.
Anyone who thinks that the heavy influx of Indians into the U.S. from Central and South America isn’t changing the whole cuture of this country has their head in the sand.
American Indians have never wanted to be Europeanized and Christianized so what makes people think that Central and South American Indians are any different.
Referring to the immigrants from Central and South America has Hispanics is wrong and just hides what is really going on in America.
The Europeans who came to America and their descendents thought that the Indian problem in America had been solved. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.
29. momof3:
“I have no right to move to Saudi and walk around in hot pants. Why would saudi women think they can move here and walk around in burkas? Don’t want to be an american, don’t be one. It’s very simple. ”
This makes sense!
30. Marc Boyd:
The difference between one group and the other is EDUCATION.
I’m a citizen of the World.
But wherever I live, I respect the common sense customs of the country.
The problem with the USA is that there no clear definition what AMERICAN is.
Alaska? Alabama? New York? Boston? California? Texas? Brooklyn? Los Angeles? Tennessee? Miami? Oregon? Kansas? Wall Street? Detroit? Fox News? MSNBC? Hamburgers? Pizza? Wal-Mart? Hollywood? Taco Bell? Coca Cola? Pepsi? Seven Up? Bush? Obama? Super Bowl? Internet!
Once again, I must point out that no one in power in this country is interested in altering the status quo, where immigration is concerned. To move the country either in the direction of amnesty or towards more strict border control would be at great expense to everyone. Nobody wants to pay more for a hamburger.
If we prevent illegal immigrants from working in agriculture, meat packing, building trades and hospitality sectors, then we will have to pay American citizens a MUCH HIGHER wage. Conversely, if we grant our immigrant workforce an official status, then they will rightly demand pay scale parity for all of their hard work. It’s much less expensive for all concerned (except the immigrants, of course) to keep things just the way they are.
yes, your ideals are racist, controlling and facist. clearly America, the land of the free is no more. you social right wingers have poisoned freedom.
These are trigger phrases for the sane to identify America-hating lunatics.
50. J. PINKERTON SNOOPINGTON:
Sarkozy’s response is what I have come to expect from the
French. Typically, they run when the going gets somwhat
tougher tnan yesterday’s croissant. If memory serves, they showed their true mettle during WWI, WWII, Dien Bien,
Phu any other unpleasantness they might have encountered.
As a force in the world, they are truly irrelevant.
Jan 3, 2009 – 9:18 am
My family emigrated here from eastern Europe in the decades of the 20th century.
OK, then a guess, from the twin-brothers’ land ? ya know,those who are never happy with EU policy but like its money
for you, good ol guy, being an American also means to learn history from pallywood ???? LMAO
(sorry I couldn’t help)
23. stargazer:
You are confusing poor BLiP with the facts. Plus, a person would actually have to be able to read to do research.
Hey BLiP, how about official sanction of “honor killing”? Not here in the USA for sure.
——————————————-
You liberals need to pay lots of taxes cause someone needs to pay for all the free stuff Obama promised me!
I posted this on another thread when it really should have been on this one;
What I believe is the perfect example of how advanced the civilized western world is compared to the primitive Muslim/Arab world. Here in the west we have this invention called a toilet, which is used to collect and dispose of human waste, and an equally handy invention called toilet paper. Nice stuff to have.
In the Muslim/Arab countries I have visited, they have literally a hole in the floor. And no toilet paper.
Case closed.
There are no real American’s This country is a collection of mixed breed mutts that thinks it owes some alligence to a foreign country or religion that their ancestors came from.
A mixed bag of people who have come here to escape the crappy places they left then bust their butts to change this country into the crappy places they left.
Americans have no single culture, religion or language.
There are no Americans as such there is just a large collection of unconnected people.
peter susan.
there is no “correct” American culture. no culture is static. there is no American culture to assimilate to. i am an expat, i have not lived in the USA for 6 years. when i try to explain “gringolandia” to others i say all cultures are in the USA. there are more mosques in the USA than all of Arabia, etc etc. they get it, the pseudo right wingers here do not, they are utterly ignorant, myopic and racist.
new immigrants to the USA no more “assimilate” than previous ones have. i do not see citizens walking around in American Indian garb speaking Sioux.no one complained as my parents sent me to “Greek” school as a child to keep the language and culture in my family. today’s anti immigration racists are pathetic losers. no different than the 19th century “no nothing” party.
43. gcblues wrote:
no one complained as my parents sent me to “Greek” school as a child to keep the language and culture in my family.
Peter responds: Ahh, but you and your family don’t speak Greek all the time, do you? You don’t insist that businesses, road signs and phone companies post everything in Greek so that you and your family do not have to ‘assimilate’ and learn English in order to be a functioning member of society here in the US, do you. You and your family PROVE the point we are trying to make! You don’t come to the US and then expect your new country to change to suit you, you change to suit your new country!
my grandomother was an american citizen for over 80 years. she never learned englsih well and died smelling like a goat. no one ever told her her citizenhip was dependend on conforming to peter’ rules of order.
your ideas are so stupid they do not deserve consideration. only because you and a multitude of ethnocentric morons have big mouths is there a concern. there is no American culture. there is no American language. free people do not need your stupid peter’s rule’s of orderlaws. your need to control others for your own satisfaction and happiness is a clear symptom of mental dysfunction. bastante get help.
by the way, i live outside of the USA now, no country i am ever in, i have filled 3 passports now, requires me to conform to their culture. i do however hear American tourists scream at their hosts, no matter what country they are in, demanding to know why they cannot speak English. maybe that was you???
English is not special. in fact it is rather banal. indeed, normal languages would refer to the popular English idiom as “you are a hole of an a**. in English it is a**hole. clearly the former is much more descriptive of anti everyone but me types like yourself than the latter.
stargazer wrote:
“Hey Blip
Rather then admit how woefully misinformed you are on a website. Try using the net to do some research here’s a couple of phrases to google “female circumcision”, “Honor killing”, “Hindu Caste System”. Note that none of these are practiced in the USA.”
We may not have “female circumcision” in this country, but we have liposuction and breast implants out the wazoo. What’s the difference?
We may not have “Honor killing” but we have the highest murder rate of any developed country on the planet. What’s the difference?
We may not have “Hindu Caste System” but we have generations of people living in abject poverty, unable to escape. Spend some time in an inner-city or in Appalachia if you don’t believe me. What’s the difference?
gcblues said:
“a country with walls and guards is a jail for unfree people.”
Probably the most brilliant phrase I’ve seen on the internet this week. Heck, maybe even this month. These people are arguing with you because they are UNABLE to see the prison which binds them. Our culture binds us and then tells us the bindings have set us free. All too many Americans believe this lie and would even seek to bind others into the system as well. That, I suppose, is the hinge of this whole argument.
46. Lexicon wrote:
We may not have “female circumcision” in this country, but we have liposuction and breast implants out the wazoo. What’s the difference?
Peter asks: And when was the last forced liposuction YOU heard about?
Liposuction is a voluntary surgery some people undergo because they think it makes them more attractive. In some cultures, women voluntarily undergo circumcision because they think it makes them more attractive wives. Yes, it’s not all forced. Granted, cutting a 4 year old girl is abhorrent, but in some places it is done voluntarily. There are probably internet forums out there in other languages bashing American culture because SOME women get breast implants, just as people on this forum are bashing other cultures because SOME women undergo or perform clitorodectomy. Neither breast surgery nor circumcision a culture make. These are but one small aspects of different cultures. You would be offended if someone condemned American culture because of breast implants or liposuction, especially if you’ve never undergone either yourself. Not every woman in an Islamic culture undergoes circumcision. Some of them support it and some of them fight against it. Most importantly, however, it does not define who they are as a people and holding it up in an attempt to do just that is ignorant. American culture has many bad parts to it, but we’re all able to see past these bits to manage to love our country. Why can’t we respectfully do the same for other cultures?
48. Lexicon wrote:
Liposuction is a voluntary surgery some people undergo because they think it makes them more attractive. In some cultures, women voluntarily undergo circumcision because they think it makes them more attractive wives.
Peter responds incredulously: Surely you are joking!
Name me ONE woman who has had a FGC voluntarily.
As someone who has traveled extensively in eastern Africa, I have met women who stand on both sides of the FGC issue. A quick google search of the word “clitorodectomy” produced a number of articles discussing the cultural meanings of this practice in detail (I find this somewhat ironic given stargazer’s quip to google this custom which started this whole discussion.)
I like this one:
http://www.h-net.org/~africa/sources/clitorodectomy.html
An excerpt from this article that I like:
“For some cultures it is a component of a rite of passage to socially acceptable adulthood. For others it is a nuptial necessity. For yet others, it is a mark of courage, particularly where it is carried out on older people. For some it is a reproductive aid, increasing fertility. For others, it enhances sexuality. Many parents want surgery done on their daughters because it protects them from would-be seducers and rapists.”
You see, the practice is bound up in profound cultural meanings as diverse as the people who practice it. I’m not advocating for FGC by any means, but I am advocating that we not condemn people on the sole basis that they practice it.
And I still say comparing FGC to liposuction is comparing apples to oranges.
I would argue that the same oppressive societal forces that make women in some cultures desire to have their genitals cut and have their daughters’ genitals cut also make women in our culture desire to have needless cosmetic surgery. Women are told over and over and over that if we are not young looking, hairless, thin, well dressed, etc. at all times, then we are ugly. And if we are ugly, we are undesirable, just like an uncircumcised woman in certain cultures is considered ugly and undesirable.
Also, one of the arguments against FC is that the use of unsanitary and sometimes dull razors to perform the operation can lead to serious infections, painful scarring and other potentially debilitating health issues. The binary of this argument is that Western medicine is by definition sanitary and more safe. However, no surgery is risk free and there are too many cases in America of voluntary, cosmetic surgery going wrong, and women and their families suffer for it. Today, there is even the phenomenon in America of more and more men electing to undergo cosmetic surgery. While social pressures are different for men and women, the fact that more men are willing to take these risks for the sake of looking more attractive is still disturbing. Our culture is body obsessed and it has negative impacts for people. You can make the argument that societies where FC is the norm are attempting to control the sexuality of women. I would agree, but also point out that these very same forces are playing out in American culture as well. The visible results of these forces have very different manifestations, but underneath the surface, are not so different.
Perhaps the connection I perceive between FC and cosmetic surgery is too intellectual for most people. I really do understand that most people aren’t in ph.d programs for anthropology like I am. However, I originally brought up this argument because people on this forum were writing off other cultures as inferior because of certain practices. Other people might write off American culture just as easily because of one or two minor cultural practices. Yet we still love American culture, even if there are parts of it we desire to change. The very argument can be made for every member of every culture. In this way, we are not all so different.
Why anyone would want to Americanize immigrants(or anyone else