People like Us
In the essay, “ People Like Us,” David Brooks, concerns the issue of diversity. The writer feels that Americans do not care about the diversity. He states that the United States might be a diverse nation. He also points out that race and ethnicity run deep in American society, we should be able to find areas are at least culturally diverse. Furthermore, he maintains that people with similar tastes and preferences tend to congregate by zip code. Similarly in the text, “Does America Still Exist” by Richard Rodriguez, concerns the issue of assimilating immigrants. The writer feels that immigrant children that are brought to America are becoming Americans. He states soon the grandchildren will no longer be able to speak to their grandparents. He also points out that immigrant parents send their kids to school to learn skills for surviving. Furthermore, he maintains that immigrant children are brought to America relatives are surprised when the child begins losing old ways. Indeed, people tend to flock towards people similar to them, economically, psychologically, and socially which contributes to people of the same kind of people throughout America.
Brooks writes,“we all pay lip service to the melting pot, but we really prefer the congealing pot.” A melting pot is a mixture of diversity and culture coming together. Some people presume America is a melting pot for different cultures to unite together. America is a congealing pot where, different things are put together but, are combined with one another. Even though, we mention the melting pot we still group ourselves with the same types of people. Most people love to live with the same ethnicity because they share the same values and living almost the same lifestyle.
The loss of the immigrants culture is due to America not being a melting pot, which may lead immigrants and minorities to emotional distress. Firstly, the children of minority immigrants are expected to stop at the halfway point between American culture and the culture of their parents origins in order to better life for themselves and family. However, this can cause an emotional detachment from the parents culture due to the child not knowing where the middle is located. This dilemma can lead to the child becoming too American, “One day at the family picnic the boy wanders away from their spiced food and faceless stories to watch other boys play baseball in distance”.(Rodriguez, 198). People are adapted to what they are use too, and they tend to come out of their comfort zone.
The issue of identity and culture in America can affect immigrants of color psychologically. This can cause many identity crises within the individual, they would forget the importance of their culture and not be comfortable with the person they were when they left their home country. Identity crises can arise and make a person disassociate from their original person to become someone that accommodates to the American ideal. “Immigrants