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Elements of American Identity, Culture Examined

USINFO Webchat transcript July 26

American University professor Gary Weaver discusses the diverse set of values, beliefs and worldviews that come together to form the everyday culture of the United States in a USINFO webchat.

Following is the transcript:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
USINFO Webchat Transcript

Key Components of American Culture

Guest:     Gary Weaver
Date:      July 26, 2006
Time:      9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT)

Gary Weaver: Hello everyone! I'm looking forward to all of your questions and comments and I'll try to answer as many questions as I can in the next hour.

QUESTION [Mizanur Rahman Khan]: America is long been considered a unique melting pot of human divergence. But why other countries including Europe so lagged behind to follow? What is the mystery?

ANSWER: When the first waves of immigrants came to American from Europe, there was a very small population. The country it was almost entirely rural, there seemed to be unlimited natural resources and the U.S. was not fighting wars. Thus, there were great opportunities to succeed economically. The belief that immigrants would have a better future in the so-called "new world" attracted people from various countries who had to travel across the ocean in a very dangerous journal. At least 20% died en route. Thus, they were adventurous risk-takers who focused their attention on the future, not the past. What I'm trying to say is that these immigrants were rather unique.

To be fair, these immigrants took the land from the American Indian, over 90% of American Indians died from diseases Europeans brought with them, and everyone did not have an equal opportunity to succeed. Europeans could simply change their name to an Anglo-American name, speak English, maybe become Protestants and they moved up the economic ladder. But, we also had racism and slavery in the U.S. Some people did not melt into the pot.

Nevertheless, most immigrants tended to intermarry with other ethnic groups fairly quickly (even today, over a third of all children of Asian and Hispanic immigrants marry non-Asians and non-Hispanics), they learned English as a common language, they usually went to public schools that were not segregated by religion, ethnicity or class, and they believed that status is earned by hard work. The reality is that the only thing they really shared was an identity as an "American."

Europe was very urban, immigrant populations usually came from neighboring countries and thus were racially and ethnically similar, there were not as many opportunities to advance economically, and people tended to focus their attention on the past and their heritage. People competed for scarce jobs and they were often pushed together in cities where they were segregated to in continual clashes with each other. Many children attended religious schools or schools that actually taught classes in their native languages. Thus, they remained within their ethnic group and seldom married outsiders.

Q [Virgil]: Dr. Weaver, I had the pleasure of attending your talk last March, during an International Visitor Program to Washington, sponsored by the Department of State. It's a pleasure to "hear" you again. I have a group of undergraduate students from Brazil with me, enjoying this webchat. I shall post some of their questions/comments as well.

A: Hello Virgil. Good to hear from you and my greeting to all of the students. I look forward to their questions.

Q [English language teacher]: How do changes in traditional cultures occur? What or who initiates these changes? What are the peculiarities of this process?

A: In my opinion, traditional cultures change very slowly....but they do change over time. This is usually a matter of responding to changes in the environment such as rapid urbanization, industrialization, depletion of natural resources, germs and diseases, or even the invention of new military technology such as gun powder.

Aristotle and many social scientists believed that with education, the ability to participate in civic decisions, a communications and transportation system and stable economy with the middle class a so-called "civic culture" would emerge that would be democratic along with certain values such as egalitarianism, a belief in the value of the individual, and so on. I tend to agree that certain physical and social prerequisites must first exist before cultural changes take place. But, others would disagree with me such as Lawrence Harrison at Harvard who argues in his book Culture Matters that certain progress-prone values must exist before culture change can take place...especially those changes which lead to economic growth and a strong democratic civic culture.

Q [Tatiara Guimaraes]: Hi Dr. Gary Weaver! I work at the IRC in Brazil and I attended a FSI training last year and could listen to your class.

A: Greeting Tatiara! I suspect it's cooler in Brazil than here in Washington. We have a heat wave that is slowing down the city. I hope you came to DC when it was much cooler.

Q [Saxena]: Does religion play any role in defining American culture?

A: Yes. The first states in the U.S. were religious states. For example, Pennsylvania was Quaker and Maryland was Roman Catholic. Many came to America to escape religious and political persecution in Europe. Furthermore, many of the "values" that are often attributed to America are variations of religious values, especially those of Calvinism or Protestantism. These include the belief that all people are equal in the eyes of God, if you are a good person and you work hard, God will reward you and you can move up the economic ladder, it is up to the individual to succeed, and so on.

Just as the EU has decided that there could be no EU religion, the U.S. decided that while religion is important and the government cannot interfere in a religious practice, there can be not national religion in the U.S. This is what we usually refer to as the "separation of Church and state." But, of course, religious beliefs and practices do get interwoven within national political issues such as the question of abortion, stem cell research and gay marriages.

USINFO WEBCHAT MODERATOR: Did you know Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States today? According to one recent survey, there are 1,209 mosques in America, well over half founded in the last 20 years. Between 17 and 30 percent of American Muslims are converts to the faith.

Visit the State Department's online booklet Muslim Life in America.

Q [Mizanur Rahman Khan]: How do you evalute the impact of 9/11 on multi-culturalism of America?

A: Fortunately, we did not have the overreaction toward Muslims or Arabs that we experienced with the Japanese during World War II. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were arrested in California and they were placed in internment camps until the end of the War because many were concerned that their loyalty was to Japan rather than the U.S. Well over half were citizens. Of course, after the War, this action was deemed a violation of the U.S. Constitution and reparations were paid to Japanese. This did not happen in large numbers to Italians or Germans in the U.S. Thus, race was perhaps a factor.

While there were certainly incidents where Arab-Americans and Muslims were arrested and questions after 9/11, there were no massive arrests, no internment camps, and cases have moved through the court system where the government was found to violate the rights of these Americans. To my knowledge, only two people were killed---one a Sikh working at a small store in Phoenix where someone thought because he was wearing a turban, he must be an Arab. Another incident was in Michigan where a Christian Lebanese American was killed. And, I know there were incidents where Mosques were defaced.

However, overall, we have not had a strong anti-Arab or anti-Moslem reaction in the U.S. And, in fact, the most popular book on university campuses in the fall of 2002 was the Quran. On many campuses, the most popular language courses are Arabic and many universities, including my university, now have Islamic scholars teaching courses on Islam. They are among our most popular courses.

Q [Virgil]: You mention in your article that "we are unaware of our cultural values until we leave our country and interact with people from other cultures".

Does the average US Citizen often travel abroad? Where to? Which other cultures does he/she interact with the most?

A: Less than 18% of all Americans have passports and they are disproportionately concentrated in the hands of those who are 65 years of age or older, or in teenagers and young who are children of immigrants and need the passports for identification. Frankly, most Americans do not travel abroad and, if they do, they go to English-speaking countries in large part.

Even in the U.S., you can travel from the East Coast to the West Coast---over 3,000 miles--and we still speak the same language and eat very similar food. In most other parts of the world, if one travel 500 miles in any direction, they end up in another culture. Furthermore, we are relatively isolated and insulated from the rest of the world by the two oceans.

Still, we have three times more Puerto Ricans in the U.S. than San Juan, more Lebanese in Chicago and Michigan than Beirut, and there are more Samoans in Los Angeles than the entire population of Samoa. And, in four of our states and the District of Columbia, non-Hispanic white people are a minority today (California, Texas, New Mexico, Hawaii and DC). So, there's a great deal of ethnic and racial diversity within the U.S. and most demographers would argue that by 2050, non-Hispanic white people will be a minority within the overall U.S. population.

Q [Virgil - submitted by Vinicius, Brasilia, Brazil]: We have access to a lot of US movies, which portray certain cultural aspects allegedly from the US society.

Would you say the images portrayed are fairly faithful to US culture?

A: Absolutely...not. Our movies distort the image of the U.S. For example, many are violent and yet violent crime in large cities the U.S. is the lowest it has been since we've been keeping records. You are six times as likely to get mugged in London today as you are likely to be mugged in New York City. But, if you watch our movies, you'd assume we are very violent with a high crime rate.

Our movies are entertainment, not truth. While they do give you a glimpse of American culture, people make movies as a business, not as historical or cultural fact. Thus, they necessarily distort.

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: On behalf of a group at the Internet Learning Center, Konibodom.  What is Americans thoughts about other countries culture?

Thank you for your answers

ILC_Konibodom - project group A

A: I think that most Americans want to know more about other cultures and the rest of the world. We can no longer be isolated behind the two oceans. And, Americans understand that the current situation in the Middle East has caused many to dislike the actions of the United States. This definitely concerns most Americans...we would like to be liked. We are very concerned about the opinions others have of us.

Because we are a "nation of immigrants," we do like to study other cultures but sometimes our isolation from the world historically has caused many Americans to misunderstand other cultures. This is why we sometimes ask "silly" questions of visitors. But, the questions are usually asked in total innocense (no one wanted to offend a person from another cutlure) and, unfortunately, the questions as sometimes asked in total ignorance. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: Please [see the State Department publication], The United States in 2005: Who We Are Today, where you can read about the changing face of America, the immigration debate, and view 13 short profiles of Americans representing a range of backgrounds and achievements.

Q [Virgil]: Can we understand by your article that nowadays it is easier for an immigrant who does not give up their differences to succeed in the US?

A: I think this is true. While you don't have to "give up" your difference, you still would adapt to the overall American culture. No immigrant would want to stay isolated in an ethnic community. It's not an either/or situation where one is "either" an Italian, Muslim, Asian or an "American." You can be both...an Italian-American, Muslim-American and an Asian-American.

Q [English language teacher]: Can it happen so that the English language will be substituted by Spanish?

Spanish speaking population is growing in the US.

A: While it is true that Spanish is becoming a "second language" for many Americans, over 97% of all Americans speak English (although we have no official, national language...frankly, we don't need one). In fact, less than half of the children of Hispanic immigrants can speak Spanish.

I don't think Spanish will substitute for English, although it is becoming a popular and useful language. As you probably know, the English language is now becoming the second language in most of Latin America.

Q [clownfish]: Hello Dr. Weaver, I am a teacher of English in Beijing. I am interested in the assimilation of the immigrants in America. How many generations does it take for the immigrants to truly melt into the society and feel identified with the people and be at ease in the culture?

A: It's amazing how quickly people acculturate or learn the American culture and adapt to it. In fact, among Asian immigrants, over a third of thier children marry non-Asians and within one of two generations they fail to learn the language of their grandparents. This is true of most immigrants.

I wish immigrants would keep their native language and at the same time learn English. But, in some cases, it just is practical once people leave the ethnic community in the U.S. and marry outside their group.

Fortunately, it's much easier today because I believe there is much less racism than in the past. Even Asian had it difficult when they first came in large numbers. The first race riots were in Hawaii and California...and they were Asians. I already mentioned what happened to many Japanese-Americans during World War II. And, we did have restrictions on Asian immigration. None of this exists today largely because of the Civil Rights Act which was passed by Congress in the 1960s. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: Visit USINFO's Spanish edition.

Q [Virgil - posed by Cristiane - Brasília, Brazil]: You predict that US Citizens "will adapt and develop the necessary skills to communicate and work with people of all cultural backgrounds". Do you already see signs of this changes nowadays? When do you believe this is actually happen at a larger scale?

A: Americans are a very practical or pragmatic people. We adapt what is necessary to succeed. The reality is that few companies or organizations can afford to hire someone who is not competent in communicating with people from other cultures. Many of my students have told me that employers want people who can easily work with their company overseas. Furthermore, many American companies have discovered that host countries want Americans who will operate their business according to local cultural standards. Times have changed. In many countries people are saying, "of course, we would like you investments, your expertise, your technology. But, you can keep many parts of your culture." Thus, this requires Americans to be more cross-culturally competent. 

Q [clownfish]: Dr. Weaver, how do the Americans, esp. the young people, like the Chinese immigrants? Do they think the mass media exert the greatest impact on the youth's understanding of China and the Chinese? Thank you for your answer.

A: This generation of young people are accustomed to dealing with people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. As you may know, Chinese immigrants are concentrated in urban areas on the East and West coast of the U.S. They often begin in communities where people speak their language and share their culture...the Chinatowns, Koreatowns, and Japantowns of New York City, Washington, San Francisco and Seattle. But, Chinese and other Asian children leave the ethnic community, study in public school where courses are taught in English, and they often marry people outside their group. (On the other hand, I'm not sure most Chinese immigrants ever get accustomed to American food...fortunately, there are many Chinese, Thai, Korean and Japenese restaurants around the U.S.)

I think the mass media does have an impact with more films in Chinese. And, of course, American action movies give a very distorted image of China. But, most Americans know tht the American action movies are just entertainment and I don't think this shapes their opinion of Chinese culture very much.

I have two or three teaching assistants who are studying Chinese right now. And, my hunch is that Chinese will be one of the most popular languages as the Chinese impact on the world continues to grow both economically and politically. 

Q [isfara_ilc]: What do you think about Globalization?

Zafar
Isfara - Tajikistan

A: I like it as long as it flows in all directions. That is, I don't think globalization should be westernization or Americanization. I believe that the impact of our coming together is that we are more aware of our differences and our own culture becomes more important to us. That is, modern communications technology and transportation has probably temporarily increased conflict between cultures. However, in the long run, I think it will bring about greater understanding, more creative solutions to modern problems, and should not be a threat to any culture. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: You can read about The Challenges of Globalization in our eJournal USA.

This journal is available in many languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. See language versions here.

Q [Azat Myradov]: Dear Dr. Weaver, I am very pleased you were able to have this discussion. I am interested find out your opinion. How you would answer to a question what are the distinctive American values? you can relate to contemporary America.  Thank you.

A: I think the most distinctive American values are individualism, egalitarianism. Optimism about a better future, and a health suspicion of an overly powerful central authority. Granted, we don't always practice these values, but I do think they are especially strong throughout American history.

At present, Americans are afraid. This is one of the worst consequences of 9/11. Thus, we value security more than some of these other values and we haven't yet found a way to balance security concerns with our traditional values. But, I'm an American. I'm optimistic that we will return to our traditional values (I'm not sure that we every abandoned them) and yet still have security. This has happened in the past (as during the Civil War and World War II). Once the crisis is overcome, we tend to go back to our distinctive traditional American values. I think this is already happening in the U.S. today. At least, I hope it is happening. 

Q [clownfish]: Even though we are studying American culture, values and beliefs, but we still constantly run into misunderstanding and conflicts due to different ways of thinking and patterns of communication in everyday business. How can we improve the cross-cultural communication ability after we have acquired the awareness? It seems such problem not only exists on the personal level, but also on the governmental level.

How could the Chinese and American government improve mutual understanding in a real sense?

A: I'm very old-fashioned. I think the best way to bring about cross-cultural understanding and to minimize misunderstandings based upon cultural differences, is face-to-face interaction. I would like to see more Chinese come to the U.S. and more Americans travel to China...for at least 3 to 6 months. This will help us to understand that we are all human and, of course we have many differences. But, we also have many similarities.

I know that many of our American students "fall in love" with Chinese culture and people when they live in China. And, I hope the same thing takes place when Chinese come to the U.S. 

Q [clownfish]: I have more questions concerning my research. Could I send email to you, Dr. Weaver?

A: Sure. I'll try to answer your email messages. I'm not sure if this is done through this webpage or if you want to send me an email directly. 

Q [Virgil - posed by Vinícius - Brasília, Brazil]: Dr. Weaver: "And, Americans understand that the current situation in the Middle East has caused many to dislike the actions of the United States. This definitely concerns most Americans...we would like to be liked. We are very concerned about the opinions others have of us."

Do you believe that US Citizens, in a way, blame President Bush for not being liked around the world? Is this one of the reason of his impopularity?

A: My opinion----we are very divided on the current situation in the Middle East. This is no secret. We are going to be having national elections in November and many in the President's party (Republican) are concerned that the War has become so unpopular that it will cause them to lose the House and the Senate. Usually, we blame the leadership when things go bad and we give them credit when things go well...this is true regarding the economy, military action, or world events. This is simply the way politics work in the U.S. Sometimes the President is not responsible for events that he or she cannot control. But, this is the way our political system works. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: On behalf of a group at the Internet Learning Center, Konibodom, Tajikistan. How is ancient Americans culture? Have a ancient culture America?

How do the America to influence to ancient culture?

A: If by ancient you mean American Indian, unfortunately the American Indian cultures do not have much impact today...but, their influence is growing and they are getting economically, politically and culturally much stronger than they were 50 years ago. It is simply a fact that American Indians were not treated well by the Europeans and their history is very similar to that of the Aborigine in Australia. Today they are less than 1% of the overall population and they are disproportionately poor, uneducated, and unemployed.

Q [Virgil]: On behalf of the group of undergraduate students from the Catholic University of Brasilia, Brazil, I thank you, Dr. Weaver, for such a nice chat.

A: I wish we could go on for hours. I'm sorry that I couldn't answer everyone's questions. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: Dear "clownfish", To protect your privacy I will send your contact information directly to Dr. Weaver now. He will be in touch with you via email. 

Q [English language teacher]: Face-to-face interaction is good, of course, but what can be done to students who are motivated to learn about other cultures but don't have opportunities of direct contact? 

A: I think this kind of internet interaction is great..and, I love the fact that we do have access to more news, entertainment, music and moves from around the world in the U.S. today. 

Gary Weaver: Many, many thanks for all the very good questions. I also appreciate all those who have read my writings or heard me speak and have sent their greetings. It is because of my interactions with all of you that I have been forced to think about what it means to be? An American. As many of you know, my own family is truly multi-cultural. My grandmother was an American Indian from the Crow tribe; my other grandparents were German and Irish. My wife if African-American and my wife’s cousin by marriage is Japanese. When our family gets together, it’s a mini-United Nations. Fortunately, this is becoming more typical of many American families. As I mentioned in my article, today we are more of a Mosaic or Tapestry where people can keep their ethnic, national, racial, religious or even sexual identity and they are still completely American. They are hyphenated Americans.....Irish-Americans, African-Americans, American Indians, Muslim Americans and so on.

Please pardon my spelling and grammatical errors. Fortunately, most Americans don’t mind if you make mistakes in English...as long as you can communicate.

I hope that some day I can meet each of you in person! Gary Weaver

Name: clownfish

Thank you very much, Dr. Weaver, I hope I could keep in touch with you. 

WEBCHAT MODERATOR: We thank Gary Weaver for taking the time to speak with us today. And thank you to everyone who participated!

A transcript of today's webchat will be available on this site shortly and on our Webchat Station within a day.