Cherie Correa

The Elusive Characteristics of the Dominant Culture

            The dominant culture is a fascinating topic because it is extremely difficult to define and identify. The term is used to refer to the concept of what kind of culture to which immigrants and minorities assimilate. The American dominant culture is stable, in terms of who is included, yet its trends and “qualifications” to be included are constantly changing. The constant shifting may seem unattractive to those who are trying to identify characteristics of the dominant culture because a concept that is not concrete is a challenge to research. However, the fluidity of the dominant culture is also necessary if the dominant culture is to remain “dominant” and, more or less, in control.

            Interestingly, even though the dominant culture is difficult to define, there are certain characteristics that seem to repeatedly appear in immigrant and minority literature. However, before delving into those various characteristics, it is beneficial to examine from where characteristics of the dominant culture may have stemmed. The earliest example of this can be found in the story of Exodus in the Bible because as an example of national migration, where the entire community of the Israelites emigrated from Egypt to Canaan, one can see the possible effects of national migration, as well as how the dominant culture came to be as a result of it. For instance, the Israelites were instructed by the Lord to honor His Ten Commandments and not to “walk in their [the Canaanites’] ordinances” (Leviticus 18:3-4). If the Israelites were to live by the Lord’s guidelines and not the Canaanites’, then it would be impossible for them to assimilate into the dominant culture of the Canaanites. Therefore, this issue was solved when the Lord instructed the Israelites to “drive out all the inhabitants from the land…and destroy all their pictures, all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places” (Numbers 33:52). As a result, the Israelites formed their own dominant culture, so if anyone else journeyed into their area, the newcomers would have to follow the ways of the Israelites in order to be accepted. The dominant culture signifies acceptance and the norm, and certain expectations must be met in order to be considered “normal.”

            The story of Exodus is similar to how the Pilgrims established the dominant culture of America. Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation showed the Pilgrims becoming the dominant culture, even though they did not originally have the same intentions as the Israelites of wiping out the existing inhabitants, the Native Americans. One of the characteristics of the dominant culture that can be found in Of Plymouth Plantation is, aside from setting up the culture to assimilate to, that the dominant culture wants to say “pure.” The dominant culture does not seem to readily accept people from the dominant culture “mixing with” or marrying people who are not part of the dominant culture. For example, Bradford describes how people who did not follow the unwritten rule of not fraternizing with Indians were “pouring out themselves into all profaneness.” They were “inviting the Indian women for their consorts, dancing and frisking together…and worse practices.” These were “beastly practices,” according to Bradford, which makes it no surprise that this type of view has stayed fairly constant throughout the generations of the American dominant culture (Bradford 227). Currently intermarriage is a little more accepted, but there are still members of the dominant culture who frown upon it. Many parents in the dominant culture do not want their children marrying someone who is not like them, in terms of their position in society.

Also, the Pilgrims had a blatant desire to remain separate from the Indians in more ways than just not intermarrying, and this separateness is a key characteristic of the modern dominant culture. In Jonathan Raban’s “Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America,” the dominant culture is represented by the “air people,” and these people are the very definition of what it means to be separate and detached. The air people isolate themselves in every way possible, such as having everything delivered to them, hardly ever leaving their homes, and running to a waiting to taxi when they do have to leave. The air people only socialize with others of “their kind,” which is a characteristic of the dominant culture. Also, by staring straight ahead and ignoring the “street people” when they are on the streets, the air people show how detached they are. This detachment and separateness almost makes them seem invisible, which makes sense because the invisibility of the dominant culture is another reason it is difficult to identify.

Invisibility can also be interpreted as being bland. If everyone were to “fit in” in the dominant culture, then the culture could be plain, boring, and monotonous. For example, in “Silent Dancing,” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, many aspects of the narrator’s earlier parts of life are remembered as being various “shades of gray” (VA 180). The “gray” areas could represent the dominant culture; for instance, her apartment building was gray, along with a coat her father bought for her. These items could have been remembered as gray because they were her father’s attempts to give his family a better life, which usually involves trying to assimilate to the dominant culture. On the other hand, one of the main reasons the narrator likes watching the home video is because “the only complete scene in color…from those years” (VA 179). The colors seem to symbolize the authenticity of her family’s culture. It’s vibrant and unchanged in the home video, with the exception of the cousin who desperately wants to be part of the dominant culture.

            One final, yet important, characteristic of the dominant culture can be found in Katherine Rearick’s “Dominant Culture Moment: Education and the Dominant Culture.” She makes the point that power is associated with the dominant culture, and education could be a means to exercise that power. The dominant culture values education, and many immigrants and minorities understand that if they want to advance in society, they will need to further their education. Therefore, this is a means for the dominant culture to control who succeeds in achieving this goal because the dominant culture is in charge of facilitating the education. For example, in “Soap and Water,” this power is shown by the dean who withholds the narrator’s diploma because she is not “clean” enough to be a teacher. The dominant culture can enforce whatever expectations it wants in the eyes of the immigrants and minorities.

            In conclusion, some characteristics associated with the dominant culture have existed for centuries and may include negative attitudes towards the idea of intermarriage, and a desire to be separate, detached, invisible, plain, yet powerful. This is the stable dominant culture to assimilate to, but there will always be more identifying characteristics and qualifications to “fit in” because the dominant culture is constantly changing. The dominant culture is fairly stable because it includes a large group of people. According to the immigrant and minority narratives, the dominant culture does not seem to be the few rich, elitist members of American society. The dominant culture is comprised of the middle class majority of America: the people who live and work close to the “non-dominant” culture, but not too close. Immigrants and minorities do not have to become millionaires to join the dominant culture; they have to get rid of identifying marks, such as accents and cultural differences like greetings and personal space issues. The dominant culture is difficult to identify because the rules seem to be unwritten. However, these unwritten rules serve the purpose of keeping the dominant culture “dominant.”