Larry Stanley

7-9-08

Who Deserves the Title “Dominant Culture?”

As we have noticed in present times, more and more aliens are coming to the United States in search of work, freedom, and the opportunity of a better life than what was offered them in their native countries. As their numbers increase, the question of who is becoming the dominant race here has suddenly come before us. That the American people are so far dominant over other races is beginning to lose footing. As the immigrant continues to overtake our job force, the American people are continually being pushed toward the bottom of the ladder. But is this dilemma a new thing, or has it been going on since the country has been settled?

For years, the American people have depended upon foreign labor to help them build this country; the Chinese and Irish who helped build the railroads across the U.S., the Germans who settled the farmlands and brought skills like cheese making over from Germany, the Mexican who takes the jobs the American feels is beneath his status. With these jobs, though, come little pay, long hours, and little or no benefits. Because of the amount these people are paid, they cannot afford to return home or have enough money to bring their families over here. So are they to blame for the predicament the American people have placed on them? Is it their fault they have to make a living here as the Chinese did in the 1860’s after their help was no longer needed once the railroads were built? When the Irish fled their country because of the potato blight, did they know that they would settle here, never to see their homeland again?

When America opened her arms to these immigrants in 1863, the year of the start on America’s railroad system and continuing well into the 1920’s, little did she realize the situation she was putting these immigrants in. Unable to return to their homelands, these people were forced to try and make a living here, raising their families and slowly assimilating to the American way of life. As their families grew, they slowly started making a difference in cultural change. This transformation is still happening today, but at a faster pace. As Mexican immigrants are coming across the border, their numbers are slowly overtaking the white dominant race that ruled America for two hundred years. And as these people slowly assimilate to our culture, they are slowly adding their traditional ways to our system. Intermarriage has increased, economic changes have risen, and national barriers have fallen.

Though some of these changes have proved advantageous to America’s relations to other countries, the white dominant race is slowly disappearing. And as the immigrant slowly assimilates to our culture, he slowly takes over our dominance, leaving us with only our traditions. Slowly the American people are assimilating to the traditions the immigrant brought with them. As we assimilate, we gather more awareness of each other’s cultures, combining our lives to form one people, the American. As the color barrier is weakened, America becomes ever so closer to that one people. Almost every American can trace his/her family back to one that came over from the Old World. But as this assimilation continues, traditions are lost, intermarriage is more prevalent, and the color barrier slowly decreases. America is built on immigrant power, and the immigrant will always be an important factor in changes forming this country. There will always be a dominant group, but as America’s past shows, change is always possible. In the year 3000, who will be the dominant race?

Work Cited

Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing in the World Like It. New York: Simon, 2000.

Brown, Wesley and Amy Ling. Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. New York: Persea, 2002.

Reeves, Pamela. Ellis Island: Gateway to the American Dream. New York: Dorset, 1991.