标题: The United States as a Multicultural Society 美国多元文化的真相 [打印本页] 作者: Helen 时间: 2019-8-8 22:11 标题: The United States as a Multicultural Society 美国多元文化的真相 回帖下载完整音频及双语文本：
Today I'd like to address the topic of "The United States as a Multicultural Society" as much as I understand it, and in that connection, I'd like to say a few words about the implications of multiculturalism for cross-cultural communication.
Some people say that the United States is "a melting pot”, while others say it is "a salad platter. " In my view, rather than a melting pot, the United States today may be more accurately described as a multicultural society in which acculturation is defined more in terms of "integration" than "assimilation." In other words, people in the United States today can maintain some original cultural identity and values and participate meaningfully in the larger society.
The melting pot myth is never true. The United States has always been a heterogeneous society with cohesion based partly on mutual respect and partly on one group's values dominating all others. The salad platter analogy suggests that the elements of the salad maintain their own taste or identity but exist together to create the whole.
Some people argue that multiculturalism has not meant the integration of diverse cultures, but an acceptance by the dominant ethnic category of the "exotic" foods, dress and rituals of the cultural minorities.
I think that the debate over multiculturalism is essentially the debate over whose values will be imposed. In a true multicultural society, individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds exist without socially enforced power differences. But that is not the case, at least, with the United States.
Perhaps there has never been such a thing as monocultural society. Indeed, each person is of many cultures simultaneously. One has a sexual identity, a racial identity, a religious identity, a class identity, a school identity, an identity from the friends one keeps, a family identity, a geographic identity, and so on.
We tend to be relatively unconscious of other cultures, and unfortunately, much hostility is created by our ignorance of other cultures and the failure to recognize their existence.
我们往往不太注意其他文化的存在；不幸的是，对其他文化的忽视和不认可往往是孳生敌意的土壤。
In many societies there is hierarchy of status and power. The power elites need not be the majority. The power elites are the individuals who have influence within the social, political, legal, economic, and religious institutions. In the United States, the power elite controls both the material resources and goods of the country and the means and manner of production and distribution.
In the United States, when you speak of upper, middle and lower classes you speak not of national origin or ethnicity but of power and control over material resources.
Economic power in the United States today is largely held by youthful, able-bodied White males. Whites in the United States recognize the existence of a White culture. White culture resulted from a synthesis of ideas, values and beliefs inherited from European ethnic groups in the United States. As the dominant culture in the United States, White culture is the foundation of social norms and organizations.
In terms of cross-cultural communication, the dominant White culture includes communication patterns of Standard English, direct eye contact, limited physical contact, and controlled emotions. Non-dominant groups are supposed to follow that pattern in one way or another.
