Assimulation: Guaranteeing Democracy for [All] in America???

I appreciate all four of the additional characteristics of American culture as assets to American Studies which has grown from a holistic approach into a pluralist one incorporating social sciences, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, Humanities and Humanistic views which have led to identifying as scholars of American Culture Studies rather than Americanist. A cross-cultural approach can pave the way for including diverse ethnicities rather them excluding them or forcing assimilation.

Assimilation, it purpose and its [guarantee] of democracy for [all] are myths that support efforts of conformity largely until the movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s which began to question the underlying purpose. The mission for homogenizing First Nation peoples and ethnic populations of immigrants to the U.S. omits facts leading to unacceptable conclusions as proclaimed by Howard Zinn. Omitted facts that include efforts to assimilate all ethnic groups into a new American national identity would mean dissolving families, generational communities and lifelong traditions including language and religions not to mention the instructional abuses of children. Americanization focuses on a dominate language, as stated in our text, for the purpose of ensuring diverse groups stay within the framework of American ideology. This ideology could be categorized within Ward’s analogy of myth.

Zinn brings to light an economic history based on the enslavement of Indigenous people even prior to the efforts of Columbus in what was to become America, known to Native people as Turtle Island. Establishing this history for the reader helps set the tone for what Indigenous people would encounter upon his arrival in North America. Much like the mind set of Christopher Columbus, Spain and the Catholic Church during the renaissance period toward the Arawak Indians in the Bahamas, Haiti, and Cuba; White American’s in positions of cultural authority share very similarly views, historically, in the U.S. toward its indigenous communities. The dominate culture sees native peoples as inferior and underdeveloped intellectually whose lives could improve by becoming Americanized. Ethnic histories are ignored, lied about or omitted completely and as Zinn forecasted unacceptable conclusions were assumed.