Early Americanization
The "Americanization" of immigrants during the early 1900s could be depicted as the
"softer" side in the "clash of cultures." Rather than exclude immigrants, Americanization
programs sought to integrate and assimilate aliens by teaching them English and by instructing
them in the workings of American democracy. Nativists believed that classes in American
history, politics, and culture would enhance the socialization process, instill middle-class values,
and wean newcomers away from their immigrant heritage by making them "one of us."
Americanization, typical of progressive reforms, combined public and private efforts.
Beginning in 1915, a number of public schools and private organizations in various states and
localities created programs to teach English and assimilate millions of "new" immigrants,
thereby mitigating the "clash of cultures." The
foreign-born comprised more than ten percent of
the population in 26 states; in nine states over
100,000 aliens could not speak English.
During the First World War, the Council of
National Defense solicited the aid of private
organizations such as the National
Americanization Committee. The Council also
directed the United States Bureau of Education to
develop a national policy to create conformity and
win the loyalty of the foreign-born, since nearly a third of resident aliens had been born in
Germany or one of its allies. In addition to defusing the threat of spying and sedition by those
harboring pro-German sympathies, the Council of National Defense also believed that workers
ignorant and unable to understand instructions in English posed a danger in munitions factories
and other vital industries. Americanization would help reduce workplace accidents and
expedite the war effort.
The State Department published pamphlets for teachers and community leaders suggesting
ways to publicize education programs for foreign-born adults. The department also produced a
film, "The Making of an American," which stimulated public interest. The State Department also
conducted training courses for teachers in areas populated by large immigrant communities.
Between 1915 and 1919 the United States Bureau of Education had assisted the education of
immigrants, but discontinued the program after the war due to budgetary retrenchment.
Thereafter, the National Education Association (NEA) continued the effort by establishing a
Department of Immigrant Education, which eventually became the Division of Adult Education.
Thus the Americanization movement of the early 20th century, created to reduce the tensions
aroused by the "clash of cultures," became the forerunner of adult education in the United
States.
Americanization in Chicago
Each of Chicago's immigrants has had to come to terms with a new life in a large
American city. There have been practical dimensions to this adjustment—learning English and
negotiating one's way through the economic and political realities of everyday life. But the
process also has involved answering the old question of what it meant to be an American.
Both the timing and content of formal Americanization programs suggest they were
often motivated by insecurity on the part of American employers, government officials, and
other U.S.-born people. Formal Americanization efforts in Chicago were sparse and rather
subdued until 1917–1922. During these years of war, revolution, and labor upsurge, a wide
variety of agencies struggled for the hearts and minds of the city's immigrants. The content of
Americanization programs promoted by employers and the government, for example,
emphasized one's role as a responsible citizen and a loyal, efficient worker.
By 1922 the Chicago Board of Education, which provided most Americanization
teachers, had established 31 classes in night schools, 60 in factories, 62 in community centers,
and 20 in special “mothers programs.” The city's settlement houses, YMCAs, churches, and
patriotic and fraternal groups cooperated with the board but also sponsored their own
programs. The movement reached a crescendo in 1921–22 with a series of large patriotic
pageants with thousands of immigrants publicly swearing allegiance, all part of a rather
coercive push for “100 percent Americanism”. It declined along with immigration between the
1920s and 1960s as a result of immigration restriction, depression, and war.
Many of these classes included instruction not only in English, but also in American
history and civics, homemaking, personal hygiene, and vocational training. They were intended
to convey not only an understanding of the language but also a set of appropriately “American”
values. Yet this concept of “Americanism” was contested. An understanding of what it meant to
be an American could vary enormously between employer and union educational programs, for
example. Some immigrants derived their understanding of their new world from involvement
with mainstream political parties, others from radical political organizations. The Chicago
Federation of Labor, the city's garment unions, and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL)
established their own educational programs with professors and labor activists teaching
courses in economics, political economy, history, and literature as well as English. The WTUL
organized neighborhood committees to educate immigrant workers, and members of the
Chicago Teachers Federation volunteered to visit immigrant women in their homes. Such
programs, which emphasized the rights and responsibilities of workers and the importance of
unionization and labor solidarity, conveyed values and ideals quite different from those
supported by the Chicago Association of Commerce's Americanization Committee.
But whatever the content of these programs, they reached only a fraction of Chicago's
immigrants. Even at the movement's height in 1922, no more than 25,000 of the city's more
than 300,000 unnaturalized immigrants participated in formal Americanization programs. Thus,
most immigrants became acculturated through informal contacts at the workplace, in the
saloon or polling place, through movies or radio, or, in the case of children, in the city's streets,
alleys, and playgrounds and small parks.
Such contacts might convey not only ideas and values about politics and economics, but
also attitudes about race. Much of the violence against African Americans in Chicago's 1919
race riot, for example, came at the hands of the more “Americanized” Irish, while Eastern
European immigrants played little part. Yet the prominence of second-generation Slavic people
in the post–World War II racial conflicts suggests that newer immigrants had absorbed popular
racial prejudices in the intervening generation. These disturbances, considered alongside voting
patterns since the 1960s, suggest a movement toward a broader identity on the part of “white
ethnics.” It seems that becoming American often also involved the construction of a racial
identity as “white.”
Yet the persistence of distinct ethnic enclaves and organizations from earlier
generations, in addition to the more recent influx of Asian, Latin American, African, and other
immigrants, all suggest that Americanization in Chicago has been a gradual and uneven process.
A visitor to Chicago at the onset of the twenty-first century would be far more likely to be
struck by the diversity of the city's popular culture than by any sense of “American”
homogeneity.
Americanization of Immigrants
The United States is the most ethnically diverse nation in the world because of the
millions of people who immigrated here from everywhere else. Since its beginnings as a nation,
this country accepted newcomers with few restrictions. A huge rise in the numbers of
immigrants began during the 1850s with the arrival of Irish Catholics fleeing the potato famine
in Ireland and the Chinese in the West to work on the railroads. The large numbers of people
with unfamiliar culture, religion, and language (many of the Irish spoke Gaelic, the native
language of the Celts) turned the tide of American feeling against immigrants for the first time.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Americans’ fears had risen to new heights with the arrival
of more and more immigrants such as Italians and Poles from southern and eastern Europe.
These immigrants had languages and cultural beliefs and practices that seemed even stranger
to many Americans than those of the Irish.
The sheer numbers of new arrivals, combined with worries about political radicals, the
economic recession of 1919, the loss of jobs due to it, and stereotypical views about race and
culture, fueled old fears that immigrants posed a threat to American values and institutions. In
the late nineteenth century, the theory of Social Darwinism became popular among Americans.
It misapplied the idea of biological evolution to societies, placing different cultural groups on a
linear ladder of evolution. English society was at the apex or top of the scale while all other
groups (such as Irish and Italians) were below. It held that the most fit would survive and that
no intervention could accelerate the pace of a slow steady social progression. Certain groups
(such as the Irish, Italians and African Americans) were believed to have lower intelligence or
even be less than human. Social Darwinism provided scientific evidence to justify a laissez-faire
stance toward unfair labor practices and opposition to legislation to correct social ills.
Anti-immigrant and nativistic feelings in America propelled the passage of the first
federal laws beginning in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act restricting who could enter this
country. With the passage of the Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924, the open
borders policy of the United States government came to an end. These laws gave preference to
immigrants from northern and western Europe while those from southern and eastern Europe
were severely restricted from entering. The 1924 Act reconfirmed barring individuals from the
Far East altogether.
In an effort to stop a tide of immigrants that many Americans feared would totally erase
the American way of life, both independent and government-sponsored groups began
organized programs to aid and Americanize the immigrants. These programs began around the
turn of the twentieth century and reached a height after World War I. Before the war, the focus
was on making the immigrants law-abiding citizens. Afterward, the by-word was loyalty but the
real intention was to get immigrants to conform to the American way of life. Pressure on
immigrants to assimilate was tremendous and extended to all areas of life including the
workplace. Sometimes immigrants were required to take English classes as part of their job
placement. Women were seen as the ones who would pass on American culture to their
families, so organizations established classes to teach women American homemaking skills. For
instance, cooking classes taught immigrant women how to cook American style and promoted
certain vegetables as “American” while others were labeled “foreign”! Bilingual schools were
looked down upon and non-English language programs were viewed as un-American. Programs
for children included opportunities to play that taught them how to go grocery shopping,
American games and music, and took them on outings.
The immigrants themselves often resented the organized efforts at Americanization.
Their responses to the programs ranged from indifference to hostility. Italians in general
avoided programs that promised handouts because they were distrustful of them. Such help
had been uncommon in Italy. Italians relied on their families, relatives, and the mutual aid
societies to help the needy.
At the same time, immigrants embraced certain aspects of American culture. For the
most part, immigrants wanted to learn English which resulted in a shortage of English night
classes. Immigrants also responded creatively to the challenges that they faced in America.
They adopted certain American traditions, dropped some of their own, and combined others. A
classic example of this blending of traditions is immigrants who celebrate the holidays of
Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July by incorporating traditional American dishes as well as their
own ethnic foods in the celebration.
By the 1930s through the 1950s, increasing concern about prejudices and tensions
among immigrant groups gave rise to the theory of cultural pluralism. This idea promoted the
view that diversity was good as long as it was not accompanied by prejudice of one group
toward another. The metaphor of the salad bowl replaced the theory of the melting pot in
which everyone was expected to assimilate. Many people believed that ethnic identity would
disappear over time. This has not happened. We have seen how older immigrant groups as well
as newer immigrants can still place great value on their own cultural traditions while at the
same time embracing the United States as their adopted home.
How Are We Being Americanized?
(Keep in mind the article’s from 2006)
U.S.A, which has the world's biggest economy and strongest known army, has taken
gigantic steps in persuading the rest of the world to think and act like them. Many people
especially the Europeans have often despised Americans saying they have no culture. But as
any sociologist will tell you, even having no culture is a culture in itself. So for many years, the
land of immigrants has been on a process of creating an identity and hence a culture. Now they
seem to be selling their culture to the rest of the world as a new and improved product of what
we all have as culture.
As far as fashion is concerned, the casual ‘American' style of wearing Jeans, T-Shirts and
sports shoes is now common and acceptable in many places. For the office it is not rare to see
someone wearing tight jeans with a long sleeved shirt plus a tie. His defence is of course that it
is the American style. Cowboy hats, boots and large silver belt buckles are also a common
imitation of the dress style of American especially those from Texas and Arizona. The American
music industry has also gone a long way in influencing the dress culture of other people around
the world. What about the example youths have picked up from famous American rap artists
like 50-cent, Eminem, Tupac Shakur (R.I.P) and Snoop Dogg with their flashy fashions
characterized by what is commonly known as "bling bling" (expensive shiny jewellery and
watches)
Around the world the United States is perhaps best known for it's numerous and
successful fast food franchises. Such chains, including McDonald's, Burger King, and Kentucky
Fried Chicken are known for selling simply, preprepared meals of foods such as hamburgers, French
fries (chips), soft drinks, fried chicken, and ice cream.
Though undeniably popular, such food, with its
emphasis on deep-frying, has been criticized by
dietitians in recent decades for being unhealthy and a
cause of obesity. It has thus become somewhat of a
stereotype to associate American cuisine with obesity
and junk food. The whole world now is full of similar
eating joints. In Africa many are referred to as takeaways.
McDonalds in Beijing, China.
Popular Culture
This transmission of American culture has been mainly through several conduits with
the number one medium being the electronic media. Television in particular has done a lot in
Americanizing those who view images especially from Hollywood. The guys in Hollywood have
made us to adore the tough cigar-smoking guys in the Casinos, the thin shapely long legged
women, and to dream about rags-to-riches stories that are a common tag line of the movies.
We now adore jazz, hip-hop, rap music, country music as well as gospel music all of which were
pioneered by the United States.
All American production, 1978’s Grease was a very popular movie worldwide. Starring
John Travolta as Danny the school’s “hunk” and Olivia-Newton-John as Sally, the school
sweetheart transformed. They became the poster girl and boy all over the world.
And trust us in following the Uncle Sam; many countries now have equivalents of the
American awards of Oscars for the movies and Grammy's for the music. Just check out the PAM
awards in Uganda or the Kisima awards in Kenya, not forgetting the continental Kora awards
held annually in South Africa. Many countries have also gone ahead to construct theme parks
basing on the American Disney World model. Americanization has also led to the popularity and
acceptability of what is known as American English. I have seen many posters here in Rwanda
of schools claiming to teach American English. Many youths are now using this type of English
considering it ‘modern'.
We ought not to ignore the heavy influence that the United States has demonstrated in
the development of the Internet and it's subsequent control. Remember the conference that
was held at the beginning of this year in Tunisia where nations were complaining about the
control the US has over the Internet. They were proposing that instead an international body
should take over but the conference ended in defeat of this line of argument. The iPod, the
most popular gadget for portable digital music, is also American invention.
American sports especially basketball have now become famous worldwide especially
among college students. However other games like baseball and American football have not
been easily adopted by other people in the world, as has been the case with basketball. Soccer,
which is known to be the world's most popular sport, is not so popular in the US. However the
US women's soccer team is one the of the world's premier women's sides.
Works Cited
"Americanization or Globalization?" Global Envision Latest Stories. N.p., 2 Oct. 2006. Web. 07 June 2014.
"EHistory at OSU | Old EHistory Site." EHistory at OSU | Old EHistory Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 June 2014
Barrett, James R. "Americanization." Americanization. N.p., Dec. 1992. Web. 10 June 2014.