Unit 3 Interpersonal Relationships and
Lecture 3 Live with different Culture
ethnical groups
America - Melting Pot?
The US has long been
known as the “melting
pot”, because many of
its people are descended
from settlers who came
from all over the world
to make their homes in
the new land.
Immigration wave
1886 from France
 During 1820-1924, millions of
immigrants have arrived at the US.
For most immigrants, the Statue of
Liberty was their first sight of the
promised land. Most of the
immigrants could not speak a word
of English, but only two out of 100
immigrants were refused admission.
Most immigrants are from Europe.
 With more and more immigrants
coming, US government saw the
need of a stricter immigration law.
tablet
Distribution of major ethnic groups
12.8% black
11.5% Hispanic
4%
Asian and Arabic
0.9% American Indian
rest
White
or Salads Bowl?

Yet in recent year the melting pot model was
challenged by supporters of multiculturalism,
who assert that cultural differences within
society are valuable and should be preserved,
proposing the alternative metaphor of salad
bowl or mosaic – different cultures mix, but
remain distinct.
Ethnical diversity and identity
 There is a general consensus among mainstream
anthropologists that humans first emerged in Africa about two
million years ago. Since then they have spread throughout the
world, successfully adapting to widely differing conditions and
to periodic changes in local and global climate. The many
separate ethnical groups that emerged around the globe
differed distinctively from each other, and these differences
marked the identity of different ethical groups .
 Ethnical diversity reveals not merely in the more obvious
appearance differences that exist between people, such as skin
color, hair and stature, there are also significant variations in
the way societies organize themselves, in their shared
conception of morality, and in the ways they interact with their
environment.
Ethnocentrism
 The tendency to believe that one's ethnic or
cultural group is centrally important, to assume
that one’s own culture’s way of thinking and
acting is more natural normal and correct.
 People are almost always ethnocentric to some
degree. As we grow up and learn what is right
and wrong, true and false, normal and abnormal.
We naturally learn to view the world as our
culture views it.
racism
Racism refers to the superiority of a particular race.
Racism is a very serious problem in the United States due to its
ethnical diversity. Racism in US is defined as racial
discrimination against non-Caucasian Americans. And because
African Americans are the largest minority groups in US,
racial discrimination against the blacks is most widely debated.
Although no longer slaves after the civil War, American
Blacks took no significant part in the life of white America
except as servants or laborers in the first half of 20th Century.
The improvement of race relations is slow but gradual,
especially after entering 1970s, in more and more areas blacks
are winning control of their communities, and their standard of
living is going up faster than that of the poor whites. There is
still prejudice and even some hatred, but in most walks of
American life there are now more blacks than ever before.
 A video clip – black doll, white doll
A case study
On July 16, 2009 Cambridge Sergeant. James M. Crowley
received an order from the police radio center to investigate a
possible breaking in a neighborhood. According to the
description of 911 caller, there are two suspects and one of
them is a black. When patrolling around the neighborhood,
Sergeant Crowley ran into Prof. Henry Louis Gates at his front
door and ordered him to show his ID.
Prof. Gates became very angry and the encounter between the
two men escalated. Later when Professor Gates produced
identification in the kitchen of his home, Sergeant Crowley still had
no idea who he was and arrested him on the charge of disorderly
conduct.
Days later, the sergeant was surprised when friends explained
that Prof. Gates was one of Harvard’s most famous professors.
Prof. Gates thought the sergeant owed him an apology but
the sergeant refused to make one, so the confrontation between
them soon turned into a heated national dialogue about race.
What a White House Beer Says About
Race
President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the police officer who arrested him,
Sgt. James Crowley, at the White House on July 30, 2009.
How biased are you?
Do you assume that Chinese are smarter than
Indians?
Who do you think is more attractive?
Do you assume that Black males are more
likely to be criminals?
Do you privately assume White males are
physically superior to Asian males?
Whose hair do you like better?
Asians White worship
 -Why are White models and actors frequently used for
ads in Asia?
 Why do so many Asian women get eye enlarging surgery,
dye their hair blonde, and wear blue contacts?
 -How come some Asian youth are ‘not attracted to
Asians’?
 How come if you are a Caucasian in Asia, you are
treated better everywhere you go?
Ethnocentrism to white worship of Asians
Yellow Fever
An Asian Obsession
黄热病？
Extra credit
Write an 300 words essay on
Cultural shock – my personal experience
due by Nov. 29, 2010
Thank you