Disuniting of America
In the book The Disuniting of America author Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. talks about the shift between the traditional focus the "melting pot" to the "multicultural society" that dominates public awareness today. He looks at the history of the United Sates and finds that early Americans came here to escape their roots and create a "new race". Schlesinger talks about how history is the weapon that Multiculturalists used to convince the children of the public school system of their point of view. He mentions how history has purposely been changed to erase the black marks of the past from the history books. He also speaks of how the decomposition of America has been taking place, through multiculturalism, political correctness, and racial separatism. Schlesinger covers many aspects of the long history of immigration to the United States. Many sought freedom and opportunity, while others like slaves were to America against their will. Although there were various hardships facing the "new race", it was the commitment of all the races to democracy and self government that continued over the different languages, religions, and systems of beliefs. Great Britain had a profound influence on the thirteen origi
This book was very interesting to read I found out about a lot of things that I did not know about. One of the things that I learned while reading the book was about Afroacademics. I did not know something like this was ever proposed or even existed. While the professors quoted in the book believe that it would do the young generation a lot better if teachers of their own skin taught them. I think that it would separate kids more rather than bringing them together. It seems to me that there are a lot of African Americans that are still devastated because of what happened to their ancestors. What they have to understand is that slavery happened a long time ago they need to let go of those feelings. Schlesinger does an excellent job of quoting famous African American historians and psychologists that believe that African American history should be honored, and not suppressed. Many professors believe that the reason why minority students have low self-esteem is because their cultures are not celebrated in history books. Anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits wrote in his book that "The failure to celebrate the past is the reason for low self esteem in the present". (Schlesinger 30) Since black history is so briefly mentioned in history books, Professor Jacob Gordon mentions, "We've got to stop waiting for the white folks to put us in the history books." He wants to create the concept of "Afroacademics". (Schlesinger 30) By this he means that Black students should only be taught by black teachers. Schlesinger does a marvelous job throughout the book explaining the argument about academics in today's society. In the last book's chapter, he raises two important questions, "Are Americans afraid about minority majority?" And "Is Europe the root of all evil?" In 1910 most of the Immigrants entering to the United Sates were from Europe, but in the 1980's most of the Immigrants that came to the Unites States were from Asia and Latin America. He answers the second question by saying that even though Europe committed horrible crimes against some races; Europe was the birthplace of America and that their history should not be eliminated from history books. Nearly eighty percent of Americans are of European descent and their history should not be eliminated so the schools can educate the other twenty- percent. Schlesinger says "Of course the 20 percent and their contributions should be integrated into the curriculum too, which is the point of cultural pluralism" (Schlesinger 71). European history and their contributions should not be kept out of books. "To deny the essentially European origins of American culture is to falsify history". He beliefs that African Americans should white people by their brutality without judging their own brutality too. Africans should also not judge the Europeans because they too have fought for civil rights movements all over the Continents of Africa and Asia. Schlesinger emphasizes that European's laws and values are not as bad as minorities make them out to be. He also mentions that "The crimes of the West have produced their own a
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Approximate Word count = 2080
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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