“We are
all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born, and if distinctions are to
be made between us they should rightly be on some other ground than
indigenousness. The early colonists came over with motives no less colonial
than the later. They did not come to be assimilated in an American melting-pot.
They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian. They had not the
smallest intention of "giving themselves without reservation" to the
new country. They came to get freedom to live as they wanted. They came to
escape from the stifling air and chaos of the old world; they came to make
their fortune in a new land. They invented no new social framework. Rather they
brought over bodily the old ways to which they had been accustomed. Tightly concentrated
on a hostile frontier, they were conservative beyond belief. Their pioneer
daring was reserved for the objective conquest of material resources. In their
folkways, in their social and political institutions, they were, like every
colonial people, slavishly imitative of the mother-country. So that, in spite
of the "Revolution," our whole legal and political system remained
more English than the English, petrified and unchanging, while in England law
developed to meet the needs of the changing times."
My understanding of the passage above
is that the early colonial people came to a country in which, wasn’t of their
original place of birth, wanting others to assimilate to their “English ways”
not really trying to understand the culture of those already occupying land in
America. They didn’t come to America wanting to learn the culture of others,
they came wanting to take over a land and have others follow and live by their traditions
and laws. The colonial people migrated to this new land with the mindset that every
other culture would adopt their way of how to live in America.
I
chose this passage because it shows that from the start this country has always
been a “melting pot” and land filled with diversity. Randolph Bourne starts the
passage saying, “We are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born,
and if distinctions are to be made between us they should rightly be on some
other ground than indigenousness” (pg. 2). We can make notice of differences amongst
people but we shouldn’t say what culture is the truest when America was never the
early colonialist natural place of birth. The first people in America were the Native
Americans. The natives had their own way of living, traditions, laws and
beliefs. The colonialists came to a land which was foreign to them, they had no
history here wanting to change it to what they believed was right. They wanted
freedom to do as they liked and make laws and have everyone follow their
culture. The colonists took over America creating a foreign culture to other
occupants of the land and even today hundreds of years later, their values and ideas
still govern the land making the “melting pot” seem as a failure of democracy.
When my belief is that the democracy failed when the early colonist came to the
new land with no regards to adopt or assimilate to the way the land was upon
their arrival. Democracy is liberty and freedom.
Yet it’s frowned upon to migrate to America keeping your traditions and values
from the land of your families origin and it’s expected that you become fully
apart of another society. We shouldn’t say that everyone that comes to America
should throw away their beliefs when the country is based on another countries values
and culture.
I
believe this passage is important because it shows us that this country started
as a “melting pot” and there isn’t really an “American way”. There isn’t really
an American tradition because the colonist brought over their traditions and
laws from the English. So, how could most people say that immigrants who enter
this country should forget about their culture and live by what society thinks
is “American” when the creators of the “American culture” were not even descendants
from the land? The “melting pot” theory is an accurate representation that
democracy is what defines America and not assimilation to a culture. That’s why
America is so diverse.
No comments:
Post a Comment