A Different Mirror: A History Of Multicultural America

American History: Through the Eyes of the People and the Land The 21st century has arrived, and yet our fellow citizens continue to debate among the premises that we should take on a multicultural society. Though, there are those who believe multiculturalism seems to have muddled the U.S. into a moment of mistrust and agitation, it is important to remember that our country was built upon the stories of those whom we now call minorities. Accordingly, scholars, activists and historians have eagerly persuaded educators to include a more complete and precise history of American culture. Consequently, writers, such as Ronald Takaki would influence future generations on the aspect of a more diverse America. As an educator of ethnic studies at the University of Berkeley, Professor Ronald Takaki wrote an award winning novel titled, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Takaki’s most predominant argument was that our history was written wrongfully and as a result, education was flawed by the lack of inclusion of various ethnic groups. We had set a …show more content…
Unfortunately, for our own inevitable destruction, we had set a filter for ourselves that Takaki called, the master narrative. According to Takaki, the master narrative was a “powerful and popular but inaccurate story [that states], our country was settled by European immigrants, and Americans are white” (Takaki 4). Through this master narrative, Americans came to use race as a national symbol of patriotism and American identity, though they were not the first to settle the land. Because the master narrative had been socially constructed beginning in 1893 by sir Frederick Jackson Turner, much of American history had been distorted, and therefore lacked the histories of those who helped build our