Culture: The Means to Connection, Separation, and Change
Culture is a common denominator that interconnects people from similar walks of life. It can span from specific beliefs, shared traditions, to relatable upbringings. When a culture a person has directly contrasts another, this leads way for disagreement. However, people who are exposed to a blend of cultures can stay passionate of their native culture, disregard their original culture for a new one, or struggle to connect several. This is shown in all types of environments such as Indians attending British-ran schools, African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, or even traditional Native Americans living in Western Society. No matter what the circumstance, a person’s culture …show more content…
Though pushed into small reservations by Western Society (regular Americans), tribes still live and learn through Indian philosophies and rituals to this day. Because Native American culture is such a small one and is greatly different than that of other Americans, it leads way for cultural conflict when the two are mixed. This is thoroughly discussed in the essay “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake. His son, who is for the first time being exposed to Western culture, is a victim of racism due to ignorance of multiculturalism in public schools. Lake writes his essay in letter format to the teacher and addresses the issue when he says, “He is not culturally disadvantaged, but he is culturally different. It takes a long time to absorb and reflect on these kinds of experiences, so maybe that is why my Indian child [Wind Wolf] is is a slow learner ” (Lake, 77) . In other words, the teacher does not understand the validity of Wind Wolf’s upbringings because her culture is close minded to other ways of life. Robert Lake, being informed of both Western and Native American Culture, is able to see the bigotry that the teachers and students have toward his son. To try and fix this issue, he uses his multicultural knowledge to inform the teacher that his son just needs to get used to going to public school. Along with ignorance from the teacher, writes about the students being unaccepting as well when he says, “Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and saying he wanted to have his hair cut. He said he doesn’t have any friends at school because they make long of his long hair” (Lake, 78). To explain, Wind Wolf is the only Native American boy in his class, causing him to have unwanted attention from his peers. Their disapproval of his hair is just an example of the class being uneducated on other
Culture is a common denominator that interconnects people from similar walks of life. It can span from specific beliefs, shared traditions, to relatable upbringings. When a culture a person has directly contrasts another, this leads way for disagreement. However, people who are exposed to a blend of cultures can stay passionate of their native culture, disregard their original culture for a new one, or struggle to connect several. This is shown in all types of environments such as Indians attending British-ran schools, African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, or even traditional Native Americans living in Western Society. No matter what the circumstance, a person’s culture …show more content…
Though pushed into small reservations by Western Society (regular Americans), tribes still live and learn through Indian philosophies and rituals to this day. Because Native American culture is such a small one and is greatly different than that of other Americans, it leads way for cultural conflict when the two are mixed. This is thoroughly discussed in the essay “An Indian Father’s Plea” by Robert Lake. His son, who is for the first time being exposed to Western culture, is a victim of racism due to ignorance of multiculturalism in public schools. Lake writes his essay in letter format to the teacher and addresses the issue when he says, “He is not culturally disadvantaged, but he is culturally different. It takes a long time to absorb and reflect on these kinds of experiences, so maybe that is why my Indian child [Wind Wolf] is is a slow learner ” (Lake, 77) . In other words, the teacher does not understand the validity of Wind Wolf’s upbringings because her culture is close minded to other ways of life. Robert Lake, being informed of both Western and Native American Culture, is able to see the bigotry that the teachers and students have toward his son. To try and fix this issue, he uses his multicultural knowledge to inform the teacher that his son just needs to get used to going to public school. Along with ignorance from the teacher, writes about the students being unaccepting as well when he says, “Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and saying he wanted to have his hair cut. He said he doesn’t have any friends at school because they make long of his long hair” (Lake, 78). To explain, Wind Wolf is the only Native American boy in his class, causing him to have unwanted attention from his peers. Their disapproval of his hair is just an example of the class being uneducated on other