Welcome to Shelbyville is a documentary illustrating the story of a town called Shelbyville, located in Tennessee. The setting of the documentary is during the 2008 presidential election. This documentary highlighted the reaction to that election from variety of different groups: African American, Anglo-American, Hispanics, and Somali refugees. Furthermore, the documentary showcased the reaction of the community in Shelbyville to the incoming Somalian refugees. America is constantly changing, the citizens of the country need to figure out how to cope with this religious and cultural changes. This paper will dissect the documentary and in the process highlight some of the cultural differences between the groups in the documentary and examine
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When we look at the white community members of Shelbyville we see that they feel they are well above their immigrant neighbors. In the documentary the former Mayor claims that the Somali refugees “have diseases,” and they are fitly, smelly people. When we witness the homes and the living conditions of the Somali refugees we find that they are no different than any other average American, and I can say possibly even more hygienic than some Americans. The Anglo members of the community also say that they are being forced to comply with the Somali culture, and the Somalian are aggressive people. They are portrayed as bargainers and hagglers and being rough and impolite at stores. This all plays back to social stratification as it demonstrates that Somalian are uneducated people and they are at the bottom of the pyramid. The African Americans in the documentary took a more neutral stand toward the Somalis. They looked at Somalis as being strange with their strange clothing, and the strange food they ate. One of the man at the barber shop in the documentary complained that they were hard to communicate with, although he didn’t see them as a problem, but he admitted that situation get a bit awkward when they are around. The Hispanics or Miguel’s family were the most positive toward the Somali refugees as they believed in welcoming everyone and embracing each others culture. …show more content…
Maybe they were trying to restrain his legitimacy by throwing him under the umbrella of all Muslims being terrorist. Using the Somali people as a pawn, who were dealing with warfare back home, and the media failed attempt to implant fear in American society that our president is a Muslim and can possibly be dangerous. This goes back to the quote that ethnicity is manipulated for political reasons. Hispanics were the first ones that took the initiative to make the Shelbyville community aware of the Somalian ethnicity. They organized meeting with the Newspaper, initiated a meal, and taught ESL class. This was an attempt to make all cultures be more aware of each others ethnicity. The helped in breaking down barriers and remove any misconceptions that might have existed between the different groups that resided in Shelbyville. These tasks assisted the groups in identifying with one another as they learned that they have nothing to fear when it came to the changes that were
When we look at the white community members of Shelbyville we see that they feel they are well above their immigrant neighbors. In the documentary the former Mayor claims that the Somali refugees “have diseases,” and they are fitly, smelly people. When we witness the homes and the living conditions of the Somali refugees we find that they are no different than any other average American, and I can say possibly even more hygienic than some Americans. The Anglo members of the community also say that they are being forced to comply with the Somali culture, and the Somalian are aggressive people. They are portrayed as bargainers and hagglers and being rough and impolite at stores. This all plays back to social stratification as it demonstrates that Somalian are uneducated people and they are at the bottom of the pyramid. The African Americans in the documentary took a more neutral stand toward the Somalis. They looked at Somalis as being strange with their strange clothing, and the strange food they ate. One of the man at the barber shop in the documentary complained that they were hard to communicate with, although he didn’t see them as a problem, but he admitted that situation get a bit awkward when they are around. The Hispanics or Miguel’s family were the most positive toward the Somali refugees as they believed in welcoming everyone and embracing each others culture. …show more content…
Maybe they were trying to restrain his legitimacy by throwing him under the umbrella of all Muslims being terrorist. Using the Somali people as a pawn, who were dealing with warfare back home, and the media failed attempt to implant fear in American society that our president is a Muslim and can possibly be dangerous. This goes back to the quote that ethnicity is manipulated for political reasons. Hispanics were the first ones that took the initiative to make the Shelbyville community aware of the Somalian ethnicity. They organized meeting with the Newspaper, initiated a meal, and taught ESL class. This was an attempt to make all cultures be more aware of each others ethnicity. The helped in breaking down barriers and remove any misconceptions that might have existed between the different groups that resided in Shelbyville. These tasks assisted the groups in identifying with one another as they learned that they have nothing to fear when it came to the changes that were