DrZoidberg
Contributor
Here's a thought experiment I've been mulling about in my head.
Why do minority cultures exist at all? All dominant cultures must have started out small at some point, rubbed up against another culture and over time subsumed them. Not because they are assholes. But because members of both cultures are smart and want to get along.
Why would anybody want to cling to a minority culture when you live in another dominant culture?
I work with well educated people. Minimum masters degrees. A lot of phd's. Everybody thoroughly middle class. I am also an immigrant. I work with quite a few immigrants.
People who are well educated and middle-class tend to put a lot of effort to adapt to the culture they get to. That's pretty much what education is. Tools to allow us to adapt to novel situations so we function in groups and can excel.
The working class and the poor, seem to struggle with this. When they emigrate they seem to thrust their heels down and resist assimilation as much as possible.
My Middle-class Hungarian Jewish ex wife came from Budapest where everything was about playing down their Jewishness and playing up their Hungarianess. She moved to Israel and played up her Jewishness. She moved to Sweden and again played down her Jewishness.
This brings me to the point of belonging to the dominant ethnic and cultural group. Why would you want to belong to a minority? If you can help it, why do you cling to an identity that isn't doing anything for you?
I work with so many Arab and Muslim immigrants who make a point of eating extra helpings of pork at Christmas parties and happily drink beer. These are well educated middle-class Arabs. I too make a point of eating foods which Danes love which Swedes don't eat, because we think it's gross.
My way of joking now is Danish. Not Swedish. Yes, there's huge differences. Perhaps our greatest cultural difference.
Whenever I travel I always spend months ahead studying the culture, learning as much as I can of the language. In order for me to, as effortlessly as possible, function in that country.
To me culture has nothing to do with pride. It's simply about making social interaction, where ever you find yourself, simple and easy. Isn't that what everybody wants?
If that is so, why do minority cultures even exist?
Why do minority cultures exist at all? All dominant cultures must have started out small at some point, rubbed up against another culture and over time subsumed them. Not because they are assholes. But because members of both cultures are smart and want to get along.
Why would anybody want to cling to a minority culture when you live in another dominant culture?
I work with well educated people. Minimum masters degrees. A lot of phd's. Everybody thoroughly middle class. I am also an immigrant. I work with quite a few immigrants.
People who are well educated and middle-class tend to put a lot of effort to adapt to the culture they get to. That's pretty much what education is. Tools to allow us to adapt to novel situations so we function in groups and can excel.
The working class and the poor, seem to struggle with this. When they emigrate they seem to thrust their heels down and resist assimilation as much as possible.
My Middle-class Hungarian Jewish ex wife came from Budapest where everything was about playing down their Jewishness and playing up their Hungarianess. She moved to Israel and played up her Jewishness. She moved to Sweden and again played down her Jewishness.
This brings me to the point of belonging to the dominant ethnic and cultural group. Why would you want to belong to a minority? If you can help it, why do you cling to an identity that isn't doing anything for you?
I work with so many Arab and Muslim immigrants who make a point of eating extra helpings of pork at Christmas parties and happily drink beer. These are well educated middle-class Arabs. I too make a point of eating foods which Danes love which Swedes don't eat, because we think it's gross.
My way of joking now is Danish. Not Swedish. Yes, there's huge differences. Perhaps our greatest cultural difference.
Whenever I travel I always spend months ahead studying the culture, learning as much as I can of the language. In order for me to, as effortlessly as possible, function in that country.
To me culture has nothing to do with pride. It's simply about making social interaction, where ever you find yourself, simple and easy. Isn't that what everybody wants?
If that is so, why do minority cultures even exist?