The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in the United States Americanization, De-Americanization, and Racialized Ethnic Groups

by Pinder, Sherrow O.

• ISBN13: 9781137331403
• ISBN10: 1137331402
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-05-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book examines and analyzes Americanization, De-Americanization, and racialized ethnic groups in America. It shows that America's cultural homogeneity, which is based on "whiteness," has important consequences for racialized ethnic groups in America. The question, then, of who is an American becomes overriding. Although racialized ethnic groups remain unassimilated into the dominant culture, the recognition and celebration of the non-dominant cultures are important for multiculturalism. However, non-dominant cultures are tied to cultural otherness. Cultural otherness is looked upon as Un-Americanness. For this reason, there is a need to move beyond multiculturalism. "Postmulticulturalism," then, would be the new possibility.

Author Biography

Sherrow O. Pinder is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Multicultural and Gender Studies at California State University, Chico. She is the author of From Welfare to Workfare: How Capitalist States Create a Pool of Unskilled Cheap Labor (A Marxist Feminist Social Analysis), 2007. In the summer of 2008, Pinder was a NEH fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois institute for African American Research at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Americanization and De-Americanization of Racialized Ethnic Groups
2. Contextual Reflection and Historical Perspective
3. An American Identity in Retrospect
4. 'Whiteness' as the Definitive Conceptualization of an American Identity
5. The Quandary of Multiculturalism in America
6. Racialized Ethnic Groups as a Threat to America's National Identity
7. Rethinking and Reframing Multiculturalism
8. Conclusion