My Community, My Country, and Myself

[Name] [Course] [Institution] [Professor] [Date] Multiculturalism The phenomenon of many cultures living together within a society is referred to as multiculturalism. Many communities of different histories and backgrounds arrive in a society and are accepted under different or similar circumstances. Acceptance and promotion of the phenomenon of multiculturalism enables the different cultures to exist side by side together in a society. Multicultural societies receive and accept people from different ethnic, racial, religious backgrounds. The differences between the constituent cultures of such a society may be a source of discomfort and conflict too. Multiculturalism exists all over the world and people from distinct cultures and heritages share societies in almost all continents. In the Americas, multiculturalism in the form of distinct races, religions and creeds living together exists in Canada, The United States, Cuba and The Caribbean`s and Brazil among others. In this paper, I go through my local community in which I live, how our diversity shapes our day to day lives and relations with the other people in the community. Coming from a minority group in my community, I face scenarios and circumstances that remind me of my heritage each day. At home, school, church and within the general public, It is quite evident that the perception other people from other communities in my society have of me, are heavily influenced by my cultural background. My local neighborhood comprises people from different racial backgrounds including Hispanics, African-Americans, Whites and Asians. The people from my community also are members of different religions. There are Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Despite the fact that most people here speak and understand English, many people are also comfortable with other languages. Most Hispanics understand and speak Spanish, Many Asians also speak Hindi and Chinese. Different dialects and slang also exist in the spoken English language. We can therefore comfortably say that my society is multicultural. Day to day activities require security, community spirit and cooperation to make the neighborhood better. Because of this, the different cultures that live in my community work together to ensure that security of our neighborhood is at its optimal. Our neighborhood watch comprises of people from across all racial and cultural sections of the community. This did not happen necessarily to push for equal representation in the watch. It happened naturally, on the basis of willingness to serve the community. Weekly clean up routines are also carried out with the aid of people from all racial groups. This is also voluntary and many people from all communities willingly submit their support. At times, there may be clashes and conflicts arising between people of different ethnic or religious backgrounds but this does not stop them from cooperating to make the community better. My community is also influenced by the common stereotypes that are held about certain ethnicities and cultures. For instance, a common perception that African Americans are more inclined towards committing crime than the others is commonly held, though a bit comically in our community. In effect, Blacks are more susceptible to arrests than any other ethnicity. For a while, perception of blacks and Hispanics as up to no good most of the time has been promoted in the media. Criminal and fugitive roles in films have been assigned to them for long. This embosses the negative image on the other cultural groups. Recently, media has tried to overcome the persisting image of blacks as criminals. This has been by the assignment of more varied roles. The fact that am from a minority group indicates that besides adoration, my perception of my neighborhood will also be punctuated with loads of criticisms. It is uncommon to find minorities not complaining or agitating for better status in societies around the world. Mine too, is not an exception. For instance, the leadership in our community is highly tilted towards the majority. Both Elected and appointed leaders are mainly white. Even though the population ratio and probability of selection for leadership naturally favors the major racial group, the minorities have at times found offence in this. It is always felt that a leader from the minority groups who understands our lifestyles is better placed to represent us. However, with the current selection methods, it will be a while before this happens. We have leaders from our cultural groups who inspire us. Our social and religious groupings have allowed us to select and ...