A Discussion on the Way Dominant Culture Affects Society

The way norms and expectations function in a given social or cultural context differ. What this means is that the most “normal” and mainstream ideology within a culture is the dominant culture. Another way to explain this would be the dominant act’s within a society.

The way dominant culture affects a society differs. An example in the United States would be the Christian religion. The majority of Americans believes in and practices Christianity. Dominant culture does not only operate on a big scale, it can happen on the smaller scale also. One could say that conservatism is dominant culture in Alabama. These are just some examples of what dominant culture is but it affects people and cultures in a very negative way.

Order custom essay A Discussion on the Way Dominant Culture Affects Society with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

Dominant culture tends to affect the “others” in negative ways. What “others” mean is the minority. In the writings of Mike Rose, Gloria Anzaldua and Richard Rodriguez, we get an inside look on what it is like to be an “other” and to be up against dominant culture. One can take notice of the similarities between the three authors, the main similarity being that all of them were opposite of the dominant culture in the community’s that they were in. In each passage, you also see how dominant culture is undermining people’s languages along with their culture. Finally, another main similarity in the passages is bilingual education and the negative effect that it can have.

We see this everywhere in America, specifically focusing on language. In a country that includes many different languages, the English language dominates. The majority of the United States speaks English. For example, in the biography of Richard Rodriguez, “Aria”, Rodriguez was placed in a school where the dominant culture was the English language. The main problem being, all Rodriguez spoke was Spanish, maybe some broken English. Rodriguez started to learn English to become “normal” or to conform to the dominant culture. This tore him from his family and made him an outcast. When he compares “The language of their Mexican past” to “the English of public society” (Par. 9) he shows the alienation that he felt and how isolated his family was because they hadn’t spoken English.

When he writes about his grandmother’s death in the last paragraph of the passage, it touches the reader and evokes empathy. He writes, “Her face appeared calm-but distant and unyielding to love. It was not the face I remembered seeing most often, it was the face she made in public.” Here he is showing that his grandmother wasn’t herself because of the need to be apart of the dominant culture. Rodriguezes’ grandmother had been ripped away all emotion, only to leave a blank face with no feeling. Another issue Rodriguez faces relates to bilingual education. To become successful, Rodriguez felt that he had to get a good education. Since he was a Spanish-speaking teenager, he couldn’t get the same education as the other kids though. Why would anyone force himself or herself to endure this pain to become apart of the dominant culture? It is not worth it to lose all sense of self to only be left with the feeling of being normal.

Rodriguez was not the only person who faced the issues of dominant culture and bilingual education. In the passage wrote by Mike Rose, “I Just Wanna to be Average”, Mike, an Italian teenager, just wanted to be normal or apart of the dominant culture. He found it hard to fit in. He got bullied for being of Italian decent. Even the gym coach bullied him and called him a “wop.” Rose did not deserve to be made fun of because of his race and culture. It would be nice to say that this happened in the 1960’s and now people are not classified and defined by their race but sadly it happens in today’s society. It has been almost 60 years since then and nothing has changed, now that is a shame. All Rose really wanted was to get by, learn English and be like the normal kids. You could say he just wanted to be average. He was placed in Voc. Ed., a special course designed to teach bilingual education. In his experience, all Voc. Ed. did was bore him. It is evident in his experience that bilingual education did nothing for him. Rose writes, “ I did what I did to get by, and I did it with half a mind.

For a Chicano/a, bilingual education and dominant culture causes great difficulty in learning the language and speaking with the Chicano culture. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, Anzaldiia explains the Chicano culture. At first, the Chicano culture seems like there is no dominant culture. Going further in-depth into her explanation it becomes clear that the Chicano’s dominant culture is constantly changing. From generation to generation the language is being altered and adapted and Anzaldua finds it extraneously difficult to keep it all straight. Anzaldua says she speaks Standard Mexican Spanish, North Mexican Spanish dialect, Chicano Spanish, Tex-Mex and Pachuco (called calo). She states that Tex-Mex and Pachuco are the closest languages to her heart. Anzaldua writes, “If you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language.”

The significance of this is to show how many languages that she has adapted to and how much the Chicano language has changed over the last 250 years. In relation to bilingual education, Anzaldua taught English to High School students that were of Chicano decent. She tried to bring in rich Chicano text only to be threatened to be fired by the principal. This is a prime example how bilingual education does not allow for others cultures to be brought in. The main purpose in bilingual education should be to keep the children’s culture in tact while teaching them English on the side. All bilingual education seems to be doing is hurting children and their families.

In conclusion, dominant culture divides society for the worse. It is unfortunate but a reality. There are the “normal” people and then there are the “others”. This becomes evident when reading the works of Rose, Rodriguez and Anzaldua. Hopefully someday in the future we can all be one culture and there will be no need for a term like dominant culture. One can only dream of only one culture, accepting a melting pot of different people and ideology’s.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer