The Webster dictionary defines culture as: ..the total pattern of human behavior and artifacts and depending on man’s capacity of learning and transmitting knowledge through the use of tools, language, and system of abstract thought, b: the body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits constituting a distinct complex or tradition of a racial, religious or social group. Another way of defining culture is …referring to that entire range of institutions, artifacts and prac

I talked to a man in a coffee shop once that used the term African-American to describe him. He said he used that term to honor his ancestry and to remind him of how the colored people got to America. When I asked how far back he had traced his ancestry he said he only knew as far back to his great grandparents, but seeing as most black people came from Africa he did not need to look very hard. I found it very interesting that did not know if he came from African slaves but yet chose to identify with this ethnic term. I wondered why?

Let’s look at two other definitions of the term “ethnic”:

So in our culture we have attempted influences by money focused industries, consensus focused originations, and for the good of all, government programs. The question is: can people overcome these cultural drivers and find their own way? The answer I think brings us back to the definition of culture as encompassing the abstract things such as religion, art and other abstract things. If people can look past the simple surface of things that they are presented with, then they control the development of culture. However if these culture industries convince people that what they are offering is what culture is supposed to be, than it will become the culture people accept. The problem goes back to the idea of generational transmitting of culture.

I feel that the reason so many ethnic terms are being used is that people are trying to feel more like individuals and part of something closer knit than our culture is providing. I think that in the next few decades we will see if, using my term, the Great American Soup Pot can become a many flavored meal, or if the soup ends up having a common flavor and taking the flavor out of the majority of people. I hope for the meal (I have never liked soup) but I have to admit I am probably part of the soup culture already. Maybe after this I might just look into my ancestry and try a green beer next St. Patrick’s Day.

I have not touched on the family issue so much because it has so many facets that to do so would be irresponsible and unfruitful. I will say that class and ethnicity in America is not a hard core, instant given failure to families. Families can survive at the bottom of the poverty level or the tip of the wealthy level. They can grow with respect toward ethnic hearting or they can grow away from it. They can change, go along with, or get run over by the culture they are part of. Logic demands that we understand that ethnicity and families will affect the society as a whole. It also demands that we know that, whatever the ethnic ancestry, a poor family has a harder time surviving but not necessarily loving.

Now that people are looking back into their family history they are finding out things that do not seem right, at least by our standards today. My great, great, great grandfather was from Denmark but he would never teach his children the language because he believed that they should only speak English to live in America, the Great Melting Pot. Maybe it should have been called the Great Soup Pot because in soups most things lose their own flavor.

In America we see a culture that has a focus on materialism. The idea that our western culture has …men working an average of 48.8hrs and women working an average of 41.5 (U.S. Census bureau, 2003) and still our income to debt ratio is growing in the negative every year. We strive for a bigger house, a nicer car, “the finer things in life” as they are called. In many families the dual income is not an option; it is a necessity just to pay the bills. I was working in the auto sales industry for a time and I watched as many young couples and families sat in the finance manager’s office and actually reworked their home/family budget just to get a nicer sound system in a car that was already costing them twenty percent or more of the monthly income for payments. What does this say about our culture?

Some topics in this essay:
Ideology Tax, War II, Milner Browitt, African American, Michael Jordan, Soup Pot, Norwegian American, Where’s Beef, Census Department, Culture Ethnic, class system, tax 1976, ethnic people, people society, tax 1976 p10, chose identify, american class, people america, culture people, drive culture, african american, people society society, accompaniment consciousness 197012, 197012 tax 1976, consciousness 197012 tax,