May Post Two Additional Eng102 Discussion

Part I: Write a brief (approximately 200 words) response to three questions of your own choosing. Feel free to include your own personal experiences/ reflections in your answers.

Part 2: Respond to a comment or question posted by another classmate. Please mention them by name in your response.

OR– You may post two additional discussion questions for your classmates. Ideally, these questions will build off of your response in Part I.

1. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. critiques immigrants desire to cling to their former cultures rather than assimilating and forging a “new American culture.” What do you think a new American culture looks like? Is there really anything “new” about it if immigrants don’t bring in aspects of their “old” cultures?
2. To what extent is America still a Christian nation? For the first time in history, the most recent presidential debates did not discuss the candidates’ faith or religion- but many would argue that is a very small step forward. Additionally, can the United States be considered a secular nation if we ban people of certain faiths from entering the country?
3. The article mentions how Chinese migrant workers were mostly single men who came to the US to make money (prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), but did not intend to make lives for themselves in America. Was this practice unique to Chinese migrant workers?
4. The Chinese Exclusion Act deemed that Chinese immigrants were incapable of assimilating into American culture, and they were “a perpetual, unchanging, and unchangeable alien element that can never become homogenous; that their civilization is demoralizing and degrading to our people; that they degrade and dishonor labor; and they can never become citizens.” Does this rhetoric remind you of the language used to describe other immigrant groups today?
5. Are there some American principles that you believe should be required beliefs for all citizens? What might some of these be?
6. Schlesinger Jr. states that, “the fear of the Other is among the most instinctive human reactions.” He argues that multiculturalists are making things worse by not pushing for a form of commonality, and multiculturalists responded that the solution is not commonality, but respect for different cultural traditions. This article was published in October 2015- considering everything that has happened in the last three years, do you agree with either of these solutions?