Research Paper On African American Culture

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Cultural Paper January 20, 2013 Throughout these passed couple of chapters, I’ve learned quite a bit about Euro-Americans, African Americans, and Arab Americans. I’ve learned about the myths and stereotypes, the key values and customs of each culture, and how the cultures differ from one another. The information I’ve learned has definitely opened up my eyes on how culture is different from one another. Like any culture, everyone gets stereotyped. Out of each culture, I think African Americans get the worst of it. Some examples are: 1. African Americans are more violent than others. I have to admit, I used to believe this – mainly because of the movies I watched. African Americans do have a higher criminal arrest, but it can’t be proven…show more content…
Pg. 218). 2. African Americans are less intelligent than others. I can’t say I’ve ever agreed with this. I don’t think your culture really depends on how intelligent you are. I know quite a few intelligent African Americans, and some are smarter than Americans. I think it depends a lot on how you were raised. 3. African Americans are lazy and irresponsible. I don’t find this to be true at all. We’re constantly hearing about how athletic African Americans are, so I don’t see how they’re found as lazy. The second group is the Euro-Americans. 1. Euro-Americans are privileged, affluent, and powerful. This is found as a myth, because Euro women have dealt with sexism and have only gradually won some rights and privileges. (Carr-Ruffino. Pg. 181.) 2. Euro-Americans will understand that my silence on a controversial issue is an effort to avoid controversy. Euro-Americans tend to think that if you need something or feel differently on something, you’ll speak up about it. I’ve come to find out that a lot of people won’t voice…show more content…
The language, certain worldviews, family values, and customs are most important to Arab Americans. The Arab language is one of the great distinguishing characteristics. Although it’s said by the second and third generation, Arabs may not speak the language at all. (Carr-Ruffino. Pg. 278.) Arabs focus more on future rather than past and they focus more on change and innovation. 77% of them are Christians, where as 23% are Muslim. Family is extremely important to them. Arabs also typically get married at a young age. When it comes to African Americans, they value sharing, the expression of personal style, being real and genuine, expressing feelings, bouncing back, etc. Their community is reflected on three major areas: community life, family life, and personal relationships. Euro-Americans are different than these two. They admire hard work, getting rich, staying young, achieving the world, and making your own decisions. Knowing the key values about each culture is going to help you out a lot in the workplace. It’s important to know how each culture is. For example, different cultures value different things, and have a different way of doing things. It’s important to know about this because you wouldn’t want to be doing something the wrong way and upsetting a person. It’s only going to cause a huge
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