Rendering of the articles “Immigration and Racial Diversity is Changing

America Today” and “Our Common Culture”

by Kirikov Sergey
The articles go under headlines “Immigration and Racial Diversity is
Changing America Today” and “Our Common Culture”. The article is written by
Carolyn Kinder.
The basic subject matter of the article is cohabitation of citizens of different
ethnic and racial groups in the USA.
The article “Immigration and Racial Diversity is Changing America Today”
can be divided into some logically connected parts. The first part deal with the
waves of immigrants throughout the American history and diversity of American
population. It tells that at least 170 ethnic groups live in the US, whereas the most
part of the immigrants arrived from Europe. In the 1980 more than a half of all
immigrants were Asians. Immigrants arrive to the USA from Mexico, the
Philippines, Cuba, and many other countries.
The article continues by telling that people come to the USA due to
economic hardship, religious persecution and political oppression. The diversity
makes people of one racial and ethnic group marry people of others. For example,
about 80 percent of all Polish, Italian, and Irish-American now marry someone
outside their ethnic group.
The article flows by telling that this diversity changed the concept of being
an American. “E pluribus Unum” motto claims that even though many different
American nationalities exist, that does not mean all Americans are exactly alike or
must become uniform to be real Americans. It simply means that a genuine
national community does exist and that it has its own distinctive principle of unity,
its own history, and its own appropriate sense of belonging.
The first article is logically interconnected with the article “Our Common
Culture”, which starts by telling that the incoming flow of immigrants were and are
people of courage, endurance, and determination. They all faced some sort of
difficulties settling in the USA, but in only has strengthened them all, which means
that all the Americans are people of strong character.
The article tells about three central elements from which most of Americans’
common culture is composed of. The first one is the demographic ethic which
recognizes the truth of human equality and the fact that all people are endowed by
their creator with inalienable rights. The ‘work’ ethic claims that the virtues of
industry and diligence, a passion for excellence, respect for personal effort are
essential in American society structure. And the last but not the least ‘Judeo
Christian’ ethic provides the fundamental ideals that historically shaped American
entire political and social system.
The article concludes its ideas by transmitting the message that the
American culture will remain strong as long as it keeps following its fundamental
premises. And that can be performed through the educational system. Though
Americans do not share a common ancestry and common blood, they share in
common a system of laws and beliefs that shaped the establishment of the USA.
Americans must not forget that they are family. Family of different ethnic
backgrounds, ancestry, religions, and race but still a family. Realising and keeping
in mind that fact by all the Americans will not let the nation fall apart, because the
Americans are not a melting pot, they are a mosaic composed of many different
pieces which make one fascinating picture.
The author uses quite vivid vocabulary and convincing sentence structure to
enforce the influence of the article on a reader and to make it sound as if it is a
public speech. For example, the sentences “We must remember that America is a
family. There may be differences and disputes in our family, but we must not allow
it to be broken into pieces” make a strong emotional effect on readers, making
them feel patriotic.
In my opinion the article is worth reading because it makes readers
remember on America’s example that we all are people of one world. Though we
may look and behave differently, we may believe in different Gods and have
different ethnic background but we all have equal rights on the planet Earth. I am
not an American and I may not fully understand the subject matter, but I am a
cosmopolitan person, I believe that all of us may live in peace and appreciate each
other’s beliefs and differences because we are all the family. The history of
forming the USA as a “mosaic” nation is an example that hatred of one nation
towards people of another never ends up well for both, that is why people should
learn a lesson and appreciate each other, and this is not only about America.