Humans are social animals. They cannot live a life of solitude and isolation, alone in this world. All humans need other humans in order to live their lives properly. They might be strong enough to be able to live without fulfilling their emotional desires etc but they can certainly not live without fulfilling certain material needs, such as food (Hanson, 2004). For example, even if a person manages to live without friends and family, who fulfill emotional needs and needs of belongingness, he will definitely not be able to live properly without the farmer who grows food or the barber who cuts his hair.
Thus, humans live in large groups of people where different people perform different duties and make each other’s lives simpler, easier and better to live. If one person does something, he needs the other one to do something else and this way, they exchange the benefits of performing one task rather properly instead of doing many things in a haphazard manner. These large groups of people are called societies. Societies are the basis of lifestyles and cultures, and in turn, whole civilizations.
Every society has its own norms, beliefs, values, principles, rituals, customs, standards and practices, rules and laws, etc, which vary from society to society based on various factors prevailing in each society. These norms, beliefs and customs etc then form the culture of that society.
Culture
It is very difficult to define culture, there being numerous definitions by various different scholars and philosophers; however, culture can very broadly be defined as a set of attitudes, norms, values and practices of a particular group of people existing in a similar environment and circumstances. It can also be defined as a particular set of human behaviors that people existing in a similar environment and circumstances develop gradually, creating standard ways of doing things and performing various tasks and responsibilities. The main characteristics of any particular culture are its language, values, faith and belief, its ethnicity, its regional existence, its religious affiliation etc. These characteristics in turn shape up the secondary characteristics of that culture that include the daily life practices, norms and other life styles like the types of dresses and cuisine etc prevalent in the society that symbolize it (Hanson, 2004).
Cultural Change
Gone are those days when the societies used to exist in isolation from each other. Very often, there has been a cultural interchange among various societies that are entirely different from each other, and as the years have gone by various different societies have adopted each others’ cultural habits. Thus, cultures have evolved and a massive cultural change has taken place.
Multiculturalism
With the world becoming a global village, people of different cultures have started living together in close proximity and interaction and thus the concept of multiculturalism arises (Hanson, 2004). Multiculturalism basically relates to the phenomenon of racial, cultural or ethnic diversity in any particular society enabling multiple cultures to co-exist. This has a lot of advantages like positive cultural interchange etc, but at the same time, it can have a very negative impact as well, as multiculturalism causes friction within the society (Modood, 2007).
In a multicultural society like the United States of America, people from various cultures, nationalities and ethnic backgrounds exist together. They can be categorized on various bases like nationalities (Chinese, Indians, Irish, Jamaicans, Malaysians, Philippinos, Japanese, and Africans etc), races (blacks, whites etc) or religions (Muslims, Christians, Jewish, Hindus etc).
Multicultural Children
The term Multicultural Children is used for those children whose parents and/or ancestors belong to different societies and cultures but now these children co-exist in the same society. These children have great opportunities living in the same society, but there are numerous challenges that they face due to being “multicultural” (Asia Foundation, Kaikan, Gakkai, 1996). Some of the challenges faced by these multicultural children in the United States of America are discussed below.
Challenges faced by Multicultural Children in United States of America
Cultural Friction
One of the most prominent problems of multiculturalism is cultural friction (Modood, 2007). It is Human psyche to resist change. Thus, people become defensive of their own culture and tend to resist change in it. They get afraid of cultural assimilation and their culture being taken over by some other culture. They become fearful that their culture might fade away from their generations and they would lose their cultural identity and this is what they teach their children as well. Therefore, when these children interact in places like schools or neighborhoods etc, they tend to pull apart from each other and feel more comfortable among the children of their own culture, race or religion. One more factor worth noticing here is the fact that if the friends of the children belong to the same culture, their parents feel more secure and comfortable having the friends spend time at their place or leaving their children at their friends’ places and company; and that’s why, they always encourage their children to befriend children of similar culture.
Linguistic Conflicts
The default language prevailing in the United States of America is English; however, different cultures may have various different languages which are spoken at home. Sometimes, it gets very difficult for children to cope up with two or three languages at the same time (Ovando, McLaren, 1999). For example, a child belonging to a Chinese background experiences Chinese language at home whereas English at school and other places. It has been noticed that such children are not very well verse when it comes to their cultural languages and this concerns their parents and family. They tend to force the children to talk in their cultural language and excel at it and the children tend to break away and don’t manage to learn their cultural language properly (Kranz, Kappa, 1994). This leads to linguistic conflicts.
Value Conflicts
The Families these multicultural children belong to possess the same values and cultural practices as their native culture. When they meet dominant American customs, they are very likely to collide in the race of co-existence. Sometimes, these values co-exist peacefully, but other times, it becomes necessary for one to choose between the two; their cultural practices and American practices. If the child tends to desire and decide to go for the practices other than what his family chooses, then the conflicts arise and cultural clashes occur. For example, in American Culture, dating is a norm, but, in some religions, like Islam, this is highly prohibited. If a child belongs to a religiously introvert Muslim family, and desires to have a boyfriend/girlfriend, clashes and conflicts are bound to occur (Asia Foundation, Kaikan, Gakkai, 1996).
Family Background and Structure
Similar is the case with Family Backgrounds. There are a number of times when a typical American family would differ entirely from ones native family background. For example, in a typical American family, when children turn 18, they are independent and live all on their own earning their living all by them selves (Kranz, Kappa, 1994); whereas, in a typical Indian or Chinese family, the family structure is totally different and the family lives together and support their children throughout their lives.
Religion
A typical American society is not a very religious society. One is totally independent to do what so ever he/she wishes to do. In such a society, any religious person would feel insecure about his children being inclined towards non-religious behaviors. Also, a concern for the parents might be if their children start inclining towards a religion other than what prevails in the family.
Environment Conflicts between Children and Family
This issue arises since the parents have been brought up in an entirely different cultural environment while the children are growing up in an American environment. However, they tend to apply the same rules to the American society and teach the same principles to their children also. When these children have difference experiences out in the open, they might want to adopt those (Woods, Boyle, Hubbard, 1999), and this is where the conflicts arise among the family and children. Thus, the children tend to deviate and walk away from the family.
Social Acceptability
There are instances when the race, ethnicity or religion a child belongs to is not viewed as being very credible in the American Society (Devine, 1997). For example, after the 9/11 incident of the World Trade Centers, Muslims are viewed as terrorists in America. In such a situation, a Muslim child may find it difficult to survive in such a society where he is viewed as a threat to others since that provokes biases against him in environments like at schools etc.
Racism
Racism is another problem prevalent in the American society. The whites over the blacks, the Americans and European based over Africans, Chinese and Indians and the Christians and Jewish over Muslims and Hindus etc; such racial and religious segregations are evident form the general behavior in the multicultural society of the United States of America. Sometimes, whole areas of the societies are segregated on the basis of races or religions with people of only a specific group inhabiting that area. Such situations pose a great challenge to the multicultural children when they interact and intermingle with the children of other races and social groups.
Prejudices and Biases
In extension to the previous heads, there might be other instances as well where various prejudices and biases are held against various other cultures or races etc (Modood, 2007). For example, black children might face prejudices when interacting with black children or Indian children might feel an inferiority complex when dealing with American children. Prejudices and biases may also occur at school when teachers discriminate among children. This has a very negative impact on a child’s personality (Ovando, McLaren, 1999).
Bullying and Mocking
When racism and prejudices occur, some of the children might indulge in a superiority complex over others leaving them immersed in a deep inferiority complex (Woods, Boyle, Hubbard, 1999). Those children, who possess superiority complex, might get involved in bullying and mocking other children that they find inferior to them selves, at school, market places, social hangouts etc. This is a challenge for both types of children. The children with inferiority complex experience personality degeneration and start losing self-confidence while the children indulging in the superiority complex might get too over-confident and form false perceptions of their personality, which is even more harmful than the former.
Egoism
When differences occur and prevail in a society, people especially children tend to prove themselves being better than the other ones. Thus, they become egotistical, selfish and self-centered and tend to put everyone and everything else down and tend to look down upon other children that they seek to leave behind in the race of life. This egoism and selfish attitude creates a very negative impact on the society and the surroundings in which the children grow. It can cause very harmful effects on their personality since it promotes disharmony, segregation and alienation (Devine, 1997).
Works Cited
Asia Foundation; Kaikan, Kokusai Bunka; Gakkai, Amerika. Multiculturalism in the United States and the Asia-Pacific Region. International House of Japan. (1996).
Devine, Fiona. Social Class in America and Britain. Edinburgh University Press. (1997).
Kranz, Bella; Kappa, Phi Delta. Identifying Talents Among Multicultural Children. Phi Delta Kappa (1994).
Hanson, F. Allan. Meaning in Culture. Routledge. (2004).
Modood, Tariq. Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea. Polity. (2007).
Ovando, Carlos Julio; McLaren, Peter. The Politics of Multiculturalism and Bilingual Education: Students and Teachers Caught in the Cross Fire. McGraw-Hill. (1999).
Woods, Peter; Boyle, Mari; Hubbard Nick. Multicultural Children in the Early Years: Creative Teaching, Meaningful Learning. Multilingual Matters. (1999).