Multicultural America Research Articles

Visiting Contested Terrain: Archiving, Auditing, and Reforming Commemorative Place Names on US Marine Corps Bases

In recent years, commemorative naming has been discussed and called into question in the U.S. military, and with the establishment of the Confederate Naming Commission by Congress in 2021, representatives for branches of the US military and Department of Defense were tasked with evaluating commemorative practices associated with valorizing Confederate history. In this paper, we focus specifically on place naming patterns on US Marine Corps bases through an engagement with military archives. These archives are part of a hegemonic control of memory that sits uncomfortably at the intersection of the racialized history of the Armed Forces and its growing reliance on a multi-cultural America. We argue and find early evidence that the archives constitute contested terrain and the commemorative audits conducted by military institutions are a potentially fraught practice given possible self-interest and potential lack of a critical perspective on the past and place. We encountered many of the difficulties that complicate name reform and the commemorative audits, such as negotiated access to the physical archives and data, inconsistent practices and documentation which contributed to an incomplete audit, and conflicts with institutional interest. Even with the Confederate Naming Commission’s recent reports and recommendations for renaming some military bases and structures, there remains a demand for greater attention to the audits of commemorative place names utilized to make such recommendations. This demand necessitates a recognition that the legacy of racism and racial violence goes far beyond the years of the Confederacy, particularly regarding the landscapes of the United States military.

The Dark Side of Branding: Language and the Real in Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt (2006)

The protagonist, an unnamed African American nomenclature consultant, has been a victim of his own trade: his stroke of genius, the name and advertising slogan for a band-aid that fits the many skin tones of multicultural America, “Apex Hides the Hurt”, has ironically cost him an infected toe that he merely covered with the adhesive bandage instead of having it treated. When he is asked to arbitrate the rebranding of the town of Winthrop, the ad man faces both an onomastic and an existential challenge.This paper draws on specific aspects of the philosophy of language to discuss the motivation of signs in relation to naming strategies and analyzes the performatives, performances, and diverse conditions of felicity that naming implies. The former is indebted in part to the legacy of Plato’s Cratylus and branding manuals—strange bedfellows; the latter draws from J. L. Austin’s speech act theory, as revisited by Barbara Cassin and Judith Butler. In both conceptions the real comes to dwell in language, either as a determining factor or as a product of a world-shaping activity. Since Apex is a fiction of naming, it provides an imaginary “actual” context for this verbal act. It can also describe the failed encounters between language and the real, the attempts at euphemizing or repressing reality, as well as the shattering irruptions of the real within discourse. As a satire of corporate culture and its bearing on “race”, it also generates an interface with the reality of contemporary American culture.

“Thinking Like an Activist”: Preservice Teachers Make Sense of the Past

History education holds strong potential for students to examine how racism and other intersecting forms of oppression embedded within U.S. institutions have and still impact today’s social fabric. When rooted in Martell and Stevens’ “thinking like an activist” framework, history education provides opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to see, understand, and disrupt the dominant narrative. They can begin to reimagine their roles as future leaders in the classroom and beyond to ensure that all students thrive and not just survive. Thus, for this qualitative study, we engaged our PST in a book study of A Different Mirror for Young People: A History for Multicultural America. Through intentional content and pedagogical choices, we investigated the question, “ How do preservice teachers make sense of history using the ‘thinking like an activist’ framework?” Findings indicated how Takaki’s different mirror, as a counternarrative centering the perspectives and experiences of historically marginalized groups, allowed PSTs 1) to unlearn oppressive structures (cultural preparation), 2) begin to develop a sociopolitical consciousness of systemic oppression, albeit through an outsider’s perspective (critical analysis), and 3) to analyze how collective action in the past enacted change–although through an already, but not yet, understanding of their role in social change in the present (collective action).

Women's Narratives in Reading Multicultural Subjectivities: An Academic Discourse

‘Difference’ in multicultural America is confusing to me as its concept determines some visible physiological features of people, and ‘knowledge’ of their history/culture, which is naturalized, circulated, and practiced through cultural institutions. Identity politics plays crucial role in its deliberate categorization and hierarchization of American subjects, which continues the historical process of separation through racism, sexism, and homophobia. As a university teacher, I have found how through the cultural institutions of university a mono-cultural population of American subjects is produced through multicultural demographic. If the primary object of multiculturalism is celebration of ‘difference,’ what ‘differences’ are celebrated most, and based on what criteria? For better understanding of ‘difference’ we should go beyond the academically sanctioned ‘Knowledge’ that disqualifies some ‘other’ knowledges, and it is by exploring some marginalized narratives of women we can reformulate the notion of ‘difference,’ that would add to the richness of ‘difference’ in multicultural discourse. Moreover, in traditional academic discourse, women’s narratives, particularly on motherhood, are less explored to finding out how they contribute to the varieties of multicultural subjectivities. My paper is based on Mahasweta Devi’s “Breast-Giver” (Standayini in original) in re-formulating a different concept of mother in its investigation on how discourses, being practiced as ‘ideologies’ through institutions, affect individuals. I propose different teaching-learning classroom activities in encouraging students to develop new perspectives of the world to modify the notion of multiculturalism that would accommodate any 'difference.'

Persian/American Exceptionalism: Post-9/11 Strategies of Belonging in the Iranian Diaspora through Cultural Production

ABSTRACT Since 9/11, Iranian Americans have challenged their racialization as troublesome terrorists through cultural productions that emphasize how they belong in a multicultural America. In this paper, I argue that these Iranian Americans perform “Persian/American exceptionalism,” a representational strategy that embraces capitalist conspicuous consumption and touts universalist notions of freedom. In so doing, they attempt to erase post-revolutionary Iran and its association with political Islam from the U.S. imaginary as part of an effort to distance themselves from two major flashpoints in U.S.-Middle Eastern history – the Iran Hostage Crisis and September 11th.

The Construction of Identity in Don DeLillo’s White Noise

The authors of Postmodernism illuminate the problems of life in a postmodern world. Identity is one of the most dominant themes for postmodern researchers, especially after the WWII. This study selects a novel of Don DeLillo’s White Noise in America. The main purpose behind this novel is to display to the readers that the issue of construction of identity is not merely faced by the immigrants but it is also faced by the native individuals in their motherland country.  The well-known American novelist Don DeLillo deals with the construction of identity according to his perspectives. The postmodern novelist in White Noise claims the role of consumerism, mass media and technology in the construction of identity. This paper displays the identity formation in multicultural society in America which determines by consumerism, technology and mass media as it is portrayed with an American citizen Jack Gladney in Don DeLillo’s White Noise. Besides, it interprets the extent to which the main character succeeds or fails in overwhelming the construction of identity in multicultural America. Consequently, this study displays the outcome of the main character’s struggle in the formation of their identity.  At the end of the novel, shows that Gladeny unsuccessfully construct his personal identity as a professor because he simulated a false person, and his identity was not stable.

Is corporate America ready for a multicultural America? A dynamic capabilities perspective

The USA is projected to become a minority-majority nation by 2043, with the multicultural population surpassing whites as the new majority for the first time in history. These significant shifts are likely to transform marketing (and business) as we know it. Drawing on the traditional resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory extensions, this paper puts forth a conceptual framework based on two constructs — market orientation and marketing capabilities — which have been shown to drive superior firm performance. The challenge in prescribing a fixed solution across corporate America as a whole is that all corporations do not share the same challenges in the marketplace, making a one-size-fits-all strategy ineffective. The proposed conceptual model is flexible in that it measures a company’s market orientation and marketing capabilities across different target audiences and industries. Leading corporations in the 21st century will need to develop a set of dynamic capabilities to address an ever-changin demography and business landscape. This model can help assess whether corporations are ready to compete in a marketplace where multicultural consumers are the new mainstream. Future research is warranted given the dearth of papers in this promising area.

Tracking the transnational trickster: Gary Shteyngart and his protagonists

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Gary Shteyngart’s protagonists in the light of his works, particularly his debut work, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2002) and his memoir, Little Failure (2014). Drawing on the trickster trope and the concept of cultural hybridity, I argue that Shteyngart’s doubly hyphenated characters act as digital-age trickster figures that move between the West and the East with dexterity and ease, exposing persistent mental patterns of othering within multicultural America, but also providing valuable insights into the process of constructing a sense of self on the threshold of several cultural backgrounds.

Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America. By James W. Fraser. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2016. Pp 296. $30.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-1421420585.

Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America. By James W. Fraser. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2016. Pp 296. $30.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-1421420585. - Volume 33 Issue 1

Cross Cultural Conflict in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine

Bharati Mukherjee has been described as “the foremost chronicler of the multicultural New America” (Nicholson, 1990). Cross cultural confrontations constitute the core theme of her works. As a fiction writer her continuing concern has been to deal with the life of South Asian expatriates/immigrants in USA and Canada and her writings reflect the process of acculturation and assimilation in the journey from expatriation and immigration. Her narratives address issues of identity as they intersect with culture, gender and race. The present paper focuses exclusively on her third novel Jasmine, which chronicles the movement of an Indian woman from India to the United States and what strategies of survival she adopts as she relocates herself in a new and alien world.

“Tearing Down the Walls of Segregation”: Race, Conservatism, and Evangelical Rap

Evangelical rap may sound like an oxymoron, but it was one of the most important trends in evangelical America as the Christian right rose to new levels of power in the 1990s. The trio DC Talk sold millions of album and dominated the Christian charts from the early 1990s and into the early 2000s. This was more than pure entertainment. Popular culture, and especially popular culture targeted at teens, is an important venue for disseminating values and sustaining religious identities. The artists promoted by the Christian music industry have to reflect the ideas and values that parents and central evangelical institutions wish to teach their children. In the 1990s, racial reconciliation was one of the most important issues to evangelical America and DC Talk were poster boys for a multiracial and multicultural America. Therefore this article takes DC Talk as a starting point to discuss evangelical engagement with race issues in the 1990s. DC Talk wrapped up evangelical individualism and color-blind conservatism in hip-hop garb, trying to reinvent a group with a checkered past when it comes to race relations as the hope of a racially harmonious America.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America, 2nd Edition. By James W. Fraser

Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America, 2nd Edition. By James W. Fraser

Anna Deavere Smith’s Docudrama Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992: Crossing Boundaries or Re-Mythifying the Orient?

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994), Anna Deavere Smith’s 15th project in her On the Road series, is a docudrama that explores American identity through the diverse cultural memories of the 1992 Los Angeles crisis. She works to make the play an open platform where racial minority groups in multicultural America can negotiate and coexist by repeating interviews from various groups who were involved in the L.A. crisis. Despite the many advantages in her docudrama, the genre itself has been criticized, owing to the dubious characteristics of “reality,” “truthfulness,” and “neutrality” that she emphasizes. This paper examines the characteristics of the docudrama that Smith employs and investigates whether Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is effective in achieving her aim of shedding light on the diverse layers of American identity. In particular, this paper will focus on “reality,” one of the significant traits of the docudrama, and will investigate whether or not this might cause other forms of racial discrimination. Moreover, the researcher will analyze whether Smith’s racial representation is balanced so that the play becomes meaningful to minorities and helps them work through their foundational historical trauma, that is, the L.A. crisis, which has already become part of their cultural identity.

“Authentic” Dance and Racialized Ethnic Identities in Multicultural America: The Chinese in Minnesota and Peruvians in New Jersey

We investigate how Chinese and Peruvian immigrants in the United States construct the idea of authenticity through dance and what roles the discourse and practice surrounding authenticity play in the formation of racialized ethnic identities. This inquiry reveals that “authenticity” in the context of immigrant dance has two distinct but related dimensions; it is both a descriptor of cultural practice and a quality of individual subjectivities by which immigrants recognize the importance of dance for both cultural preservation and individual self-actualization. Additionally, through so-called authentic cultural practices such as dance, immigrants in the United States preserve their before-migration national identities. They do so in the institutional context of multiculturalism, where the host society’s demands for authenticity converge with immigrants’ desire for belonging and where immigrants experience racial formation and ethnic construction simultaneously.

Coming to America: Re-inventing and re-using the 1903 Delhi durbar

AbstractThe 1903 Delhi durbar was a historically significant event designed to celebrate British sovereignty over India. The durbar’s pageantry re-appeared in the United States in various formats that ignored its original political purpose but adapted its imposed and invented princely traditions. These dissimilar milieus—stereoviews, postcards of Luna Park in Coney Island and circus parades—reached their respective peaks in commodifying orientalist excess for the American public at the start of the twentieth century. The interrelated presentations of durbars embodying foreignness served a symbolic function in a multicultural America grappling with issues of social inclusion. As they re-packaged the extravagance of the durbar’s visuality to provide its appeal as public entertainment, the American versions used the durbar’s characterization of India as the embodiment of the exotic to contrast with the modernity of life in America. This dichotomy was useful in contributing to the cultural dimensions of a col...

The Music of multicultural America: performance, identity, and community in the United States

The Music of multicultural America: performance, identity, and community in the United States

다문화 교사교육 실행연구: 미국 사범대학 사례

Grounded in an action research approach, this study explored 31 pre-service teachers' experiences of learning multicultural education in a multicultural teacher education course and the efficacy of the course offered at a teacher education program in the U.S. The findings showed that the course demonstrated both positive effects and limitations. As a result of the course, the pre-service teachers were able to challenge and reconstruct their limited understanding of the concept of diversity. By learning a history of multicultural America and the contributions of immigrants to nation building, the pre-service teachers had an opportunity to acknowledge and rethink the prevalence of white supremacy in the official school curriculum. Also, the course helped them broaden their views to understand the issues of inequality, poverty and achievement gap during their practicum. Meanwhile, a semester-long course was not sufficient enough to challenge some pre-service teachers' resistance and biases against multicultural education. A lack of connection between the course and the field practicum sites was discussed as a limitation of the course by the pre-service teachers. This study is expected to provide practical implications for the betterment of multicultural teacher education in Korea.

Art Talk and the Uses of History

In a reading of Huey Copeland’s Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America , Spillers examines the stakes and implications of the work against the broader perspective of black artistic practices in the sociopolitical context of the United States. Looking in detail at aspects of Copeland’s quartet of painters, she brings questions of aesthetics alongside present-day political concerns.

Come and Gone

Huey Copeland's Bound to Appear: Art, Slavery, and the Site of Blackness in Multicultural America can be categorized as the most recent in a long line of scholarly investigations into what has come to be called “the afterlife of slavery”—the general preoccupation with establishing the authority of the slave past in contemporary black life—and the first to explore that subject in the field of contemporary art. Best notes that when we reverse the thesis of slavery's afterlife and reconceptualize it as the basis for a historiography of slavery, we can tend also to hypostatize aspects of the slave past as missing from the visual field and in need of recovery—as, in one way of phrasing it, bound to appear. Best contends that this last entailment is not always tenable or justified by the historical record, and he invites us to consider other ways of predicating of loss.