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How Is Culture Influenced By American Culture

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Cultures have been copying each other since the first groups of people roamed the earth. When people see something they like, many will copy the idea to make their own lives more enjoyable or more efficient. This allows unique characteristics of every civilization around the world to become unified. Authors such as Andrew Marantz, Steve Olson, Leslie Savan, Manuel Munoz, Steve Olson, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Malcolm Gladwell, all believe that the world can become a more unified place. They believe that through media, cultures are blending appearances, traditions, jobs, and social standards on which everyone can live together in a more peaceful world. NOT FINISHED The world has already blended cultures together in many ways. To begin, cultures …show more content…

American’s culture also plays a big role by creating jobs around the world. Many of the jobs created are through fast food chains. An example of this is how eastern and western civilization copy each other's character traits. Similar to language, China has been influenced greatly by American culture. For example, “KFC boasted 4,260 locations in only 26 years. China now consumes twice as much meat as the U.S., a whopping 71 million tons per year” (Foodtank). These new locations are creating millions of new jobs throughout countries. These new jobs allow poorer countries to boost their economies thus helping the cultures thrive. It also shares the wealth around the world. Manuel Munoz, author of “Leave Your Name at the Border”, tells the story of his stepfather, Antonio and how Americanization affect his family. In order for him to work in American owned places he changed his name to Tony. This allowed him to have a greater chance of getting a job, because very few people would hire Hispanic workers at the time. This almost forced change was never welcomed either. Workers were supposed to change their identity and culture in order to feed their families. (Munoz 309). This culturalization is very beneficial to many countries, however it can be at the cost of the workers cultures and even their …show more content…

Culturalization has made huge steps forward and will continue to make changes until the world is unified under the belief of cosmopolitanism. The definition of cosmopolitanism is “that all human beings belong together in a single community” (Dictionary). Kwame Anthony Appiah writes in his article “Cosmopolitanism” about how every human being who has ever been on the earth is essentially the same. He shares how everyone is the same at birth, but taught to have different beliefs (Appiah 68). Meaning that everyone was created the same and should be able to get along no matter what cultural beliefs people might obtain. Supporting this argument is the author of “Small Change”, Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell describes an incident that took place on February 1, 1960, when the famous Greensboro sit-ins occurred. Social standards during this time were to be segregated but that all began to change after these and many other sit-ins. Word spread through the media about the events and by the end thousands of people were involved which sparked the Civil Rights movement (Gladwell 231). Gladwell discusses how with new social media today it is easy to become involved and learn about different world and cultural events. Maybe this is what will truly help the world turn the corner and create new social standards that will bring people together with a cosmopolitanism

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