American Core Cultural Values

I grew up in a truly liberated yet bonded family. Mom and Dad be working, my siblings collapse their feature worlds, and I am busy with groom. However, we still find time to flummox and relax and chat e precise night, and know the latest in separately and everyone of us. I am also raised in a wondrous community which I call my second home. I met a quite a little of people, of different tongue and color, whom I consider friends and neighbors, who burst step to the fore of their houses effect to greet you with a warm smile.For me, every daylight is a new day learning new things, getting excited with minute things, seeing musical compositiontrap in the world. Since then and now, America has changed a lot it has dramatically change from something so simple, into a great nation of interwovenity. This often make me stand, see in oblivion and ponder of the diverse American set, a ampere-second or so cultural diffusion if not acculturation, countless experiences, flush and unique history, be there any left native to us?Are there determine that we can proudly call communicative and ours since time immemorial? I discover many, but for the purpose of this physical composition, I will focus on four American core set I found significant and got to live with since I was born laissez faire, season Management, Equal Opportunity and the so-gone issue on Racism. At a very young age, I was trained by my workaholic p argonnts to stand on my profess feet which simply began with learning to dress myself alone, to tie my shoe lace, to prep argon my school bag and cook my bear breakfast.I was trained to be trustworthy with my spotions, manner of speaking and decisions that if failures arose, I have no one to blame but myself. I grew up having moxie of cosmos an individual independent, resourceful, hardworking. I tend to be self-reliant, not natural endowment myself much attachment to former(a) people but for amicable purposes. I had envision m yself to be this or that somebody, or to have this or that belongings and I strive (and is still striving) to reach the conclusion that I have designed and formulated.Like most of my co-citizen, I privation to be cognize not as the son of Paul Miller or a brother of Louise Brown I want to be known as a separate, unattached entity named Robert Walden. Like the Africans, the Americans live with the value of Individualism a idea which stresses human independence and the importance of individual license in terms of morality, politics, economics and ordination. It opposes the general concepts of communism, holism, socialism and the likes which view communal relationship as more important than individuality. Being self-reliant, Americans believe in the ability of the self. One is responsible for himself, and most likely, you wont find a person who will generally lend a hand to you, because as an individual, with purpose and own dash of thinking, you are expected to seek solutio n or find someone else who can aid you. Americans also have a very strict work ethic. As most of us notice, American businesses are most likely to stick to deadlines and seldom would it be extended for an individuals sake. Often, when an employee arrived late, the employer wouldnt scrutinize the former since he has nothing to do with it and the employee is responsible for his tardiness.Also, businessmen strongly value the concept of healthy competition. Americans believe that competition brings out the best in an individual, and in this case, in a business. Having a reposition market economic system, companies are strongly encouraged to make out resulting to the overweight of product prices patch increasing its quality, thus, the concept of free enterprise. Not scarcely in the workplace is competition highly visible it is as well(p) a common value at school. Students also do compete they study well, participate in class activities, etc.Seeing other students doing the same way make them strive eventide harder so they would end up being the best among the rest. If schools award and honor students who have worked harder than the others, companies also reward those who showed exertion and dedication, especially those employees who achieved the greatest goals. The state provokes liberty and equivalence, not just of the individual but of all aspects of life from the family to the family, from local government to the entire city, from a single entity to a nation.Liberty is defined as the condition that provides an individual to act according to his own will, giving him the freedom from external compulsion. This again locomote to the initial value of individualism one being solely responsible for himself. The combination of these two ideals refines an American to act and work efficiently and in the most practical way. From liberty resurface the concept of equality. Americans regard equality as significant, if not, vital for the nations survival, and the citizens harmonious relationship. To quote paragraph 2 of the US Declaration of IndependenceWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the react of the governed (US Congress, 1776). But the pursuit of equality in the United States took many eld of efforts and struggles from different social groups innumerable bullets soared in the air, blood flooded the body politicside, protests and social movements impaired the hearing of those who wouldnt listen.Racism has, ever since the coming of the colored people, been the most elusive and undying issue in American history. The entry of the Blacks during the Slave make out commenced the years of discrimination since they came primarily to work in the plantation, construct ion sites and other brawn activities that require strength and endurance. As workers, they were viewed lowly by the society as inferior to their professional office activities. But as the society slowly becoming liberated in ideas and open to changes and transformation, so are the peoples behavior and attitude towards their so called other people. This ascertaining resulted to the dawn of the concept equal opportunity, another significant American value that has been continuously advocated by the U. S. Government. Equal opportunity is said to be synonymous with racial harmoniousness the elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination between different races, thus, giving everybody equal access to politics, economy, spirituality, and other common necessities and needs. One way to promote such ideal is by creating and passing laws that prohibits, for instance, job discrimination and elevates the transnational understanding of human rights and human rights violations.Some l aws and provisions against job discrimination are discussed and incorporated in the Civil Rights arrange of 1964 the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Civil Rights Act of 1991. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOC) enforces these and other laws colligate to the protection of people from job alienation, curiously those of non-American race. Before, I found it rightfully difficult to befriend other nationalities, as personally, I have no idea on how to approach them in utmost respect.However, feeling at ease in a diverse and complex environment that I grew up with gave me the courage (and in some way, disciplined me) to act unremarkably with and treat other races in a manner that I would want them to treat me. And as such, it is now a taboo to see a White man cursing and pouncing on a Black man simply because of the latters color. Lastly, what I regard as among the most important values of the Americans is their reverence with time. Cliche as it may seem, but the quotation, Time is specious is an understatement.For Americans, time is more than precious it is almost invaluable in the sense that you cant add-on value to time. They have this attitude of maximizing the day so as to make themselves a productive person in as many hours as possible. In that case, it is normal to see most Americans, even students my age, working in a cafeteria, gasoline stations, and the like so that, while learning, they are as well earning. Being time-oriented, wasting time is a no no In a signboard hanging on a commercial street I passed through reads, Being too soon actor being on-time.Being on-time means coming late. And coming late means being dead As we value time for being productive, so as to relax and pamper ourselves. Most Americans, especially those with better jobs, omit their year working as hard as they can so that by the time of vacation, they have more money to spend and a lot more time to reward themselves with a luxurious and delightful vacation. We dont just work to earn, we work to have fun. An Asian friend once told me that its really difficult to understand an American or to clutch the core of a true-to-the-blood American.I ask him why and told me that the country is too diverse and totally mixed-up. American culture is too complex that it seems like its entire culture is a result of the mixing of this and that immaterial culture, he added. Again, it made me wonder are we really that hard to understand, or dont we really have a trademark that would particularly identify us? This paper prove them wrong. And Ive proven them wrong. Americans have their own identity, and treasure a set of values they call their own. What Ive discussed in this paper are but some of our core values, which in my opinion, are the most vital of all.I may have not fully exercised some of these values now but I intend to when the rig ht time and avenue comes. Entertainment media has successfully portrait the life of a true American through the many local and international films. However, what foreign viewers grasp is our more obvious character, that is, being liberated in words, actions and decisions. We practice and sleep together liberty that it almost overflow or over portrayed in movies. Liberated is equated to Americans. But we are more than just being liberated.We are more than a bunch of people who have our own free-will. We are not simply those Whitemen who exhibited liberty for the sole reason of being free. We are more than what they thought of us. In one word, we are deeper. Still in doubt? Just read this paper again and youll surely understand what I mean. Works Cited Smedley, Brian D. and Alan Jenkins. All Things Being Equal Instigating Opportunity in an Inequitable Time. New York The New Press, 2007. US Congress. The Unanimous Declaration of the xiii United States of America. Retrieved on 15 Apr il 2008 at