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In the 19th century, the United States expanded rapidly in population - through large families, immigration, and (initially) importation of African...
In the 19th century, the United States expanded rapidly in population - through large families, immigration, and (initially) importation of African slaves. It also expanded rapidly in territory - through purchases, annexations, wars, and treaties. These changes led to a country with one of the most diverse populations in the world, but with government policies such as Jim Crow laws, Indian boarding schools, Exclusion acts, etc. that functioned to maintain a culture with a widespread belief in the necessity of conforming to the dominant white, Anglo-Saxon culture.
That tension between assimilation and identification with diverse cultural roots continues today in the U.S. and elsewhere. A few years ago, Absolut Vodka ran an ad in Mexican media that caused an uproar with some people in the United States.
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It depicted a map of North America with Mexico's boundaries restored to those prior to the Mexican-American War. There are some opponents of increased immigration that believe that there is a deliberate strategy for Mexican immigrants to take over the Southwest. Arizona's controversial AB 1070 law is in part a reaction to the stresses of a large unassimilated immigrant population.
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Much of the art that we look at in this class address these issues. What are the relative merits of assimilation and diversity? Can you find artworks in chapter 3 that reflect assimilation? Or artworks that maintain cultural traditions or that reflect diversity in America?
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