Multicultural America

Just observing – not the same as rigorous sociological analysis, but the USA gives a lot of signs of being a very successful example of a multicultural society. Yesterday walking around in Carpinteria, I heard the distinctive sound of Mexican music and then a rapid chatter of Spanish. A lot of visitors can be surprised by the prominence of Spanish, but you can’t really get to grips with understanding much of the modern USA unless you grasp that it is ethnically mixed, and one big chunk of that mix – especially in California – is hispanic/latino. And looking around me, Latinos, blacks and whites all seem to mix well. Looking at the newspapers, adverts, and TV, you can see examples of people from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds who have been successful.

But the ‘success’ has limits. Again, its just impressionistic, but my experience has been that those working in the hospitality and tourist industry- shop workers, hotel receptionists, cleaners, and so on, are predominantly latino. It seems to be several societies in one. Of course there are those who would tell you that America is the land of opportunity and there are no divisions. But these people are not, generally speaking, sociologists. Yes, its true, there are tremendous opportunities for individual social mobility in this country. But that is just part of the story.