My Views on Multiculturalism

He said that United States of America is basically a composition of many different people from around the world. He challenges and argues the Anglo-Saxon's historical point of view. He started with the 17th century when settlers came to America from England as it was witnessed by the Indians. He then turns the attention to few different cultures and how they were affected by America. For example, the English brought the African people with force for slavery and Irish women were brought to work in factory and maids.
             In first chapter, Ronald Takaki did explain the stereotypes and prejudices of white people. The Eurocentricism have been around since the earliest days of settlers. Even in Shakespeare's The Tempest, the character named Caliban was seen as savage, like the native Indians. Takaki said that this character could have been represent the Africans that migrated to the new land. I guess because of Shakespeare's Caliban, the English during that time thought people who are dark or black skin color were uncivilized and savage. Another character named Prospero is a man from Milan and when he landed on Caliban's island, he believed that this island is destined to be his and the rightful owner. So it is not surprising that the idea of right owner of the land and to steal have been with us since before the early settlers. .
             This is the racializing that Ronald Takaki use to demonstrate. He used Shakespeare's The Tempest as reference of racializing. I'm quite surprised that the idea has been with us since the early time. I thought the idea started with the early settlers. America was founded on a principle that all men are created equal, ironically the whites didn't follow their principle. I find this quite similar to the early settlers where they also thought that they were the rightful owner of the land, America, and had the right to steal the land from the Indians. If native people are seen as savage and uncivilized, this gave the civilized people an idea to do whatever they wish because the natives are not seen as human.