american culture & society...american culture is torn between a discomfort with but dependence...

American Culture & Society Eight Markers and One Tension

Tobin Miller Shearer

History/African-American Studies University of Montana

What are two things you heard about Americans before arriving here in the United States?

Assignment Compare and contrast your list with the eight markers of US culture that I’m going to present and explore with you.

Thesis American culture is torn between a discomfort with but dependence on collective identity (land and race) and a celebration of personal choice (of religion, in support of violence, of politics, of food, about independence and self-improvement, of entertainment).

Markers of U.S. Culture and Society Collective Identity Race Land Personal Choice Religion Violence Politics Food Independence and self-improvement Entertainment

Source: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html

Presenter

Presentation Notes

National forests

Source: http://ahundredyearsago.com/2013/06/01/percentage-of-us-population-affiliated-with-various-religions-1913-and-2013/

Source: http://chartsbin.com/view/1454

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/world-map-of-incarceration-rates-2014-1

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5960290/this-is-the-real-political-map-of-america-hint-we-are-not-that-divided

Presenter

Presentation Notes

This is the real political map of the United States of America after the presidential election. A fascinating view, much different from the maps you saw that night, which showed an artificial, binary divide. But these maps demonstrate that there is not such a huge gap between rural and urban America. At the top of the column you can see the usual representation by state: who won where. One or the other. It shows a big area of red (republican) and some blue (democrat). If you see the results by county (second in the column), the difference between red and blue is even more overwhelming. Visually, it appears as if a few blue states are imposing their will on a huge majority of red states. We know that's not the case, but that's what the maps convey because we associate area and volume with importance. That's why those maps are not really good for understanding what really happened. They convey the wrong idea. The third map of the column is much more accurate. Created by Mark Newman—from the Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan—it mixes blue and red based on popular vote percentage instead of showing a binary representation. There's no huge area of red. There is a gradient. A lot of purple. That's the accurate map that reflects the actual result of the election. It also shows that the divide between the cities and the countryside is not that huge. There are differences of opinion everywhere. The large map is even better. It factors in population density, showing the importance of every county based on the population. The lighter the color, the less populated, the less weight in the election. The more saturated it is, the more populated and more weight it shows. The Republican Party should look at this map and think again for 2016. In fact, everyone should. Those insidious suggestions of impending civil war between urbanites and farmers are wildly exaggerated.

Source: https://sites.google.com/site/courtneycastle105/webtext

Source: Beer vs. consumption - http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/the-united-states-of-beer-vs-wine/

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

http://www.maxmasnick.com/2011/11/15/obesity_by_county/

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0217/Fights-on-public-transit-Oakland-bus-fracas-is-latest-flash-point

Source: http://www.thegardenisaflower.com/2014/05/

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY&feature=kp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY&feature=kp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE

Source: http://www.rebelmagazine.com/articles/cult-celebrity

“the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.”

“After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight* in this American world,-a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One- ever feels his two-ness, -an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”


A Happy Ending

Special thanks to: Julie Edwards, Steve Edwards, Chris Pastore, Cheryl Shearer,

and Zachary Shearer.

Background photos from: cover of Pablo DeLano’s Faces of America

american culture & society...american culture is torn between a discomfort with but dependence...

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