Essay on the Globalization of American Culture

Rowntree et al. (2015) describe the cultural geography of North America as internally pluralistic because various ethnic groups live on their own rules within the larger North American society without necessarily giving up on their distinct cultural heritages. As an internally pluralistic society, the different ethnic groups have added value to the American culture by enabling both the immigrants and the Native Americans to learn from one another (Rowntree et al., 2015). As a result, both groups have expanded their knowledge of education, art, music, cuisine, and history. Although America today boasts of an inclusive culture, the 19th and 20th centuries which recorded the highest immigrant arrivals were characterized by anti-immigrant backlash in the form of xenophobia, nativism, and other forms of prejudices. These tendencies led to discrimination against immigrants especially in the distribution of employment opportunities, access to education, federal programs, public accommodations, and housing. Resultantly, this led to declining in the advancement of industrious and talented immigrants whose skills could have accelerated Americas progress.

Though internally pluralistic, North Americas cultural geography is also dominant globally. Cultural diffusion has played a vital role in the global domination of Americas culture. Specifically, American citizens have pushed U.S companies to become a major force in international markets. Franchises and products that inherently carry North Americas cultural geography are distributed worldwide. In addition, items such as computers, Hollywood movies, fast foods, and news networks have become the leading products of choice in many countries. Importantly, the power of the American Dream (that is inherently and culturally American) that asserts that through hard work, anybody can become financially successful as depicted by the U.S media, has significant influence in peoples minds both domestically and globally (Crothers, 2012).

The globalization of American culture has both positive and negative impacts. For instance, the U.S media houses such as CNN have become so dominant in underdeveloped nations with no resources to develop such networks that they rely on them for world news. Also, U.S Fast food chains such as McDonalds have become globalized to operate in more than one hundred countries. In countries that the franchise operates, it has employed several locals who would otherwise perhaps be unemployed. Despite the benefits, globalization of American culture has eroded many cultures especially in countries that heavily rely on U.S products.

In the past decades in Latin America, the number of children per woman has been high. Although other factors such as literacy were responsible, religion played the significant role. Many people believed that for a Christian couple to have few babies, they had to be rich and financially stable. Since many countries in Latin America are developing economies, many households have low income hence many children. However, by 2010, there were significant developments since 80% of humans lived in countries with an average of two children (Rosling, 2012). Despite these achievements, more needs to be done especially in Latin America.

To improve the economic and social development in Latin America, policies aimed at reducing child mortality rates and increasing their survival must be implemented. Also, measures to prevent children from engaging in paid work should be instituted. This could be achieved by ensuring good governance to increase household income such that children are not needed to work to provide for their families. Also, there is the need to improve womens level of access to education to increase their participation in the labor force as well as to enhance their income (Rosling, 2012). Importantly, provision of family planning methods is compulsory to ensure that couples bear children that they can adequately and comfortably raise.

References

Crothers, L. (2012). Globalization and American popular culture. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Rosling, H. (2012). Religions and babies (video). TEDx Summit. Available from https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_religions_and_babies/up-next

Rowntree, Les, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, and William Wyckoff. (2015). Diversity amid globalization: World Regions, environment, development plus Mastering Geography with eText. (Sixth edition). Pearson Education.