In K. M. Awad autobiographical fiction, Reflections of the Past, Awad writes about her childhood, born and raised in California as a Muslim America. Daughter of immigrants, Awad had always been torn apart between the two cultures she was exposed to. One was the Middle-Eastern culture her parents had brought back from the motherland and the other was the American culture. Both cultures were on the far sides of opposite ends. Her life’s struggles and the decisions she had to make to become her own person are all told through the character of Amirah in Reflections of the Past. Many Muslim Americans will find themselves relating to the story Awad tells.
Living in multiple or different cultures can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. While there are many benefits, the disadvantages can have quite an effect on a person’s life. Amirah, for example, was bullied for her ethnicity and religion for the majority of her school years. It was difficult for her to make friends. As per the Ranger News, here are some advantages and disadvantages of living in a multicultural society:
· Advantages
It may be a pleasing experience to live in the world which comprises a mixture of several cultures. Inhabitants can learn much tolerance on other ethnicities as well as customs. In addition, living in a multicultural society setting may offer an individual the opportunity to enlarge one’s cognitive thinking and also one can gain knowledge of foreign languages. Ultimately, this may result in access to quality job offers.
Multicultural society gives an individual an upper hand of understanding new cultures which raise one’s awareness with regard to the world’s issues. Each and every individual desires to acquire a new experience as well as broad knowledge which is well offered by living in a multicultural society setting.
· Disadvantages
There have been several arguments against living in multicultural environments. It is argued that the culture of the host society tends to fade away as a result of multiculturalism so as to embrace the different cultures. Ethnic diversity can also be viewed in a manner it affects social trust negatively. The proponent of such arguments supports the ideology of differentials, which is a belief that there is a need to differentiate different ethnicities and cultures in a multicultural society. Differentia lists are on the view that dissimilar ethnic groups and cultures are unable to coexist.
Multicultural society brings about cultural differences that may divide society. There will always exist a culture fight where one cultural group has a feeling that their religion and culture are superior as compared to the other groups’. As a resultant effect, ethnic minorities may suffer racial disadvantage in a multi-ethnic setting. Discrimination in education may also be experienced, whereby; children from minority ethnic groups may underperform due to them being in an unfamiliar environment with less recognition of their existence.
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