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Ronald Takaki's A Different Mirror

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In the book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki, he argues that the “Master Narrative of American History” does not accurately reflect the meaning behind what it means to be an American, because this country is populated by immigrants from around the world. Therefore, Takaki wrote this book to make us look into a different mirror and showing us a more inclusive outlook by reflecting us the true history of America that includes Native Americans. Many also lack information about the history of several other ethnicities and for that reason, society created a construction through a separation between the minorities and whites. By conveying the history of the original settlers who have been inhabiting America, Takaki is able to exclude many people’s mentality that the history of whites are more superior than other racial minorities, in which have made them feel unimportant because of their lifestyle, when America is a country of all people, and not only …show more content…

This system creates a social construction through a separation between minorities and the Europeans. “I believe our education system as a whole has not integrated histories of all people into our education system, just the Eurocentric view of itself… What I find is that most people don’t know the fact that they don’t know, because of the complete lack of information” (Takaki, 5-6), said Nicholas Takaki, a 14 year old student. He implies that in his American history course, it had taught him only about the Europeans. This absence of knowledge have affected their ways that only the whites have created and nourished America resulting in what we are today, seeing people of other races as inferior. Because of this, we percept ourselves as different, and feeling left out from the history and America

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