The Emerging Monoculture: Assimilation and the Model Minority

Kramer brings together experts from a variety of minority backgrounds and from around the world to give their perspectives on the most pervasive ideology today, globalism. The basic premise is that a developed country is different from a developed community. They need not be mutually exclusive, but neither is it assumed that they are necessarily consonant. The various essays offer answers to such vital questions as What does it mean to become a 'global citizen'? and What does it mean to be a 'model minority' in a global economy? The process of becoming a mainstream person involves being first marginalized with the implication that something is inadequate about one's self. The process of assimilationism is manifested as various forms of enforced and/or rewarded acculturation. With the vast human migration currently underway, the notion of assimilation has become a global phenomenon. What is occurring, Kramer and his colleagues demonstrate, is a worldwide shift from the village milieu to the city lifestyle. This migration is seen as a polycentric and global phenomenon whereby the promised land is nowhere in particular, but, instead, a way of life and mindset, an urban lifestyle. This process is far more than a simple change in geography. Moving from the village to the cityscape involves a mutation in worldview and self-identity. Additional questions asked throughout the collection are What set of persuasive assumptions are leading the world in this direction? and What might be lost in the process? A provocative collection for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with development studies, multiculturalism, and urbanization.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Assimilation and the Model Minority Ideology by Eric Mark Kramer Gaiatsu and Cultural Judo by Eric Mark Kramer The Hidden Justification for Assimilation, Multiculturalism, and the Prospects for Democracy by John W. Murphy and Luigi Esposito Adopting the Caucasian "Look": Reorganizing the Minority Face by Masako Isa and Eric Mark Kramer The Violence of Assimilation and Psychological Well-Being by Chi-Ah Chun and Jung Min Choi The Ainu: A Discourse on Being Japanese by Masazumi Maruyama Headache and Heartbreak: The Elusiveness of "Model Minority" Status Attainment for African Americans by Charlton D. McIlwain and Lonnie Johnson A Communication Dilemma Between the Non-Disabled and People with Disabilities in Japan by Miho Iwakuma Successful Indians: Benevolent Assimilation and Indian Identity by Karola and Philip Lujan Abandoned People in Japan: The First Generation of Koreans in Japan by Richiko Ikeda Old and New Worlds by Algis Michunas Demythologizing the "Model Minority" by Eungjun Min Asian Indians and the Model Minority Narrative: A Neocolonial System by Archana J. Bhatt A World of Cookie-Cutter Faces by Rachael Rainwater-McClure, Weslynn Reed, and Eric Mark Kramer Cosmopoly: Occidentalism and the New World Order by Eric Mark Kramer Comprehensive Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

About the Author :
ERICMARK KRAMER is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. He is a member of the editorial board of various journals and has published extensively. Among his latest books are Modern/Postmodern: Off the Beaten Path of Antimodernism and Postmodernism and Race.

Review :
?The chapters in The Emerging Monoculture provide further clarification and answers to questions that include what it means to be a global citizen and what it means to be a model minority in a global economy.?-Multicultural Review "The chapters in The Emerging Monoculture provide further clarification and answers to questions that include what it means to be a global citizen and what it means to be a model minority in a global economy."-Multicultural Review