Homework 9/17/13 Bourne Quote

"But if freedom menas a democratic cooperation in determining the ideals and purposes and industrial and social institutions of a country, then the immigrant has not been free, and the Anglo-Saxon element is guilty of just what every dominant race is guilty of in every European country: the impostion of its culture upon the minority peoples." I think that Randolph Bourne is saying in his article in The Atlantic Monthly that if the immigrant is forced to give up his cultural heritage in order to become what the Anglo-Saxon thinks constitutes an American, this is tyranny. Most people who came to America were fleeing from some type of oppression whether it was religious, financial or any other type of servitude. The Germans, Bohemians or French did not come here to become Anglo-Saxons just as the Anglo-Saxons did not come to America to adopt the culture of the Native American Indians. I chose this quote because I feel that the greatness of America is the diversity of its people. Yet, though this article was written before the First World War, it is still true today. Each new wave of immigrants brings new vitality to our culture. Upon arrival each new immigrant group faces the same discrimination as the last group. People are afraid of change and not very inclusive at first.