Intercultural Communications Contemporary Tensions
Intercultural communication is communication between two individuals or groups of different cultural origins or social groups and how culture affects communication between the two individuals or groups. It can be defined as a concept and competence that individuals or groups should acquire to facilitate better communication. Acquiring intercultural competence equips one with qualities that can enhance intercultural communication. It means having skills, knowledge, and attitudes towards understanding intercultural communication. Intercultural communication not only studies the interaction between individuals from different cultures, social, educational, racial and ethnic backgrounds but also studies social attributes, the culture and thought patterns of these groups. Intercultural conflict may erupt where people from different cultural backgrounds have incompatible communication, goals, values or scarce resources. America with its diverse population is one state that experiences intercultural clashes. The Asian Americans-African American interethnic clash is one of the intercultural communication situations that create tense.
Socially, one of the major causes of the Asian-American and African-American clash is the rise of the Asian-American socioeconomic ladder. This remarkable climbing of the Asian-American socioeconomic ladder was attributed to different aspects. According to Fuchs (np), investments in the education sector led to this upward mobility. Asians are highly educated and excel compared to other minorities such as African-Americans. Higher education, highly skilled and hardworking earned the Asian Americans more opportunities hence their excelling as they had higher incomes compared to the blacks (Fuchs np). There was a little language barrier between the whites and the Asian Americans and they could understand one another easily compared to the blacks. This made the whites to work closely with the Asians. As a result, the Asians had more opportunities than blacks. Getting more opportunities compared to the African Americans led to conflicts between the two racial groups. However, Guo (np) claims that the rise in the socioeconomic status of Asian Americans is a result of less racist towards them by their fellow Americans. Apart from their color, Asian Americans are classified as the most hardworking, law-abiding and non-complainant race in America.
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By the 1950s and 1960s, the Asian Americans became the model minority for their success as they had increased their household earnings closing their wage gap with the white Americans (Guo np). The model minority stereotype has its origin tangled up in different aspects of minority struggles for equality such as rising of the civil rights movement, geopolitics and civil wars. Being regarded as the model minority created racial clashes with the African-Americans. For instance, after the civil wars, the Asian-American voice was more valued than any other minority voice by the political leaders since the whites liaised with the Asians to fight the other minority groups. For instance, during the Cold War, whites sought Asian support. As a result, the African Americans in the 1960s fought for equality questioning the Asian favors by the whites. This means that geopolitics played a crucial role in eliminating the Asian American discrimination by other Americans. The Asians seemed to be capable of assimilating American life hence been considered as the best potential American citizens (Fuchs np).
The white politicians co-opted Asian Americans during the Cold War intending to earn their support as allies to win the war (Fuchs np). Also, during the civil rights movement, the whites liaised with the Asian Americans as they had declared them as their preferred race. As a result, the Asians seemed to be favored which made the other minority groups crash with the Asian Americans. Been portrayed as a hardworking race that had unwavering faith by the whites, the African Americans could not find a convenient way to convince the whites about their demands. Since the Asians were collaborative with the whites while the blacks opposed the white ruling, it became easy for Asian Americans to become American citizens compared to the African Americans (Guo np). Hence, the whites’ liaising with the Asians more than the blacks create the Asian American-African American interethnic conflicts.
Works Cited
- Guo, Jeff. 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/29/the-real-reason- Americans-stopped-spitting-on-Asian-Americans-and-started-praising-them/. Accessed 9 Oct 2019.
- Fuchs, Chris. 'Behind The 'Model Minority' Myth: Why The 'Studious Asian' Stereotype Hurts'. NBC News, 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/behind-model- minority-myth-why-studious-Asian-stereotype-hurts-n792926.
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