Many years ago when the british-orgin groups that established themselves as the as the dominant group known as the Anglo core group settled in America establishing themselves as a charter group the dominate group within America. When other groups entered they were forced to join the assimilation process or face annihilation of their race. This normally is completed by the third generation. (marger, 2015, pp. 515-519) The article “Sometimes Getting Along Comes down to how you say Gravy” talks about two different cultures in an airport that are having difficulties getting along and no one can figure out why. A gentleman named John Gumperz is hired to go and find out why. His discovery is that it comes down a how the word gravy is being said. One way a group says is offense to the other group.
This is a great example of how a melting pot or multiculturalism does not work in the work place. In a workplace environment is not somewhere that culture assimilation adopting one ethic group or another’s norms and values. For example we had a work outing a few months ago and someone asked for something out of the cooler and another person thought they said culo which in Spanish this means butt the Spanish speaking person looked astonished and insulted. Thankfully someone else was there to quickly identify the issue and explain what was really said, As much training and human ethics and other classes as we are required to take I would have thought this wouldn’t be an issue but it really is. The other thing I notice is that in the break rooms and the lunchroom there is a great separation between races. We have a lot of Asians that work for our company they sit together and talk amongst themselves. The Hispanic population does the same. Not many people cross tables to breach the invisible line. (marger, 2015, pp. 515-519)
The article states that neither side was really wrong just not understanding each other correctly. Which I think is the main reason a lot of the conflict happens misunderstandings. In class I learned that this seems to be a common experience between assimilationist societies and even within social classes. (marger, 2015, pp. 515-519)
