美国的文化认同冲突和社会不平等性——种族矛盾的文化与社会源流

Dynamics of Conflicts of Cultural Identity &Social Inequality in United States——The Cultural & Social Resources of Racial Conflicts

文化与社会总是处于互动之中,美国政治文化将种族矛盾作为美国社会的主要矛盾。自建国以来,盎格鲁—新教文化长期被视为美国文化认同的核心,但是该文化的同质性要求使其社会包容性不足,与美国的多元社会构成和族裔不平等存在张力,形成了建设"文化大熔炉"理想和种族歧视实践之间的冲突,种族矛盾成为美国社会的痼疾。20世纪民权运动之后,主张族裔多样性和文化多元性成为新的"政治正确"标准并占据主导地位,但并未有效解决美国的种族和族裔不平等问题,相反产生了新旧文化认同之间的冲突,不同形式的种族矛盾时有发生。20世纪80年代以来,新自由主义主导下的经济全球化导致美国各族裔内部的贫富悬殊、社会分化、阶层固化等问题日益凸显,"选举导向"之下的两党政治从不同角度放大甚至炒作种族矛盾来掩盖、缓解或转移社会不平等带来的社会压力,试图以种族骚乱等形式来释放社会不满。此外,美国的人口和族裔结构变化等因素加剧了上述新旧文化认同冲突。

Culture and society are always in interaction.American political culture has long regarded race contradiction as the main contradiction in the United States.Since the founding of the United States,AngloProtestant culture has long been regarded as the core of American cultural identity.However,the homogeneity of the culture makes its social tolerance insufficient,which has tension with the composition of the diverse society and the inequality between ethnic groups in the United States,and has formed the conflict between the ideal of building a"cultural melting pot"and the practice of racial discrimination.In this sense,the racial contradiction has become a persistent problem in the American society.After the civil rights movement in the 20 th century,advocating ethnic diversity and cultural diversity became the new standard of"political correctness"and dominated,but it did not effectively solve the issue of racial inequality in the United States.On the contrary,conflicts between old and new cultural identities occurred,and different forms of racial contradictions occurred from time to time.Since the 1980 s,which is dominated by the new liberalism economic globalization,American society of all races are under worsening disparity between the rich and the poor,social differentiation and inequality,class solidification problem,etc.In order to avoid class issues of political discourse and redistribution,under the"elective"pressure,elites of both parties amplify or even provoke ethnic conflicts to cover up,alleviate or transfer class inequality,regarding race riots as way to release the pressure of because of the accumulation of social inequality.In addition,the changes of American ethnic and demographic structure and other factors have aggravated the above conflicts of old and new cultural identities,resulting in a series of new changes in the current American racial contradictions,such as the confrontation among white people based on different cultural identity.