Multicultural California

Multiculturalism relates to communities containing multiple cultures. As a descriptive term, it usually refers to the simple fact of cultural diversity: it is general applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, sometime at the organizational level, for examples, schools, businesses, neighborhoods, cities, or nations. As a normative term, it refers to ideologies or policies that promote this diversity or its institutionalization; in this sense, multiculturalism is a society “at ease with the rich tapestry of human life and the desire amongst people to express their own identity in the manner they see fit” (Wiki). In the movie Crash by Paul Haggis, Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption. Inside the movie, there are some scenes that we might have been facing before. In a multicultural world, people of different races, from different countries, and with different aspects, their lives are being changed by other characters inside the film. In the book American Son, Brian Ascalon Roley writes about a story of two brothers, Tomas and Gabe. Roley uses this book as a reference to the multicultural world. And also in the play Culture Clash in America: Bordertown, Culture Clash explores the San Diego-Tijuana through satire and humor. San Diego-Tijuana is an area where many Mexicans or Americans make contact. And besides American and Mexican, there are also some interviews of different people from other countries. These three pieces of media show how a multicultural world looks like. Moreover, these pieces also relates to the recent California. In these pieces, those characters show some ways to live in a multicultural world in harmony.       Paul Haggis, the writer- director of the movie Crash, demonstrate the relations between different races in Los Angeles into a drama. The story occurred in just two days. Several character interweave during this period in Los Angeles. Everyone has their own story, but at the same time, one own story affects the others’. Haggis shows the difficulties of adapting to a multicultural world like California. No one has a clear understanding of the people from different backgrounds and this is the reason why there are racism or discrimination issues in the world. Since people do not have clear understanding on others, they reject those who are different from them, such as different skin colors or races. Inside the movie, there are different types of people, and they have different reactions when they interact to other people. When one do not have much information on others, he/she will not act too friendly to you, or even worse. However, when everyone gets to know more about each another, things are different. In a multicultural society, there is still humanity. John Ryan, a police officer of LAPD, was a racist. One time when he was patrolling with his partner Tom Hanson, pulled over Cameron’s car and ordered the Thayer couple, who are colored, to exit the car. At that time, John sexual molested Christine and Cameron said nothing. Until the end of the film, when Christine was in a car accident and was dying because of the fire from the gas leakage, John was the first to climb into the car and tried to save her life. John represents a dominant culture and his act is to pressure those minorities, just because he is white and he has the privilege in the society. However, it is not the image of multiculturalism. Because of his fault, he realized that being a racist did not bring any advantage to him. And at his last scene, he saved a life, no matter who the person is, he did his responsibility. It shows the original personality which every human should have is to help others out.      In American Son, Roley talks about the story of two Filipino brothers adrift in contemporary California. The writer use the point of view of the younger brother Gabe, telling us the story that how people struggle to assimilate the dominant lifestyle. His brother Tomas, always dressed up in Mexican style and trained attack dogs, which he sell them to those celebrities in the Hollywood. The message that Roley wants to tell the readers is the multicultural society that force people to assimilate to the dominant culture, this lead to greater social problems and identity crisis among individuals. Tomas’s character is a metaphor for the white’s culture dominance in the world. Throughout the book, Tomas is always the one in charge, forcing his brother Gabe to follow his footstep and always taking others’ advantages. But whatever Tomas does, no one support him. Gabe act as a little amount of peoples who stand up to strive the dominance, however, each time they strive, they are pressed down even harder. Ika represents those voiceless groups of people. They are smart but they have no chances to express their thoughts because no one listens. And soon they have admitted their identity in the society and become voiceless. These three characters reflect the recent multicultural society.      Bordertown is a play that consists of many stories about multiculturalism. The play is a satire of two cities – San Diego and Tijuana, which straddle the border between the United States and Mexico. People living along this area are living in the multicultural society. But, their own culture has their own particular value. It leads to misconceptions among them and the interactions between the residents living in the area. In Act 1 and Act 2, two different sides have different interactions at first when they meet the people from different cultures. In the beginning scene, two Mexican-Americans portrayed in “Bordertown” are mistaken as Mexicans trying to illegally cross the American border. This is a clear example of stereotype of racism on someone’s ethnicity and skin color. Since Mexican-American are legal citizens in the United States, yet some of them are discriminated against and punished because they looked like illegal immigrants that cross the American border illegally. I think it is nothing wrong to be alarmed about illegal immigrants, but the act of wrongly accusing Mexican-American is no longer an immigration issue but a racism issue and it should be concerned in recent society.            California is an example of multicultural world. And from the readings and the movie, we can see how multiculturalism affects California. In the good side, multiculturalism brings the opportunity for people to know different culture and countries. In addition, multiculturalism provides the opportunity for people from different culture to help each other. In Crash, we understand that each story can change the others. The good side we found here could also found in the recent California. There are many people from different countries living together in and each of them would be happy to help each other when need. Multiculturalism also boosts the development of California. During the Gold Rush in 1850s, more and more people migrated into the state. Those people came from different countries with different dreams. They “crashed” into the California society, and they developed the modern California. California has large amount of its population in diversity among other states in the United States and its economy is large enough to be comparable to that of the largest of countries. And this is the success of multiculturalism that benefits California to have its development and provide lots of opportunities to immigrants. As Jewelle Taylor Gibbs and Teiahsha Bankhead write in their article “Coming to California,” they conclude the good side of multicultural California. “This California mosaic of racially diverse people, ethnic cultures, and polyglot languages generates the energy that drives the expanding economy, creates the excitement that nurtures the creative arts, and provides the vision that fosters innovation in fields…” I agree California society is just like a piece of mosaic and different peoples are trying to put their own pieces in this mosaic. No matter what is their background, California provides an opportunity for them to chase their own dream.      However, the bad side has greater issues and effects than the good side. All of the sources point out the problem of racism and misconceptions inside the state. There exist racism and discrimination problems all over the world. Specifically, these problems are serious issues in California, according to Crash and America Son. Inside the movie Crash, white people did not want to understand what others people were thinking, they felt that they were more powerful among races. And those black peoples were not motivated to think of other immigrants. In the article “What is Multiculturalism,” Professor Gregory Jay from University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee points out the misconception of American on multiculturalism, “America’s traditional conception of itself as a “melting pot”: of diverse peoples joined in a common New World culture has been challenged by those multiculturalists who consider the “melting pot” metaphor a cover for oppressive assimilation.” Everyone heard of the “melting pot” concept. But Professor Jay points out that multiculturalism does not mean we have to follow others’ footsteps, but to use our own original culture to influence others to bring a harmony effect in the society. In America Son, the Filipino brothers were a metaphor to the relationship between White people and people of other races in the society. Tomas was always in charge of everything and he forced others to follow his footsteps. He also took advantages from others. The relationship between Tomas and Gabe was addressed to another racial problem existed in recent California. There were some groups of people took some advantages from others and they could only suffer and do nothing about it. This is an injustice relationship. In fact, white people have more privilege than the others in the United States. According to the United States’ Naturalization Act of 1789, it declared that only “white” immigrants could eventually become citizens. This shows discriminations to other races. Obviously this act failed to provide a vision of which they feel they want to belong.      Besides racism and discriminations, in both the readings and the movie address the problem of communication between races. In America Son, Ika represented the group of people who were smart but had no chances to express their thought and own values. The same values appeared in Bordertown and Crash. In Bordertown, in the San Diego-Tijuana area, there are different stories. People in different cultures hold different values. However, without sufficient communications, it always leads to misconceptions. Just like when the American Militia Man stopped the two Mexican-American and challenged their identity, just because one of the Mexican-American’s appearance. Although the characters had chance to express their feeling on multiculturalism, they sometimes misunderstood others. In recent California, there always happen cases due to miscommunication and holds of different values. Some mother-in-law sues their daughter-in-law, who came from different country, by some misunderstanding argument. This shows that in a multicultural society, when people hold different values, argument happens easily, but if they get to communicate to each other more, arguments will not exist.     Problems in a multicultural California do not solve easily. However, there are some ways to tackle the problem. For the education, we should teach the equality of each person in the society in school. According to Peggy McIntosh wrote in “White Privilege”, “Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.” This is not the true meaning of equal opportunities. And we should not be the one who are dominant. Only God is at the position of dominance. If we are changing our attitude on other races, at least by learning about their values, this should ease the racism problem. Besides education, it is also important to let everyone communicate to others, to know what others are thinking, and learn about their cultures. From the readings, we found that most problems we found in the materials could address to recent California problems. In recent California, we could see that racism and misconception exists everywhere because California is a multicultural society. However, people who living in the situation would find their way to live in harmony.

Self Reflective Letter to Myself

Throughout this quarter, we are focusing on different aspects of California. My understanding on California before I attended this class is “sunshine and beach.” In fact, what I think of is not true. There are more than I thought. After doing many exercises in-class or out-of-class, I learnt more about California, it is not only the geographic of the state, but more about Californian’s daily life, also on their dreams. In this English 1B class, I have learnt more about California morally, not just the physical view of the state. Moreover, I have enhanced my writing and reading skills to write a more fluent essay.

As mentioned above, I was learning about California this quarter. In my essays, I was not just focusing on one topic of California, but many of them. I wrote the identity of being a Californian and the dark side of California. I remembered when I stepped into the classroom, I knew a little about California. However, after reading some articles in the book California Dream and Realities and the article “Silicon Boys” written by David A. Kaplan, I learnt about California Dream. Although the property of this dream is just same with the other, because it is special in California, therefore it is worth a unique name. This word is not familiar to me at first, but after I wrote my first two essays on discussing about the California Dream, I have better understanding on it. The word is related to the Gold Rush in California in 1850s, because it led to the rapid development of California, it also made the California a state full of diversity. However, this development not just enhanced the living quality, it also brought some bad effects. In my out- of-class essay #2, I am writing about the consequences of chasing the California Dream. During the class period, we are asked to divide into four groups. Each group has to design a teaching session and present in class. I remembered I was in the group teaching the poem “Indian Cartography” by Deborah Miranda, it was a interesting experience to me because I have never tried to have presentation in class in the form of teaching. This encouraged me to do more research on my assigned topic and learnt how to present my idea well in class. Although I am not using this poem as a reference to write my essay, I learnt about the struggling of those Indians who were facing the destruction of their culture. I did some research and wrote my essay. I loved it the most overall, because I loved to analyze problems. When I was in high school in Hong Kong, we were always writing this kind of essays. And it developed my interest on writing this. In these three essays, I learnt about the deep part of the state California. What I have learnt in this class is very useful to my future, no matter in my further education or when I started to work.

Before I came to the United States, I also studied English in my high school. The way to develop our reading skill is to read and read and read. However, we were not used to discuss the deep meaning or message the writer was talking about. I felt confused when I was doing that. It seemed I am learning nothing from those reading. And in my point of view, the purpose of reading was just preparing for your Advanced Level examinations to fight for your to ticket to the university. However, after few quarters studying English classes in Foothill, and this class should be my last English class in Foothill, I learnt about what is the real meaning of reading. During my English 1A and 1B classes, I had to do more readings than ever before. I had to write about something that I was not so familiar to. It was hard for me at first because when I looked at the writing guidelines for different essays in my English 1B class, I was almost fainted. Because I am not get used to read, or I should say I only read those which I am interested in, but obviously not the topic on finding the identity or discussion the dreams of California at first. When I was in class, I knew I made a mistake. I have learnt what is the purpose of reading; it is not just about your reading speed, but also to find out what the writer wanted to tell us. And soon I started to read more and more, and I learnt that if you want to have a better understanding on a topic, you have to do more research, read through those articles that might be useful for you to know more about it.

Professor Lewis told us that reading and writing are tightly packed together. Actually I did not feel it at all when I was in my high school since the English examination had 4 parts: reading, listening, writing and oral presentation. I always thought that reading did not relate writing so much. However, in this class, while I was writing the essay, the other thing I was doing is reading through the essay and the sources I found for quotations. About my writing process, before I start writing the essay, I have to write a detailed outline, which means I have to be done with my research beforehand. I am not get used to it because I am such a lazy person.  But the things did not go well when I was writing my essays, so I learnt to prepare all the stuff I need before I start to write the essay. During writing the essay, it does not matter if you make some mistake or present your idea badly, this is just a problem of wordings, and it can be easily fixed. After writing, I learnt to proofread the essay again, because it is a way to correct some minor mistakes inside the essay. Moreover, I also learnt about the importance of peer response. It is a way to let you know about other people opinion on your essay. This is a good way to both enhance reading and writing skills on both sides. And each other learn more during the process. About the writing product, I learnt about the flow and cohesion on the essay level. It is very important in an essay because it determines whether the readers want to read on or not. If your essay has a good flow, readers may find the track and they might find it interesting so that they keep on reading. On the paragraph level, I learnt about the importance of presenting your ideas. In a paragraph, it should be started with a topic sentence so that the reader can easily know what you are going to talk about in the following paragraph. And then you write about the support of the topic sentence. It is a good way to promote your idea to others. On the sentence level, I learnt about different sentence structures and how they affect the fluency on the essay. I learnt about the appositives. It helps me to connect my ideas in a more fluent way and it enhances also the paragraph level and the essay level.

In this course, I have learnt a lot, not just on California, but also on the reading and writing skills. When I looked at my grades of my essays, I really see that I am improving. It is a great encouragement for me because I have more passions to keep on doing those researches or writing essays. The topic we discussed in the class helps me to have better image on what I should do in the future. Take the out-of-class#2 as a reference, while I am chasing my California Dream in the future, I have to be aware of the side effects because of the dream.

Who Paid for Dreams and Development?

     After Christopher Columbus discovered the America, more and more people in Europe left their home and seek for new life in the United States. It started the European exploration period. But the Europeans were not the first in the United States—the Indians are the first people who live and explore the land of the United States. Because of the increasing number of explorers, the original life of those Indians had been disrupted. In the poem “The First” by Gary Soto, and the poem “Orange County Historian” by Michael J. O’Brien, they talk about the lifestyle of Indians under European colonization and the traffic congestion in the Orange County respectively. They act as cause and effect incident: “The First” is the reason and the “Orange County Historian” is the result. In both poems, they suggest the California dream and rapid development destroy the nature.
     In “The First” by Gary Soto, the author describes a beautiful nature of America and life of native Indians. However, their life was changed because of the appearance of European. The European cut down trees and destroyed the living environment of the Indians. The Indians were forced to leave their own land and lived in somewhere else. The developed area grew faster and faster and many problem cause with the fast development, such as less land for people to walk and live, air pollution, water pollution, forest destroyed and unnatural path. At that time, no one was aware with these problems. After so many years of development, things describe in “Orange County Historian” by Michael J. O’Brien happened. There were no more space to build roads and traffic was everywhere. When gas was out, people abandoned their car on the road. Grocery store ran out of stock quickly and kids formed gangs and steal food to make sure their needs been met. Supply could not meet the demand. Mormons started selling emergency supply to keep people from dying. They earned some fortune in a short while. People started missing the nature.
     From the summery of two poems, we could see a “cause and effect” relationship occur. The cause is “The First” which people started destroying the natural environment; the effect is “Orange County Historian” which there was no more land for development and a bad society. In “The First”, we could also found that the variety of animals and insects were decreasing because some of them had been turned into handbags and jewelries. “The iguana being stretched into belts the beaver curling into handbags” (Soto). Unlike the Indians, they formed in tribes but they lived in peace. There were no fighting for traffic, pollutions and greedy. There were many lands to use and to walk but the European uses most of the lands to build roads and houses. There were fresh air and water but the immigrants brought cars and industry. There was variety of animals and insect but the businessman turned them into products to earn money. As Soto writes in his poem, “They were the first to leave, unnoticed, without words, for it no longer mattered to say the world was once blue.” The lifestyle of people who lived in American, as known as the Indians’, had transformed from naturalism to consumerism. However, people have to pay for what they did to the land one day.
     The Indians, who were the first people who live in the land of the United States, lifestyle was forced to be changed. Their hunting skills could not make any living for them anymore because forest had been cleared and there were no longer large variety of animals. Indians no longer lived in tents because there were no more natural environment for them to live. Instead, they must live in house and serve the immigrants in order to earn their living. They no longer belonged to the nature. The poem discusses what the Indians did, “The villagers undid their houses, thatch by thatch, and unplucked the stick fences that held grief and leaned from the wind that swung their way.” They turned into city people. When cities were developing, environmental problem created. The beautiful nature described in “the First” was destroyed and there were no ways to turn back. Also, the nature of Indians had been destroyed by immigrant. The immigrant, who was called as explorer in the early history of the America, was the people who destroy the Indians original lifestyle and the people created all the problems. Most immigrants moved to California with their dreams. They dreamed for a better future, fortunate money, more opportunities, building a family, etc. During the European colonization, most immigrants were very wealthy. In order to survive, Indians must work for their living. Their style of simplicity and natural-driven had been transform into greedy.
     Indians were the best guide and strong people because of the training of the natural. For people who dream for the movie industry, Indians were the best people who helped them to finish their dream. They paid the Indians for moving heavy things and guiding them into the forest. However, when they went into the forest, there was no longer any evidence of living of Indians because all of them had already moved out from their own village and land. ”They left, for the earth was not as it was” (Soto). Indians were also paid to do dangerous action in movies. They had good balance in their blood. It was come from their nature so they could climb and jump in the forest. When the movie industry in the America looked for people who could do dangerous action, they would look for an Indian.
     Indians were the best worker for businessman. Since the Indians were people who best know the America natural environment, during Gold Rush, Indians worked for businessman looking for gold around rivers. Although it was a dangerous work, Indians could earn a lot from these jobs. They went out of the forest and land for money purpose. Also, the immigrants brought industry into the America. At the early development times, most industry produced dirty air and dirty water. It caused the problem of air and water pollution. “Their lakes bruised Gray with smoke that unraveled from cities” (Soto). Indians were hardworking people. Developers who built buildings, roads and pier hired Indians as well. Indians were not architects naturally but they learned fast. They learned and built many buildings and road. The Indians no longer belonged to themselves but they belong to money. They worked for people who paid them. They no longer lived in the forest or riverside but they lived in cities. They no longer hunted but they did all kind of industries to earn their living, the original lifestyle among them was no longer existed.
     Many developments were made when people were chasing their California dreams. The development of road and highways were significant. Orange County in “Orange County Historian” is a good example for the development of California dream. Residents there reached some degree of their dreams. They had nice car, good schools, great jobs, good families, and nice houses. However, the traffic in there was always heavy.
     “Orange County Historian” creates an imagination of how things went worse with all the destructions of nature and over development. In the poem, there were no more lands to develop in Orange County. “Between 1970 and 1990, Los Angeles’ population grew by 45-percent, but its developed land area increased 300 percent” (Carle). It shows the pace of development is always needed to be so fast, which means they have to find resources from undeveloped land. And those resources are found in the natural environment. Instead, even though the land was developed, it did not seem that life was going to be better, according to the poem. Freeways were congested and people who were driving nice cars were trapped in their way to work or school. They had been waited for many hours until they ran out of gas and they finally went back to the nature—walking. Nothing was operating. Schools were close. Mothers sent their children outside and those became gangs who made the city an unsafe place. The over development had made the place unpleasant for people to live. What about the natural environment? There were no more animals around because there were too many cars everywhere. Cars bring noise to the environment. Animals that live in the natural are sensitive to sound. When cars were driving on the road, many noises were produced. This place did not suitable for animals anymore. So they moved to northern place where less people living. However, some animals may be dying of coldness or hungriness.
     From the poem, we realize a problem. There were too many cars on the road. And cars create polluted air. When “The First” already describing polluted air, more cars in “Orange County Historian” exist means more polluted air. However, people at that time did not realize the dangerous of air pollution. The natural of Indians been destroyed by the foreigners. America, where was a beautiful place on earth, was destroyed by human. The original residence of this land been forced to change, to move, and to work. Everything described in the poems became a chain. The victim, the Indians, lifestyle had forced to be change because of California dream of others and over development. With no one notice, the nature started to fight back. One day, people will need to pay for what they did to the land and its original resident.

Labeling Genetically Engineered Food

      Genetically Modified food is derived from Genetically Engineered Organism (GMOs). Those GMOs have had specific changes in their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. Hence the fundamental nature of the organism is changed, sometimes in ways that would never occur in nature. Genetic engineered food involves the insertion genes of insect, fish, animal into plants. GM food brought an impact on food supply, the cost in manufacturing and consuming, and the nutrition value inside food. In Proposition 37, it requires the labeling of food sold to consumers made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in specific ways. And it prohibits marketing food as “natural.” I think labeling is useful to help consumers to decide whether they would like to buy food that are genetically modified.

      People have a right to know what is in their food, no matter we buy it or not. It is because there are a lot of stuffs we do not know that are in our food. And we are actually eating them. Therefore, for us to know about the food ingredients, we may have a better understanding on what is in our food, also how the GMOs affect us. In a video produced by the Just Label It Campaign, the producer interviewed several people on labeling GM food. All of them are saying yes to it. The reason why the pregnant woman told the interviewer is because she wants to know whether GM food they are eating is harmful or not to human body, especially babies. Moreover, around 90% of American wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to label Genetic Engineered food. For some, labeling is due to health, safety or environmental concern. Others believe that the right to know is a core American value. Lack of labeling of GM foods neglects the rights of citizens in a free society, since it depends on information on the content of the food when we are choosing the food.

Dr. Ron Epstein

      Another premise on agree labeling GM food is to avoid negatively effects on human body. There are no long term studies supporting that genetic engineered food is totally safe for human body. We should take the health issue into concern. In the article “Why Genetically Engineered Food Should Be Labeled” written by Dr. Ron Epstein in SFSU in 1996, he claims “Most press reports of genetic engineering stress its incredible potential for good, mostly in terms of "conquering" disease.” For example, some kinds of strawberry have been genetically modified by adding some genes from peanut. Although those kinds are not as common, there is still a risk that someone who have peanut allergy will take that if it is not probably labeled. It will lead to a huge problem that involves health issues. Not only some allergy to certain kinds of food, some genes from plant that are used to produce pesticide, are inserted to some food under genetic engineering process. It is really discouraging for customers if they do not know the ingredients of the food they are eating and they are affected by those GMOs so badly. Therefore labeling of GM food can help them to be aware of those food allergy and other health issues.

      Genetic Engineered food should be labeled also because of the religious reason for some people. It is because the way to make GM food is to insert genes from animals or plants to another species. Therefore, for some people, like religious vegetarian, they will not eat food that has been modified by some genes from animal, insect or human. Due to genetic engineering, most of the physical nature of foods we can find in grocery store is changed. So if I am a vegetarian, when I go to grocery store and want to buy some food, can I still consider the plant I am looking is a plant? That may sounds weird, but it is true, imagine those food under genetic engineering are not labeled, with certain kinds of genes from different animals, people like Jews may be affected because they have restrictions on food.

Some people are against to the Proposition 37 focuses on the importance of the cost and farmers. From the website noprop37.com, they propose that if Proposition 37 passes, the state annual expense will raise few hundred dollars to $1 million dollars. However, does it mean we do not have the right to know what is going on with our food? No! I think if we are consumers, it is the best to know as much as we can when we are trying to buy something. In 40 other countries like China, most countries in Europe, has passed the law of requiring labels on GM food. Even though they passed the law, the price of food is not affected by the law. So what is the reason to proscribe people to know what they are eating? I think it is because some manufacturers say no to the law is because they know the fact that they will be deeply affected in certain ways like economic or reputation if the law passes. So they can keep their profit as much as possible.

It does not mean all GMOs are harmful to human body. Due to the success of genetic engineering on food, our food source are sufficient, also we have more nutrient food in our daily life. However, enhancing our understanding on food we are eating is really important. No one wants to be another victim under genetic engineering. As more and more countries has joined to propose law to disclose as much information on food for the public, why not United States?

Dark side of California

            California is the wonderland in many people’s heart. It is because you can fulfill your own dream here no matter who you are. In the song “Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP), they sing about their perspectives of California. For example, when you dream for success, somehow you might be undergoing “Californication”. In the song, RHCP talks about the California Dream, “And if you want these kind of dreams, It’s Californication.” Also the band talks about the dark side of the Hollywood and the export of culture through the movie industry. Red Hot Chili Peppers thinks California may not be as attractive as we know based on their song “Californication”.

            In the second stanza of the song, RHCP talks about the geographic settings of California. The song says, “It’s the edge of the world and all of western civilization.” The influences made by the California during its development from 1850s affected the whole world. Since the discovery of gold mines, population increased rapidly.  Natalie Merchant sings in her song “San Andrea Fault” about why people should go to California,” Go west, paradise is there…” The reason why California is called a “paradise” is because of the Gold Rush. It brings out an idea that California is the place for people to succeed if they are willing to. People with their own dream come to California and try to struggle for a bright future. As the number of people dreaming for success increases, it led to the largest voluntary migration in the western history.

And this rapid growth in population hastened the development of California. Although the Gold Rush ends in 1850s, this place still has a huge impact in everyone’s heart.

            Besides the California geographic settings, RHCP also mentions the people in California. Because of the uprising of Hollywood, its movie culture has affected many people. RHCP thinks people are so idealized in their thinking. There is a line talking about the idealization thought by people who are affected by the Hollywood movie industry, “Marry me girl be my fairy to the world. Be my very own constellation.” The musician use imagery in this line to let the reader to visualize the picture of their dream boy/girl and send out a message that people are not so realistic now. Moreover, the following line is talking about “A teenage bride with a baby inside getting high on information.” Due to the impact of the movie industry, people might think a young lady with a baby in the movie is true and they should follow it. More and more people followed the trend and the public started to concern on the problem. It led to many juvenile delinquent problems. According to the Harper’s in early 1955, it reported that California juvenile delinquent problem was “40 percent worse than the national average as the youth poured the state “by the thousands.”” It shows that teenagers in California have a really low sense on sex. According to a report in 2006 by Guttmacher Institute, they have compiled the teenage pregnancy statistic in the United States in 2000 and based on the data they had, they ranked the top ten states with highest teenager pregnancy and birth rates. California ranks no.5 in the United States in rates of pregnancy among woman age 15-19 (around 100 pregnancies per thousand).

            From the lines of the song, RHCP also express their opinion on California Dream. They use an example of a dream of some little girls to talk about the California Dream, “Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations, and if you want these kind of dream, it’s Californication.” In “California—A place, a People, a Dream,” James J. Rawls explains what is meant a California Dream,

“For most of us, the California Dream is simply a vision of the good life…Founded on expectation and hope, the California Dream promises to fulfill our deepest longings for opportunity and success, warmth, sunshine and beauty, health and long life, freedom, and even a foretaste of the future (CDR 23).”

The reason why we specify it is a California Dream is because California is the promised land. Since the Gold Rush in 1850s, the state represents as a land with full of opportunities and success.  Also the band points out that Hollywood, a historical center of movie studios and movie stars, sells those California Dreams.  However, from the wording used in the song, we can see that Hollywood has its dark side. It has led to so many problems. But why people still chasing the California Dream? It is because they saw many people succeed in the Golden State. So they work hard to achieve and make their dream come true – become a billionaire and gain position in the society. They will not think about the dark side of the state since it is overwhelmed by those successful stories of the celebrities from California like Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, or Leonardo DiCarprio, who became famous after starring the movie Titanic.

            Moreover, there are few lines in “Californication” shows Red Hot Chili Peppers’ perspective on the culture of California. The song talks a lot about the materialistic lifestyle in the state from the lines “pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging. Celebrity skin is this your chin or is what that war your waging” and “buy me a star on the boulevard.”  After the World War II, the development of California was accelerated. It resulted in search of a more luxurious way of life among people. People resist becoming old when they own so much. They want to be young forever and so they go for plastic surgery. In some sense, people want to be famous so they do the plastic surgery too. Californians love entertainment and they just enjoyed the luxury of leisure time and money to burn. Kirse Grant May, writer of “Suburban Eden,” use a sentence to explain the lifestyle in California, “new frontiers in living…the life that lures the East.” Obviously, the lifestyle in California did affect a lot to other parts of the United States. “California Fantasy” has affected those developers. They started to follow the Californian lifestyle’s footstep and build the cities that are closely identified with California. They just keep on spending more and more money on building resorts or focusing on some leisure projects rather than helping people who are in need or doing something meaningful.

           Despite those good things in California, Red Hot Chili Peppers has brought us into the world we do not know. This world is totally different from we have already known. Behind those glories, the state has a lot of dark sides, mostly from Hollywood. People just received the wrong message from it and doing something that is harmful for them. However, RHCP wrote the last stanza telling us even it is hard, if you try to change, think positively, you will create something good: “Destruction leads to a very rough road, but it also breeds creation.”