Remix reading pgs 84-126

Have you ever started a new job and while preparing your workstation, you decided to get ideas from the other workstations of how you may want your workstation to be setup?
This is a form of assismilation, to absorb another culture, group, etc.
We may say that we are free thinkers and that we do not conform to the likes of others, but we have a tendency to incorporate these likes and beliefs of others into our daily lives without giving it a conscious thought that we are doing it. We ask where someone bought there shoes? What manufacturer did they choose for their windows? Even, what is the best way to cook a certain dish?
Whether we purposely try to "fit in", or if we are just finding a better way of getting through a task. We are in some form assimilating something or someone. Sometimes there is no way to get around it. For example, the new housing developments that are popping up everywhere. The associations expect the occupants to adhere to a certain uniformity, such as, no dramatic differences in the house set up that may take away from the overall look of the houses, and mailboxes that are identical.
This is all related to how we infuse our lifestyles to coincide with those around us. There has been a few occassions that I've been told that I act like a white person, because of who my fiance' is, and my variety of friends. As if, allowing the dog to sleep in the bed is only something that white people are known for doing, or that black people should not camp, or go tubing.
Assimilation does not have to be seen as something that is negative. It opens the door to experience activities and characteristics that may have been overlooked if we did not say "what the hell, what's the harm in trying it out".
Rodriguez spoke of being Chinese, because he lived in a Chinese city and he wanted to be Chinese. I interpreted this to mean that he was around that way of living and therefore, identifed with the culture, and wanted to incorporate it into how he wanted to live.
Personally, I just want to put aside all the things that people focus on that make us different, and embrace the differences that make us the same. We all have things that we value, and hopefully some type of morals that are developed through our families and friends. We should not use these things to separate us from others, but as tools to help us understand those who live by different values and morals.
I like going out on the boat, camping in tents, and even going up north for the weekend. If this makes me an absorber of a culture that is not my own, I'm cool with that. What kind of a melting pot would we be, if no one ever stirred up the contents?