Race and Ethnicity in the US
The American Melting Pot: A
Theoretical
Introduction
Three Types of Minority
Integration
Amalgamtion Formula: A+B+C= D
Assimilation
Formula: A+B+C=A
Accomodation
Formula: A+B+C=A+B+C
The American Ideal: The Melting
Pot
Amalgamation Formula: A+B+C=D
Where various groups combine to create
something new. e.g. “hyphenated Americans”
Crevecoeur
quote –
What
is an American? He is
either a European, or the descendant of a European; hence that strange
mixture of blood which you will find in no other country. …Here
individuals
of all nations are melted into a new race for me, whose labors and
posterity
will one day cause great changes in the world.
The
Melting Pot play by Israel Zangwill
(British)
Here you stand good folk, think I, when
I see you at Ellis Island, here you stand, in your fifty groups, with
your
fifty languages and histories, and your fifty hatreds and
rivalries.
But you won’t be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of
God
you come to…Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and English, Jew and
Russians,
into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American!
…the real American has not yet arrived…He will be the fusion of all
races,
perhaps the coming superman (56)
Note the references to
God, future, change
in the world – progress? Power?
Has “the American” been yet born?
Did we melt?
If not, what other
formulas can you derive
to describe the relation of groups in the U.S.??