The USA - Is it still the "melting pot"?

You are so right c.i.!

Found this very interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor:

The So-called Foreign Vote

I know. But I am celebrating what came after.

It's truly hard to think of the USA as a melting pot, when the inner cities are primarily black and Latino , whereas the suburbs are lilly-white.

I mentioned on a prior thread, that at the University level, diversity of groups is sought by administration by admitting Asians, Blacks, whites and Latinos. Put all these kids together in a 300 seat auditorium for a course lecture and what do we have?

All the Italians sit together. All the Koreans sit together. All the Blacks sit together...etc, etc. Same thing happens during the lunch period and also after school.

So, diversity looks good on paper, but means nothing in real life.

There is no MELTING...There are mainly PACKETS of diverse groups...

New Haven, You need to look at the long term picture. When we were kids, we didn't see as many intermarriages as we do today. That is a somewhat slow, but real trend in the makeup of Americans. If, in my 67 years of life in the US, we didn't see this progress, I would probably conclude our country was not a melting pot. When we were kids, there was not a thought that we would marry outside our culture/race, but today, our children have married without any restrictions into other cultures/race, and I'm talking about the majority of our children. That to me is a huge progress, and I do not see a reversal of that trend - irregardless of what is observed on school campuses. c.i.

I can remember when most of CHicago was completely white. Now most of the inner city is Black with packets of Latinos distributed throughout.
Never have I seen an integrated section of Chicago. Whites moved out when Blacks moved in.

Why no melting?

Good news for the melting pot from S. GA.

Over the past decade, our little black and white area has become increasingly brown.

A huge influx of Mexicans migrated here to do the difficult agricultural work.

At first, they were reviled. Many locals have since instituted new programs to aid these hardworking immigrants. Many editorials trumpeting the ills of racism and promoting the appreciated spot they are filling in our agricultural economy have been written...

Things are really improving. They are being taught English, and we, in increasing numbers are learning Spanish. It is really working. Mexican food outlets are all over, and Spanish as a second language classes are full, in school and the local community college.

Your description of university classes sounds very odd to me, New Haven. I started university over 25 years ago - a very diverse student body - a very mixed looking classroom - mixed looking restaurants - dorms etc. Is it really that different in the U.S. ?

beth - it depends on where in the US you're talking about.

I don't know about your area, but I do know about NYCity.

This is a good indicator for the orignial question in this thread. The "Foreign Language Information Service" which is listed in that 1928 article as a group that "exists for no political purpose other than the endeavor to supply United States newspapers published in foreign tongues with material which may aid in the further Americanization of their readers" doesn't even exist any more and I would guess that most of those 850 newspapers they surveyed back in 1928 don't exist any more either.

My impression (well, I am a foreigner, but the majority of media I read and watch are the American ones) is that the USA is gradually transforming into bilingual country with Spanish gaining more and more influence with time. I do not think that this is in favor of the country. This may lead to division of the nation into two distinct groups of population having minimum contact with each other, and even lead to separatist movements emerging in different large ethnic communities.
I have nothing against Spanish culture, but IMHO, it must be a supplementary to the dominating Anglo-Saxon one (historically, USA is a country of WASPs, and all the others are guests), and every permanent resident or citizen must master English as his/her first language (I do not mean the first generation of immigrants, but English must be a native tongue of their kids and grandchildren). Different ethnic cultures have rights for existence, but not on the expense of complete integration of the ethnic community members into the American society, and their transformation from Mexicans, Chinese or Indians (I mean those from India) into Americans (I mean the U.S. version of Americans).

(historically, USA is a country of WASPs, and all the others are guests),
um well Santa Fe, New Mexico was a capitol city before the Pigrims landed at Plymouth Rock not to mention St Augustine in Florida. So unless you'r defining New England as the US you have a bit of an error as to our history.

Was New Mexico a part of any independent country by the time you mentioned, or it was just a colony of Spain? As far as I remember, New Mexico was not a part of the USA in 1776, it was attached in the middle of 19th century; by this time the USA was an English-speaking country.

Santa Fe was a capitol city of what was then known as Califia-which comprised what is now California, Nevada, Arizona, southern Colorado, New Mexico.

Capital city? Of which country? Was this country independent or Santa Fe was an administrative center of some possession of the Spanish crown?

Santa Fe was founded in 1610 as a Spanish territory capitol city which it remained for 236 years until US General Watts invaded the area and claimed it a US Territory in 1846.

OK, so now it is a city in the USA; therefore people there should be English-speaking. If they know any other languages in addition, this is only in their favor, this enriches their world. If it was upon me, I would establish an official language in every country in the world (Russian in Russia, U.S. version of English in the USA, Arabic in Iraq, Mandarin in China, etc.) and only the people that have a good command of such a language should be enfranchised.
By the way, did General Watts act on his own responsibility, or he fulfilled commands of the U.S. Administration?

steissd

That time was called "The Mexican American War".

Steissed,

Both English and a local version of Spanish have long currency in this area. Native Southwesterners don't generally have any problem with that. Most Anglos speak at least a little Spanish, and it's rare to find anyone who can't handle day-to-day business conducted in English. We also have here a sizable community of Indians who generally speak their own languages as well as English and some Spanish.

I think most of the problems are outside our region. Spanish speakers who have recently entered the United States often go into Yankee country where the distance between languages and culture are much more pronounced.

so when a nation or territory is captured by military strength, it should abolish the indigenous language? and yes the peoples of califia are multi-lingual which can not be said for the majority of US citizens.