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

I have lived around and even among Spanish speaking people all my life - Never had a serious problem with the fact so many don't speak English and I don't speak Spanish.

I know, Mr. Hinteler, that certain parts of Mexico were annexed by the USA as a result of the war between the two countries that took place in the middle of the 19th century. In fact, this was in favor of the inhabitants of these areas: living standards in the USA are much higher than in Mexico, and, IMHO, they always were.
My question referred to the way Dyslexia depicted General Watts, as if this man was a kind of a warlord acting independently from any government and conquering any territories he wanted to.

At the outset of the Mexican War, President Polk asked General Stephen Watts Kearny to muster an army, and march 1,000 mile into the Southwest in order to claim that region for the United States. Along the way, he was to organize territorial governments. While the US did have legitimate ownership of the Louisiana Territory and the Alaska territory, the acquiston of the the southwest has a muddied history of manifest destiny, gold had been discovered, and land was there for the taking by force and thats what we did.

The Pilgrims that came off the Mayflower sure didn't look very waspy to me!

Dyslexia "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.

Steissd "My question referred to the way Dyslexia depicted General Watts, as if this man was a kind of a warlord acting independently from any government and conquering any territories he wanted to.

just what is it I depicted?

The Mexican-American War was the first major conflict driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny"; the belief that America had a God-given right, or destiny, to expand the country's borders from 'sea to shining sea'. This belief would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from Mexico, tensions between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the border lines sparked military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico. Not altogether different than Israel.

I meant that it was not General Watts that made a decision to invade any area, such decisions are usually made in the White House and approved on the Capitol Hill.
About sufferings: are you sure that your life would be better if New Mexico remained a Mexican territory? If so, why do so many Mexicans try to emigrate to the USA, and not vice versa (I do not mean American criminals that search refuge in Mexico)?

steissd

Fortunately or unfortunately -that depends on the personal point of view- no-one can write history back.
Thus, no-one knows. how the former Spanish territory, which is now US-American, would have looked like.

It's rather impossible that decissions were made in the White House and approved on Capitol Hill: the construction on this hallowed residence began in 1792 and ended amongst much patriotic fanfare in 1800.
In 1790 Congress decided Washington to become the US capital.

The first US capital was New York from 1789 to 1790). Washington's second inauguration took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (capital from 1790 to 1800).

HI!
I'm an italian student and I'm doing a research about the US as a Melting Pot for the university and about US linguistic and cultural minorities.
I got very interested in this forum and, since I've seen a lot of people who surely knows a lot for my research I wanted to ask y'all to write me something about the life as a minority culture in the states, like about the family life, the history and stuff...
I mean, y'all don't have to, but I'd be very glad if y'all do!
My e-mai address is [email protected]
Thank you.

It's interesting to see the exchange about the south-west of the US with our Spanish influence, but nobody has mentioned the whole of Mexico and South America. You want to talk Spanish influence? Most South American's speak Spanish. Yes, military conquest usually means cultural influence too. c.ii.

I don't think that USA was/is/ or will be
a Melting pot.

In a small movie from Yaoundé, Cameroon, in West Africa, two actors exchange the following lines en français (in French):

- Les Noirs en Amérique... (The Blacks in America...)
- Y'a pas de Noirs en Amérique... (There are no Blacks in America...)
- Comment, y'a pas de Noirs en Amérique? (How's that, there are no Blacks in America?)
- Ben non, y'a que des africo-américains! (Well no, there are only African Americans!)

Now, these lines were pronounced by true African Africans (there are no Blacks there either, at least from our American perspective). I guess, PC has yet to reach Yaoundé. But then, thinking of it, it dawned upon me that we have erased all colors from our citizenry. No more Blacks but African Americans; no more café au lait (coffee with milk) people but
Mexican Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Chinese Americans or Native Americans. Brown is an unwelcomed color, to say the least.

No, no, do not look for any possible inference that would raise the thought of an ugly head, the racist beast, in your mind.
None. After all, we also have
Irish Americans,
Italian Americans,
Polish Americans, and the like, in America; that is, for the most part, Caucasian (we do not say white) Americans.
There is no inference here; no inference to the contrary and no contrary to the inference;
only that we have a lot of qualified Americans in America;
and that we go the extra mile to become colorblind. Colors have disappeared from the American landscape.

Martians, grasping with difficulty the subtleties of all these qualifiers, fail to perceive how come, in America, African Americans attend religious services on Sundays in "Black Churches". Sorry, this certainly was an unfair digression. What do Martians know anyway? And are there Martian Americans in America? Perhaps not, but the way it goes we must have over one hundred and fifty "qualifying adjective Americans"!

Add to these the American Gays and Lesbians, the insert-any-religion-you-like Americans, the Americans with disabilities, the
Americans this and the Americans that (do we have pony tail Americans?) and through endless meandering a simple question emerges:
Do American Americans exist in America?

I would like to know.
Could someone who is an American with no qualifier before or after send me an e-mail with a picture. I should want to see the difference...

in color!

http://www.swans.com/library/art2/ga021.html

"I Have a Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"
"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual."
"The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community, must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For many of our white brothers as evident by their presence here today have come to realize that their freedom is bound to our freedom."
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."
"This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring"when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children"black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics"will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/I+Have+a+Dream

Today is 28th aug 2008. 45 years had elapsed.
He was an American and his dream was American Dream or Dreams of American.
Let us strive hard to make this evasive dream a reality.
Rama

Our children are forth generation Americans, and they know very little about Japan, its language, and culture.

Ci
the whole world understand the unfulfilled DREAMS and
dead against the american DEMOCRACY:
U nited state of Amnesia is a sentense not from me but a die hard conservatve

let those intellectual journalists show some gut to concentrate the basic problems which are aplenty..
But i am fed up to read all the fine embeded potatoes.

Replying to fbaezer from almost six years ago (aiiiiieeee, six years!)



I remember that, we had some talks about it. My core group of girlfriends (the smart ass group, SAG) was its own ethnic soup, and the chicanas were called "pocha" whenever one of them went to Mexico.

it is not my duty to show the pathetic flag. But i am active to expose the hypocracy.
Here is one person who speak my english

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹



I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.



And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³