Race and ethnicity  (Page 8/22)

THE NEW COLOSSUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land,

Here at our sea-washed, sunset-gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame.

‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she,

With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’ (External Link)

an invitation to all the peoples of all nations to come to America and to take part in her great promise. Unfortunately, that promise has not materialized for millions of immigrants.

There have been, throughout our history, many times when one’s ancestry, country of origin, method of migration, or religion marked one as being so different from “real” Americans that discrimination, both de jure De jure discrimination is discrimination that is supported by laws. It is legal and legally enforced discrimination. and de facto , De facto discrimination is discrimination that exists in fact even when that discrimination is illegal. The kind of structural discrimination—discrimination based on the racism inherent in the American social structure—that is so prevalent in America today. was the order of the day. How well people fit into whatever the dominant culture values as normative is often a key to their position in the stratification hierarchy. When immigrant populations are taken into account the dominant culture attempts to force new immigrants to assimilate—become thoroughly Americanized—as quickly as possible. Assimilation is the process by which a racial or ethnic minority loses its distinctive identity and lifeways and conforms to the cultural patterns of the dominant group. It is submerging one’s self into the melting pot of American society. There are two kinds of assimilation cultural and structural. Cultural assimilation concerns values, behaviors, beliefs, language, clothing styles, religious practices, and foods; whereas structural assimilation concerns social interaction in clubs, neighborhoods, friendship, marriage (primary structural assimilation), and parity in access to and accumulation of the goods of society (wealth power and status) measured by SES and political power (secondary structural assimilation).

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,

is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

Professor Gates is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American Studies and Africana Studies, and of The Root, an online news magazine dedicated to coverage of African American news, culture, and genealogy.

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