America:
A Nation of Immigrants
An Examination of Ethnicities
in the United States
SM628: European Policy and Practice Towards Ethnic Minorities
Charles University, Prague
Presented by Valerie Nelson
December 2006
A History of Immigration


American Indians – 1600s
1st Wave of Immigrants – early 1800s



European
Ellis Island: 12 million immigrants from 1892 to
1924
2nd Wave of Immigrants – 1970


Hispanic
Asian
History of Blacks in America

Dred Scott decision – 1857



American Civil War – 1861 to 1865



Slavery led to economic, political, power issues
Emancipation Proclamation – 1862
 Abolished slavery
14th Amendment – 1868


No rights for slaves
Limited citizenship
Equal protection
Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896

Separate but equal
Civil Rights Movement


Arose in 1950s
Brown v. Board of Education – 1954


Martin Luther King, Jr.


“I have a dream…” speech
Civil Rights Act – 1964


Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
Equal Employment Opportunity: Equal rights, regardless of
race, gender, religion
Affirmative Action – 1970s

Apply with scrutiny - 1995
African American Icons
Activists / Politicians
 Sojourner Truth
 Ida B. Wells
 Frederick Douglass
 Thurgood Marshall
 Malcolm X
 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Intellectuals
 Langston Hughes
 Maya Angelou
 Toni Morrison
Entertainers
 Rosa Parks
 Sports
 Harriet Tubman
 Hank Aaron
 Jesse Jackson
 Jackie Joyner-Kersee
 Clarence Thomas
 Sugar Ray Leonard
 Colin Powell
 Jackie Robinson
 Condoleeza Rice
 Muhammad Ali
 Michael Jordan
 Tiger Woods
 Music
 Chubby Checker
 Miles Davis
 Sammy Davis, Jr.
 Nat King Cole
 Duke Ellington
 Jimi Hendrix
 Dizzy Gillespie
 Ray Charles
 Louis Armstrong
 Billie Holiday
 Chuck Berry
America’s Minorities Today

Hispanics


Blacks


39.7 million; 13%
Asian Americans


42.6 million; 14%
14.4 million; 5%
American Indians

4.5 million; 1.5%
Social Disparities

Education

Minority high school graduates versus Caucasian
(81%)




Blacks: 74%
American Indians: 76%
Asian Americans: 87%
Hispanics: 58%
Social Disparities

Economics

Blacks




American Indians



35% lower incomes versus Caucasians
25% at poverty level
Asian Americans



8% unemployment
40% lower incomes versus Caucasians
25% at poverty level
33% higher incomes versus national median
11% at poverty level
Hispanics


22% at poverty level
20% lower income versus national median
Social Disparities
Health

Blacks



24% on public insurance
Substantially higher at risk
American Indians


Various barriers to health care
Asian Americans



Substantially less at risk
Women have highest life expectancy of all US groups (85.8
yrs)
Hispanics


Barriers to health care
America, the ‘Melting Pot’


Early 1900s
Israel Zangwill

Play proposed “the promise that all immigrants
can be transformed into Americans, a new alloy
forged in a crucible of democracy, freedom and
civic responsibility.” (Booth 1998)
America, the ‘Melting Pot’

National motto: E pluribus unum


Making one out of many
Historical influences

Herman Melville


Ralph Waldo Emerson



Federation compounded of all tribes and people
“Smelting”
Included “all the European tribes … the Africans & the
Polynesians.”
John Quincy Adams

“Casting off the European skin, never to resume it”
America, the ‘Melting Pot’


The ‘hyphenated-American’
Political correctness – 1990s


Preservation of ethnic and cultural characteristics
No need for assimilation to merge with majority
America, the ‘Melting Pot’

Ethnical neighborhoods


NY, San Francisco, LA, Chicago
Labor market niches



Hispanics – domestic/manual labor
Koreans – small businesses
African Americans – business, politics
A Different Nation, Today

Test of the ‘Melting Pot’



2nd wave of immigrants bring varied cultures
Previously, greater consensus on ‘America’
Today, more emphasis on cultural roots
Demographic Shift


No one ethnic group – including whites of European
descent – will comprise a majority of the nation's
population (Booth 1998)
U.S. Census Bureau


Hispanics will likely surpass blacks early in 21st century
By 2050
 Hispanics: 25%
 Blacks: 14%
 Asians: 8%
 Whites: 53%
(Booth 1998)
The Future America
Separate, disconnected communities
1.

No sense of commonality
Modified pluralist society
2.


Core ideas of citizenship, capitalism
Little interaction
Sources
Booth, William. “The Myth of the Melting Pot.” The Washington Post. 22 February 1998. 28 November 2006.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0222.htm..>
“Melting Pot.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 28 November 2006. 30 November 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania.>
Smoler, Frederic. “What Should We Teach Our Children About American History?” American Heritage.com. Vol. 33, Issue 1, February/March
1992. 28 November 2006. <http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/1/1992_1_45.shtml.>
“Black History Month.” History.com. 2006. 28 November 2006. <http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory/.>
“American Civil War.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 1 December 2006. 1 December 2006.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War.>
“Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 1 December 2006. 1 December 2006.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution.>
“Statue of Liberty National Monument.” History.com. 2006. 28 November 2006. <http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=227261.>
“Immigration.” History.com. 2006. 28 November 2006. <http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=212582.>
“Minority Populations.” Office of Minority Health.” 28 November 2006. <http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=1&lvlID=5.>
Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Cycles of American History. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.
Biskupic, Joan, and Elder Witt. The Supreme Court & Individual Rights 3rd edition. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1997.