American History, are you interested in ?
Unit dos America -- the Melting Pot ?
Is the United States a melting pot ? In other words, have immigrants to the USA merged with the native Americans and ceased to be Germans, Japanese, Poles, Irish, etc. ? It has been suggested that a "pot of stew " might be a more suitable word than "melting pot", for in a stew the meat and vegetables keep their own characteristics, but thanks to the spices and the way it is cooked the stew has a distinctive flavor of its own.
The implications of "melting pot" disturb American social workers and language teachers, many of whom feel that racial and national groups should be encouraged to preserve their customs, traditions and language. At the same time it is agreed that all Americans, whatever their origins, must learn to speak English clearly and fluently, and that they must learn to adapt themselves to the American way of life.
However, there are ethnic groups who still stick together, who speak their own languages and have preserved man of their old customs. There are Hispanic communities, e.t. Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, most of whom still speak Spanish as their first language. There are the American Indians and various Asian groups, all of whom speak their own languages. Then there are the 20 million blacks who, though they speak English, for the most part live separately.
Many descendants of European immigrants have also stayed together in gtoups. Large numbers of the hundreds of thousands of Italians live together in neighborhoods which are predominantly Italian. There are large German and Irish neighborhoods in cities like Chicago, and German and Scandinavian farming communities on the Great Plains and in Michigan. The little city of Frankenmuth, Michigan, founded by German missionaries in 1840, still has a population which is about 90% German in origin. 50% of the people still speak German, and there are special German services in the Lutheran church every Sunday. With the exception of the Anglo - Saxons, the Germans are the largest ethnic group in USA. Americans of German ancestry have made a considerable contribution to their adoped land and have helped to enrich a distinctive American English language. It is a little known fact that there were already half a million Germans in American at the time of the American Revolution. The commanders- in - chief in both world wars were of German ancestry -- General Pershing in World War -- I and General Eisenhour in World War II. Some Irish Americans whose ancestors came to the USA in the middle of the 19th century still think of themselves as Irish, and still express their resentment of the British who treated them with such cruel indifference during the Great Potato Famine of 1848, when a half million Irish men, women, and children died of starvagion and neglect.
Many blacks are beginning to trace their roots right back to the African tribes from which their ancestors were torn in the days of slavery and some of them are identifying themselves more and more wirh Africa. Some black leaders disapprove, reminding them that their culture and their languages are not Africa. They are American.
The Oriental Americans have proved very successful immigrants, although between them they add up to less than 1% of the population. The Chinese in their Chinatowns are very self-contained and industrious. Japanese Americans were shamefully treated during World War II but have re-established themselves and have come to gain the respect and admiration of their own fellow Americans.
The pattern of immigration to the USA has been roughly as follows :
1820-1860: 5 million, mostly British, Irish and Germans.
1860-1920: 30 million, mostly mid -European and Russians.
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The make-up of the population in the USA has been roughly as follows:
1760: about 1.7 million ( mostly English, except for half million Germans )
1860: about 30 million (predominately English, Scottish and Irish).
1980: more than 210 million (probably less than 45% English , Scottish
and Irish ).
