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When I was working in hospice in Seattle, there was an older Native man there who took a shine to me. One of his first questions: "Is your family Scandanavian?" "Yeah, we're ethnic Sami from Northern Sweden." "Ha, I knew it. You're built like me: you have a big, long body, but shorter legs and arms... we're like that to keep the heat trapped in us in cold climates." He was from an Alaskan tribe.
The human race is a fascinating thing
Exactly. Diverse populations or mixed populations. And each looks different and sometimes different populations can resemble each other.
Your post demonstrates the complexity and beauty and infinite variety of the human race!
When I was working in hospice in Seattle, there was an older Native man there who took a shine to me. One of his first questions: "Is your family Scandanavian?" "Yeah, we're ethnic Sami from Northern Sweden." "Ha, I knew it. You're built like me: you have a big, long body, but shorter legs and arms... we're like that to keep the heat trapped in us in cold climates." He was from an Alaskan tribe.
In a lot of countries, e.g. China, there is a lot of indigenous diversity. For example, ethnic Mongols, ethnic Hmong-Miao, etc. This kind of diversity is due to 1) being conquered or at least encapsulated as borders expanded and hence a citizen subject to the state and 2) the group moving en masse into the country, without recognition of borders.
In the U.S. it is quite different. Although we did have a large amount of indigenous diversity, a lot of those inhabitants died off, either because of diseases they weren't resistant to (e.g. Smallpox) or because of more-or-less violent confrontation with the settlers. Many of those that did not die were sent to boarding schools and the like. As a result, "American Indian" culture, which once was in fact many cultures, was partially homogenized. Do you think groups in California and Minnesota had similar pow-wows, or that they all ate frybread?
Also, the U.S. (in contrast to some parts of Mexico) was rather sparsely inhabited before the arrival of the white man. Whites and black slaves quickly took over the landscape.
Whites arrived in waves of emigration from all over Europe - Italy, German, Sweden, Poland, Ireland, England, wherever. They often spoke their own language, lived in ethnic neighborhoods (or in the case of the Finns and Germans, settled on their own large plots of land), went to the ethnic churches, etc. By the third generation, though, they were often fully Americanized, speaking English and having little or no knowledge of the ancestral tongue. This largely happened through ethnic mixing and moving out of ethnic ghettos or the farm to "nicer" urban and suburban neighborhoods.
The change was also provoked by pressure from the government, schools, and other institutions of society. Government social workers regrettably entered homes of recent Italian immigrants and suggested that they adopt a more "American" diet; speaking German could have negative consequences during WW1 and WW2; etc. The result was a gradual assimilation into a homogenized American culture. I have roots in Finland, Ireland, Germany, Poland, among other countries, but I identify myself as an American and speak English and Spanish. A few vestiges of my ancestry emerge mainly at holidays, such as eating pickled herring, but those are regrettably dying out. Some evidence of the roots of people from my region, though, remain: every Christmas our local meat market advertises "Sylta" and I can see traces of such things as a allemannsratten and janteloven in our local culture. Although now mixed, a local church still has the name of donors printed in Polish on its beautiful stained glass windows.
We can see this occurring right now with the crop of immigrants that have came in since immigration laws were again liberalized in the 1960's, especially in more diverse states where no one glances twice at a couple whose roots lie completely apart. The reasons are similar to those that pressured my ancestors to assimilate, although the government does not force it. If one wants to be successful in the modern-day world, they have to speak English. Also, successful people usually live in the same neighborhoods, so that there is a lot of exposure to the American middle-class and its values.
Compare this to Europe, which once consisted of hundreds of regional groups, each speaking their own language or dialect, having their own clothing type (at least among the working people), and their own customs, united only by their religion and perhaps a vague Western tradition. The unification of states up to the 19th century and the introduction of mass media in the 20th century (incompletely) homogenized these people into Italians, French, Germans, Russians, etc. Some "minorities" existed all along, though, such as one of my ancestors, who, an ethnic Swede, came from Finland.
Europe has a lot less experience with recent immigration than the U.S. (even though some European countries actually have a higher % of foreign born), and the groups that arrive are often harder to assimilate than those that came to the U.S. 100 or 200 years ago.
^ you can't compare America, whose population were overwhelmingly immigrants in the last hundred years, to China or European countries whose native cultures still remain relative intact (although there was of course a lot of conquest etc).
^ you can't compare America, whose population were overwhelmingly immigrants in the last hundred years, to China or European countries whose native cultures still remain relative intact (although there was of course a lot of conquest etc).
Actually everywhere around the world has received and been immensely impacted by immigrants and immigration!
My school district had students of 80 different languages. The biggest racial 'rivalries' in my school were American Blacks vs. Jamaicans, Jamicans vs. Nigerians, and Italian-Americans vs. Albanians. So yeah, I would say there is some nuance in regard to ethnicity in America.
Europe has a lot less experience with recent immigration than the U.S. (even though some European countries actually have a higher % of foreign born), and the groups that arrive are often harder to assimilate than those that came to the U.S. 100 or 200 years ago.
What experience are you talking about ? Europe is full of migration movement since its beginning, many peaceful and many bloody ones. But immigration and emigration are in the European blood.
Just to name one example : more than 5 millions French have an Italian ancestor, being maximum the third generation. And you'll have a hard time noticing this while speaking with them, they are fully integrated.
You are maybe talking about experience with non European immigration which is true. But the US doesn't have much more experience about this but with some Asian communities.
The difference would be that Americans were from the beginning a non-white only country. So people couldn't and can't expect someone to be an immigrant only from their skin color.. Which facilitate integration. And this is completely true. But this is not what I would call experience.
diversity is practiced in france and quebec. however the tolerance of bad behavior committed is much lower in france and quebec. i fear that american tolerance of inappropriate behavior has been taxed to the maximum. if people are to remain in diversity they must be more respectful of each other. too many are being asked too often to overlook behavior.
No! Also it depends on how one defines diverse and diversity.
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