01:920:108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Melting Pot, Symbolic Ethnicity, Herbert J. Gans
15 May 2018
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Student presentations today on the Sakai articles
a.
The option of being able to not claim any ethnic identity exists for Whites of European descent in the U.S.
because they are the majority group.
b.
Symbolic ethnicity→coined by Herbert Gans→to refer to ethnicity that is individualistic in nature and without
real social cost for the individual (these symbolic identifications are essentially leisure-time activities, rooted in
nuclear family traditions and reinforced by the voluntary enjoyable aspects of being ethnic.
c.
Ages 18-22: when people leave home and live independently→report a heightened sense of racial and ethnic
identity→one comes into contact with many people who are different from oneself, so the individual realizes
the ways in which their background may influence their individual personality.
d.
Blacks and other minority groups tend to hold closer to their identities and ethnicities.
e.
Cost associated with symbolic ethnicity→Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and American
Indians do not have the option of symbolic ethnicity at present in the U.S.
i.
Issue→not all ethnicities are equal→White Americans obscure the fact that the experiences of Whites
and non-Whites have been qualitatively different in the U.S.
f.
The symbolic ethnic tends to think that all groups are equal; everyone has a background worth celebrating and
to pass onto their children.
g.
Ancestry and relatives--> influence choice of friends (peer group), who you marry, your values, etc.
1.
Optional Ethnicities (Sakai article)
a.
Melting pot = various groups equally contribute to create a common culture in a society.
b.
Steinberg (the author of this article) argues--> “new immigrants are not only assimilating but are doing so at an
even faster rate than did earlier immigrants from Europe”.
i.
Color line defined by W.E.B. DuBois--> “slavery was over but the ‘color line’ remained a problem”--> racial
segregation was prevalent in public facilities (such as schools, housing market).
ii.
“Blacks today earn only three-fifths as much as Whites”
iii.
“Black and White Americans are as residentially segregated as ever...middle-class blacks also encounter
pervasive discrimination in housing, and their arrival into white suburbs usually triggers white flight,
resulting in resegregation”
c.
Regarding the color line, the author states that America’s melting pot has not included blacks in the process.
d.
The U.S. currently does not seem to be a melting pot, but new immigrants over time might assimilate at a faster
pace than their predecessors, but only time and history will dictate the degree of assimilation in groups and
which groups will refuse to assimilate.
i.
Because of ghettoization---> helped to assimilate other minority groups except African Americans
ii.
Culture--> chose 2 aspects not conflicting with dominant culture
iii.
Black culture integrated in everyday life of African Americans
e.
What are the reasons African Americans were excluded from the Melting Pot?
2.
"The Melting Pot and the Color Line.” (Sakai article)
i.
This results in "colorblind ideology in the sense that Asian Americans’ ‘success’ is used to deny the
existence of institutional racism and to ‘prove’ that U.S. society is reasonably fair and open for racial
minority groups to move up the social ladder’’
a.
The model minority image of Asian Americans as ‘‘successful,’’ ‘‘hardworking,’’ ‘‘subservient,’’ and ‘‘passive’’
people.
b.
Labeling--> reduces a person to a stereotype and does not recognize the differences among generations of
immigrants
c.
Model minority group--> fulfills self-fulfilling prophecy
d.
At the same time, persons must alter, shape, and or reinforce their sense of subjectivity according to how
others relate to them in a particular environment.
3.
"Negotiating the Model Minority Image: Performative Aspects of College-Educated Asian American Professional
Men.” (Sakai article)
Lecture: Day 11
Thursday, February 22, 2018
5:14 PM
Minority Groups in American Society Page 1
