America: A Nation of Immigrants

1
AmericaA 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

2
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

3
History of Blacks in America

• Dred Scott decision 1857
• No rights for slaves
• Limited citizenship
• American Civil War 1861 to 1865
• Slavery led to economic, political, power issues
• Emancipation Proclamation 1862
• Abolished slavery
• 14th Amendment 1868
• Equal protection
• Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
• Separate but equal

4
Civil Rights Movement

• Arose in 1950s
• Brown v. Board of Education 1954
• Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• I have a dream speech
• Civil Rights Act 1964
• Equal Employment Opportunity Equal rights,
  regardless of race, gender, religion
• Affirmative Action 1970s
• Apply with scrutiny - 1995

5
African American Icons

• Activists / Politicians
• Sojourner Truth
• Ida B. Wells
• Frederick Douglass
• Thurgood Marshall
• Malcolm X
• Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Entertainers
• Sports
• Hank Aaron
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• Sugar Ray Leonard
• Jackie Robinson
• Muhammad Ali
• Michael Jordan
• Tiger Woods
• Music
• Chubby Checker
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Duke Ellington
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Louis Armstrong
• Chuck Berry

• Rosa Parks
• Harriet Tubman
• Jesse Jackson
• Clarence Thomas
• Colin Powell
• Condoleeza Rice

• Intellectuals
• Langston Hughes
• Maya Angelou
• Toni Morrison

• Miles Davis
• Nat King Cole
• Jimi Hendrix
• Ray Charles
• Billie Holiday

6
Americas Minorities Today

• Hispanics
• 42.6 million 14
• Blacks
• 39.7 million 13
• Asian Americans
• 14.4 million 5
• American Indians
• 4.5 million 1.5

7
Social Disparities

• Education
• Minority high school graduates versus Caucasian
  (81)
• Blacks 74
• American Indians 76
• Asian Americans 87
• Hispanics 58

8
Social Disparities

• Economics
• Blacks
• 8 unemployment
• 40 lower incomes versus Caucasians
• 25 at poverty level
• American Indians
• 35 lower incomes versus Caucasians
• 25 at poverty level
• Asian Americans
• 33 higher incomes versus national median
• 11 at poverty level
• Hispanics
• 22 at poverty level
• 20 lower income versus national median

9
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

10
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)

11
America, the Melting Pot

• National motto E pluribus unum
• Making one out of many
• Historical influences
• Herman Melville
• Federation compounded of all tribes and people
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Smelting
• Included all the European tribes the Africans
  the Polynesians.
• John Quincy Adams
• Casting off the European skin, never to resume
  it

12
America, the Melting Pot

• The hyphenated-American
• Political correctness 1990s
• Preservation of ethnic and cultural
  characteristics
• No need for assimilation to merge with majority

13
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

14
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

15
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)

16
The Future America

• Separate, disconnected communities
• No sense of commonality
• Modified pluralist society
• Core ideas of citizenship, capitalism
• Little interaction

17
Sources

• Booth, William. The Myth of the Melting Pot.
  The Washington Post. 22 February 1998. 28
  November 2006. lthttp//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
  srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0222.htm..gt
• Melting Pot. Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia. 28 November 2006. 30 November
  2006. lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania.gt
• Smoler, Frederic. What Should We Teach Our
  Children About American History? American
  Heritage.com. Vol. 33, Issue 1, February/March
  1992. 28 November 2006. lthttp//www.americanheri
  tage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/1/1992_1_45.sht
  ml.gt
• Black History Month. History.com. 2006. 28
  November 2006. lthttp//www.history.com/minisites/b
  lackhistory/.gt
• American Civil War. Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia. 1 December 2006. 1 December 2006.
  lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War.
  gt
• Fourteenth Amendment to the United States
  Constitution. Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia. 1 December 2006. 1 December 2006.
  lthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendmen
  t_to_the_United_States_Constitution.gt
• Statue of Liberty National Monument.
  History.com. 2006. 28 November 2006.
  lthttp//www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId
  227261.gt
• Immigration. History.com. 2006. 28 November
  2006. lthttp//www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?arti
  cleId212582.gt
• Minority Populations. Office of Minority
  Health. 28 November 2006. lthttp//www.omhrc.gov/t
  emplates/browse.aspx?lvl1lvlID5.gt
• Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Cycles of American
  History. New York Houghton Mifflin Company,
  1999.