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In Reply to: come again? posted by Acheick on December 13, 2005 at 14:50:57:
I do not believe that your family personally benefitted at the expense of African Americans, and my comment was not meant to be taken personally. If you read the article, it discusses the tension been immigrant groups who have been Americanized and the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, when there was an immigration peak. The article places this discussion in the context of the larger debate over multiculuralism versus Americanization.
Whether or not we've worked out immigration & acculturation issues successfully depends entirely on your perspective. Native Americans might be inclined to say we haven't. A number of African American scholars are inclined to say we haven't. I don't personally have an opinion on the matter; my only intent was to reference a viewpoint held by minority academics in the debate on multiculuralism in the United States.
Immigration levels have peaked and flattened out at various times over the 19th and 20th centuries. Immigration was relatively flat between 1940 and 1990 compared to the recent upsurge in the last 10-15 years, particularly in illegal immigration.
