Homogenization
In spite of "endless talk of difference,"
American society is an amazing machine
for homogenizing people.
There is "the democratizing uniformity of
dress and discourse, and the casualness
and absence of deference"
characteristic of popular culture.
People are absorbed into
"a culture of consumption" launched by
the 19th-century department stores that offered
"vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere.
Instead of intimate shops catering
to a knowledgeable elite"
these were stores "anyone could enter,
regardless of class or background.
This turned shopping into a public and democratic act."
The mass media, advertising and sports
are other forces for homogenization.
Immigrants are quickly fitting into
this common culture, which may not be altogether
elevating but is hardly poisonous.
Writing for the National Immigration Forum,
Gregory Rodriguez reports that today's immigration
is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to on.
In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of the population;
in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990,
3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents;
in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000.
Now, consider three indices of assimilation
---language, home ownership and intermarriage.
The 1990 Census revealed that
"a majority of immigrants from each of
the fifteen most common countries
of origin spoke English 'well' or 'very well'
after ten years of residence."
The children of immigrants tend to
be bilingual and proficient in English.
"By the third generation, the original language
is lost in the majority of immigrant families."
Hence the description of America
as a "graveyard" for languages.
By 1996 foreign-born immigrants
who had arrived before 1970
had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent,
higher than the 69.8 percent rate
among native-born Americans.
Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics
"have higher rates of intermarriage
than do U.S.-born whites and blacks."
By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women
are married to non-Hispanics,
and 41 percent of Asian-American women
are married to non-Asians.
Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages
around the world are fans of superstars
like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks,
yet "some Americans fear that immigrants
living within the United States remain
somehow immune to the nation's assimilative power."
Are there divisive issues
and pockets of seething anger in America?
Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything.
But particularly when viewed against
America's turbulent past, today's social indices
hardly suggest a dark
and deteriorating social environment.