Whenever the talk of immigration and “what generation of American are you” arises, I always feel it is hard to pinpoint where my family and I fit in. Going by my father’s paternal side, I would be a sixth generation American. My great, great, great grandfather was an Irish Catholic immigrant who arrived in America right before the Civil War. His son would go on to be one of the many European immigrants who worked on the Holland Tunnel. On my mother’s side though, my grandfather emigrated from Italy to America in the 1940s. These familial ties really give me an outsider’s perspective on many of the topics mentioned throughout the three articles, mainly because I am so far removed from the effects of immigration and assimilation. The only connection I do have is that on both my parent’s sides, surnames that were too complicated were changed. I don’t have any experience with a giving up or blending of culture (depending on your point of view) since my ethnic background isn’t too close to me. When I am asked what I consider my background to be, I usually just say American.

I think my lack of background plays into what my definition of “a melting pot” is. Unlike the many attackers in the Vecoli article, I never felt a “melting pot” meant that many unique cultures were melted down to try to create one assimilated culture. Like a classmate had also mentioned, I always felt a melting pot was more of a stew, where all these different cultures would meet and exchange ideas and celebrations, further enriching each unique one. My interpretation is not based on any personal experience of my own, but more on what I have seen. Growing up in Brooklyn, I was never under the impression that certain peoples kept to themselves. I felt there were always exchanges between many different people with many different backgrounds happening on every block that I walked down. A great example of this is illustrated by Avenue U, a street that runs along through a large part of Brooklyn. If you travel far enough down Avenue U, you can see many different cultures coexisting; English storefronts shift to Chinese storefronts which continue to shift to Russian storefronts. It truly is a sight to see.

Something that caught my attention in the Nancy Foner article was how many different culturally distinct neighborhoods are only minutes away from where I live. I live in a small neighborhood in south Brooklyn that contains people of mostly Irish, Italian, German and Jewish descent. Meanwhile, a few blocks away is the neighborhood of Flatbush, which contains a large community of peoples with different Caribbean cultures. Also right near me are the neighborhoods of Sheepshead Bay and Brighton beach. According to the article, both of these neighborhoods have large communities of Russian Jews, many of which helped change and revitalize large sections of the neighborhood. I knew about these neighborhoods well before this class, but I never saw them as culturally distinct. The Russian pool halls of Brighton Beach and the “West Indian network of privatized passenger vans,” more commonly known as Dollar Vans, always felt like the normal blend of culture that is Brooklyn, New York.