I agree with Ashley when she writes that being culturally anonymous isn’t necessarily being a better American. In the Kasinitz article, the author mentions that many of the respondents termed themselves as “New Yorkers” rather as “Americans”. This is because, like Greg says, many people still link the term “American” with the Caucasian population in America, especially the ones that they most commonly see on television. Yet, the concluding sentence of the Kasinitz article argues that being a “New Yorker” is essentially being an “American”. And in New York, many of the people are not culturally anonymous. A lot of New Yorkers are aware that they come from immigrants, no matter how far back, and they often identify themselves with their family background, hence all the hyphens mentioned in the posts below (i.e. Irish-American, Italian-America, etc.)
In fact, I think that the definition of being an American, like being a New Yorker, is interacting with the different cultures that exist in America, as well as identifying with your own. Like Ashley and many people mentioned, America is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. Many of the immigrants who come retain their language and customs. A lot of them do not melt completely into one. As Walzer mentioned in the article, the oneness is political, but the many is cultural. Assimilating to American culture does not mean changing every custom and habit, because being American usually means having some ethnic.
From the English on the Mayflower to the immigrants today, all of America’s history has to do with immigrants. In contrast with earlier years, I think there is less pressure for more recent immigrants to assimilate, since the term “American” and American culture is changing to mean identifying with ancestral roots. I think this is especially true in New York City, where immigrants and their children make up the majority of the population. I find it very interesting how a new hybrid minority culture is forming, as mentioned in the Kasinitz article. The inevitable interaction between the different groups of the second generations created a new culture, or rather, it is acting to redefine American culture as it was seen a few decades ago. This interaction is essentially “American”.
