LaVar Hosting Jeopardy July 26-30 Stan Account 👁

18/The newcomer groups don't submerge their identities or engage in self-repressive conformity. But for this reason, over time their culture blends with that of the liberal natives who welcome them into the fold.

19/The liberal natives' culture and the newcomers' cultures become more like each other. They merge over 2 or 3 generations into a new thing. An amalgam.

20/And THAT, my friends, is ACTUAL assimilation. Not the nativists' fantasy of submissive conformity. Rather, a process of INTEGRATION. Of cultural (and eventually, physical) blending into a new and unified whole.

21/Integration doesn't happen because anyone consciously pushes for it (except maybe the military). It happens naturally. Without barriers to actively keep them apart, neighbors tend to become one people.

22/Meanwhile, the nativists who shout over and over that they want "assimilation" don't actually want the real thing. They want a fantasy version (or, better yet, to simply kick newcomers out).

23/So all the nativists' worry over multiculturalist rhetoric causing cultural balkanization is WAY overblown. But what WILL really happen is that for better or worse, native culture will change as it blends with that of the newcomers.

24/Integration - a better word than assimilation - is a two-way street. And it happens quite naturally. And multiculturalist rhetoric doesn't prevent it - if anything, it speeds it up. This is the future. It's happening very rapidly. (end)

Still need an explanation of why this has never worked for black people. And I suppose I'd prefer to believe the dividing line is race rather than simply black or not-black, but...