In chapter two of Three Worlds of Relief by Cybelle Fox, the author writes about three major groups of people who faced discrimination during the late 1800s to about the 1930’s. The three groups were blacks, Mexicans, and southern and eastern European Immigrants. Despite all three facing many challenges, these groups of people lived in separate distinctive regions of the United States with varying political, race, and labor characteristics. Therefore, Fox declares that each group of people might as well be from three different worlds (Fox 19 & 20). A generally accepted social construction of the time was society’s definitions of race and color. Historically, these two words had distinct definitions. Race was considered to be biologically
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Many different organizations and the government’s involvement played an important role in the Americanization of immigrants. Fox writes:
“The forces at work in encouraging the political incorporation of European immigrants were many. Political machines, churches, unions, public officials, schools, and settlement houses used a range of methods, including the payment of naturalization fees, persuasion, paternalistic admonitions, material and symbolic incentives, and even threats and compulsion.” (37)
Americanization forced people to live the life natural U.S. citizens expected of them, which forced many people to abandon their culture. For example the Germans had to quit speaking their native language (Fox 36). Therefore, this challenges the assumption that the American melting pot is a positive quality of American culture (Fox 36). To begin with, despite this process of assimilation into society, European immigrants, the group that faced the least amount of discrimination, continued to be on the receiving end of inequality. Thus, the “melting pot” did not create a society that was more accepting of others, instead it forced people to conform to the American ideals, and abandon one’s own culture, while continuing this tradition of
Many different organizations and the government’s involvement played an important role in the Americanization of immigrants. Fox writes:
“The forces at work in encouraging the political incorporation of European immigrants were many. Political machines, churches, unions, public officials, schools, and settlement houses used a range of methods, including the payment of naturalization fees, persuasion, paternalistic admonitions, material and symbolic incentives, and even threats and compulsion.” (37)
Americanization forced people to live the life natural U.S. citizens expected of them, which forced many people to abandon their culture. For example the Germans had to quit speaking their native language (Fox 36). Therefore, this challenges the assumption that the American melting pot is a positive quality of American culture (Fox 36). To begin with, despite this process of assimilation into society, European immigrants, the group that faced the least amount of discrimination, continued to be on the receiving end of inequality. Thus, the “melting pot” did not create a society that was more accepting of others, instead it forced people to conform to the American ideals, and abandon one’s own culture, while continuing this tradition of