Quotes About Assimilation

I used to be Irish Catholic. Now I'm an American - you know, you grow.

A Spaniard and a Pole worked in the barbershop where we got our hair cut. An Italian shined our shoes. A Croat washed our car. This was America.

While children are struggling to be unique, the world around them is trying all means to make them look like everybody else.

In this country we have no place for hyphenated Americans.

My folks came to U.S. as immigrants, aliens, and became citizens. I was born in Boston, a citizen, went to Hollywood and became an alien.

A lot of times I blend in a little bit easier because I'm not like a basketball player who's going to stand out because of his height.

There are no conditions to which a man cannot become used, especially if he sees that all around him are living in the same way.

Our growth depends not on how many experiences we devour, but on how many we digest.

When people live in abnormality for too long, the abnormal becomes normal and eventually, identity is lost

If you were going to compete successfully in a white man's world, you had to learn to play the white man's game. It was not enough that an Indian be as good as; an Indian had to be better than.

The earlier immigrants were virtually all poor, whereas nearly a third of today's are college graduates like Rosalie. More than one in eight has a graduate degree—slightly more than natives.

Miriam remembered that the holiday dated to the rebellion of the ancient Jews against forced assimilation by Greek society.

Once you're several generations removed from your cultural heritage, how much connection is truly possible? Bits and pieces might be integrated into home life—a cultural event here, some ethnic food there—but for the most part the upbringing is American.

Translation theorized as a purely technical and linguistic matter, concerned with the transfer of meanings from one language to another, not associated with political issues of domination,submission, assimilation and resistance.

As Dr. Fuhrman shows us, the right nutrients can turn on these abilities, while the wrong nutrients—which are all too common in the standard western diet—can leave these abilities buried forever. The most amazing results, however, come when the body is given a complete rest from the work of digestion and assimilation of food.

The girl clones at Singer Grove were just like the ones in Texas; they knocked themselves out to be like everyone else and then bragged about how they were different. All their differences put into a pot and boiled down wouldn't spice baby food. By trying to brag about how different they were, they just really showed how alike they were, because all their differences were alike.

Custom reconciles us to every thing.

Estaba condenado con la maldición del que sabe dos idiomas y entiende, secretamente, que no domina del todo ninguno de los dos. Ahora era capaz de comparar; todo se me multiplicaba por dos. En cada sitio terminaba optando por el punto de vista ajeno. Ahora veo todo, esté donde esté, como un extranjero.

We are all immigrants, a glorious confection of races and beliefs, united by the rock that we live on. As the years wash over us and new generations march into the future, family histories are subsumed into the greater narrative. We become, simply, Americans.

Had he himself ever felt Korean inside, for example? How would he know? Wouldn't it just feel like . . . himself? Whatever he'd felt, it was probably not what Scott felt. But also, he was Korean American, not Korean, a distinction he had never been able to explain sufficiently to the white people in his life so far,

To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty.

It should not be possible to get from the banks of the Pepani River to Wyoming in less than two days, because mentally and emotionally it is impossible. The shock is too much, the contrast too raw. We should sail or swim or walk from Africa, letting bits of her drop out of us, and gradually, in this way, assimilate the excesses and liberties of the States in tiny, incremental sips.... p 72

Have you ever watched someone become American? Last week, at a national citizenship conference I organize, thirty immigrants from 17 countries swore an oath and became citizens of the United States. It was a stirring experience for the hundreds of people in the room.

I learned how to speak English watching television.