Quotes About Assimilation

Most destructive of all to black self-esteem has been the ideology of branqueamento or whitening. This theory was dreamed up in the 1920s to stop Brazil becoming a predominantly black country. White immigration from Europe was encouraged to stem the black tide. The black in Brazil will disappear within 70 years, said one congressman in 1923.

soon after we arrived in the U.S., Baba started grumbling about American flies. He'd sit at the kitchen table with his flyswatter, watch the flies darting from wall to wall, buzzing here, buzzing there, harried and rushed. In this country, even flies are pressed for time, he'd groan.

America also stands for the melting pot. The idea of the melting pot. It was the place where people could come from anywhere and be a part of it. Such was the theory. There are lessons there for us.

Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation.

Since my life as a prisoner has begun I have heard the teachings of the white man's religion, and in many respects believe it to be better than the religion of my fathers

Immigrants used to come to America seeking freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from government. Now they come looking for free health care, free education, and a free lunch.

Polka dots can't stay alone. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots we become part of the unity of our environments.

One smiling woman shook my hand and said, 'My, but you speak English so beautifully.' She had meant to compliment me, but I was so astonished,, I didn't know what to say. I realized she had seen only my outer self — my Japanese face — and addressed me as a foreigner. I knew then that I would always be different, even thought I wanted so badly to like my white American friends.

Today all humans are, to a much greater extent than they usually want to admit, European in dress, thought and taste. They may be fiercely anti-European in their rhetoric, but almost everyone on the planet views politics, medicine, war and economics through European eyes, and listens to music written in European modes with words in European languages.

it would perhaps be helpful to view immigration as a deal with three basic conditions or terms: TERM 1: The host country allows the immigrants in. TERM 2: In return, the immigrants must embrace at least the core norms and values of the host country, even if that means giving up some of their traditional norms and values. TERM 3: If the immigrants assimilate to a sufficient degree, over time they become equal and full members of the host country. "They" become "us.

I knew you"d never be American enough to help me reconstruct my life.

La preparación y la formación incluyen tomar la información que recibes de una fuente externa y adaptarla a tu situación, aprendértela a conciencia de tal forma que pase a ser tuya, y aplicar esos procedimientos o técnicas sobre el terreno.

Such a development endangered the entire Indian policy of the government, which aimed to eradicate everything Indian among the tribes and make them over into white men.

am someone who needs to adjust to everything.

That's the great thing about L.A. No matter who you are, you fit in, because no one fits in, so everyone is in the same boat. And it gets more that way each day. Now it's whites who are odd man out.

but sometimes you have to fit into life, or waste a lot of time and energy wishing it would fit in with you.

ABC for Desi": American Born Confused Desi, Emigrated From Gujarat, House In Jersey, Keeping Lotsa Motels, Named Omkarnath Patel, Quickly Reaching Success Through Underhanded Vicious Ways, Xenophobic Yet Zestful.

African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans were second-class-status Americans. They were seldom welcomed and were told to stay in their place and not allowed into the mainstream culture of the privileged even when fully acculturated.

The European colonization efforts toward the Americas, for example, operated from the assumption that the enculturation of indigenous peoples was justified because European culture was superior (Barongan et al., 1997). Forcing the colonized to adopt European beliefs and customs was seen as civilizing them.

Let us, for the moment, assume that assimilation is desirable and that becoming a part of your country of residence is important. The question is this: Shouldn't we, therefore, all become Native Americans? Further, why aren't we?

The myth of the melting pot is predicated on several false assumptions: (a) a receptive society, (b) an equal status relationship between culturally different groups, and (c) its morally and politically neutral character. In reality, the melting pot is used to mask White supremacy and White privilege (topics, as we have seen, that impede race talk).

A fish in water, for example, requires oxygen for survival. However, the medium to deliver it must be water, not air. The atmosphere that symbolically represents White culture is quite noticeable to people of color, and while nurturing to White Euro-Americans, it may prove less than healthy for people of color.

A fact must be assimilated with, or discriminated fromm, some other fact or facts, in order to be raised to the dignity of a truth, and made to convey the least knowledge to the mind.

The leader, mingling with the vulgar host, Is in the common mass of matter lost.