Meltingpoto r sa la d bowl?
In 1908 IsraelZ angwillwrotea play, The Mdli"R.
Pot. The hero , a refu geefrom persecution in
Czarist R ussia ,escapestothe United States.Inth e
finalscene he speak swithenthusiasmabout the
mixt u re o fpeo plesin his newhomeland:
"AmericaisGod's C ruc ible, theg rea tM elting
Po twhereallthe racesofEuropearcmelting and
re form ing! , ,. H er eyoust and IIIyourfifty
g ro u ps w ith your tifq: languagesand h istories.
an dyourfifty blo od hatreds andrivalries,bu tyo u
won'tbelike th at forlong, b ro thers. for thes earc
thefiresofGodyou'vecome to - thesearcth e fires
ofGod. ,., Germa nand Fren chman. Iri sh m an
an d Eng lish m an , J e ws and Ru ssian s- int o the
Crucible withyouall!GodISm aki n gtheAmer ican
IIcw illbethefusiono f allraces,th e comi ng
superman.
Zangwill' splay was a g reat success. Thiswas
perhapsbec au sem an yintheaudienceswhocam e
tosecitfound itsml'Ssagereassu ring. At atim e
w hen poor and uneducated immigrants fro m
Eu rope wereflooding mrotheUnited States in
million s.it wascomfort ing for Am er icans[Qbe
told thatthe ircountrycould turnth en ew comers
int oAm eri can sliketh em sel ves.
Infact thi sneverreally bappcoccd.at least n o t
completel y. The U nitedSta testu rned outtobe
mo reofa sa ladb o wlt hanaruchingpOl.Grou p s
from similarnational and ethnicbackg rou nd s often
stayedto g e t her. keepin galivethei ro ld iden tities
and m an yo f theiro ld customs. T hey lived in
"Chinatowns"or" Little h alys, "areaspopulated
almost entir ely b y American s o f similaret hnic
origins.Suchd istr icts can stillbefoundin Illany
large Amer ican cities.
Americansfromdifferentimmigrant backgrou nd s
dom ix to getherin ti me.It h asbeenest imated ,for
exa m p le,thataboutXOper cento f the gre at- grand-
childrenofcarly-rwcurictb-ccnturyEurope anim-
m ig rants m arry outsidetheiro w nethnicgroups.
Ycrsu chthir dgcncra ricnAmericans oftending
w ith pride to im portantclementso f theireth ni c
herit age. Sod o many Americans whose 1Il1l1ll-
gramorigin s arcevenfurthe rIII[hepas t.
IS'tnr.(;0 1 IlI,N D OORSuchaccusatio ns werenotnew.In th e IH(KJs,
Chinesewor kers hadbeenbroughttoCaliforniato
build therailro ad s.TIlt'factth atC hineselaborers
wen-willing toworkforIt'sspaycause dAme rican
w o rkersto d islikerhcm .Theyfeltthr eatenedby
thesepeoplew itha d iffer entlang uagean dadi ffcrcu r
racialappearalll"l'.C hin esecommuni tiesIIIth e West
wereattackedand their bui ldingsw ereburneddown.
I Icn r y Sienkiewicz.a visite rfromPo lan d , descri bed
a scenehewitnessedinHO C,:
" 1wasinSJ.nFran ciscorhcn igh ta m assacreofthe
Chinesew ase xpec te d.Uythelig ht...tr eamin gfrom
burnmgbuildingsalongth e coast marchedhuge.
menacingcrowdsofwor ke rs,carry ingbanne rs
bearin gsu chinscr ipt ions as[he foll o wi n g : 'Self
preser vationis the first la wofnarurc.'...Orderwas
atlastrestored. buto n lyalte rtherailro ad s, wh ich
h adprovokedth e distu rbancesbyreducin gthe
wageso f w hit eIIIl"l1, agreednottoredu cewagesand
to dis missthei rC h ineseem ployees."
In 1 882 thest re ng tho f ami-Ch inesefeelingcaused
C o ng ressto hanmost C hineseimmigra tio n.
J apan eseando therAsianimm igrantswert'refused
emryasw ellandby1'J24noAsianimmigran tsw ere
pcrnnttcdII H Oth e UnitedSran-s.The banlasteduntil
alt e rth e SecondWo rld War.
In the I920sCongr essp assedlaw sto limit all kindsof
innuigranon.Theonewhich had mo steffectwasthe
Heed-Joh nso nIm m ig ration Act of 1'124_This law
wasananswertoth e fears andtilt'pr ejudicesof
Am ericans whowere d es cendantsofearl iernorth
Europ eanimmigrants,Itsaid thatin thefitrurcno
marcth an15U,OOOimmigr ant sa yea r wouldbelcr
intothe Un ite d States .Eachco unt rywhichsent
im m igran ts wasgin'lI a " q uota"w hichwasbasedo n
th enumbero f itspeopleal ready livin gilltheU n ited
Sta tes. T hemoreithadrhcrc alrcadv,the m o re new
murug rants it would be allo wedtosend.
The 1'114 syste mwasdesig nedmainlyto reduce
imm igrationfro mso ut he rn andeaste rnEurope.
O IK t'it beg an.H7pl.'rct'rno f th eimmig r at io nper mit s
went toimm ig rant s from Britain ,Ireland .Germany
and Scand inavia - th e coumrics(romwhichthe
ancesto rsofmo st 1 '1 2 (~Am er ican shad com e.
The 1Y24lmm ig ratio nActmarkedthe end o f aileof
th e mo s timportantpopulat ion1ll0Vem eIHSinthe
historyofthewo rl d.79