Assimilation in American Life by Milton Gordon
Define and explain the theory of assimilation.
According to University of Chicago sociologists Park and Burgess, assimilation is: a process of interpenetration and fusion in which persons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments and attitudes of other persons or groups, and by sharing their experience and history are incorporated with them in a common cultural life. Furthermore, assimilation or "social assimilation" is the process or processes by which peoples of diverse social origins and different cultural heritages, occupying a common territory, achieve a cultural solidarity sufficient at least to sustain a national existence Explanation: In the US, an immigrant is considered assimilated as soon as he has acquired the language and the social ritual of the native community and can participate, without encountering prejudice in the common life, economic and political. This means the person can find his place in the community on the basis of his individual merits without qualifying reference to his racial origin or to his cultural inheritance. Gordon's theory of assimilation: built on Park's framework to develop more in-depth theory, which included the following ideas: the core group, cultural assimilation, and structural assimilation
Define and explain: the core group, cultural assimilation, and structural assimilation.
The core group: Dominant sub-society which provides the standard to which other groups adjust or measure their relative degree of adjustment; refers to the Old Yankee families of colonial, largely Anglo-Saxon ancestry who have traditionally dominated the power and status system of the community, and who provide the 'master cultural mould" for the class system of the other groups in the city -- also comprised of mostly middle class White Protestants Cultural assimilation: groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous firsthand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups. The changes may take place in the cultures of either one of the two groups or there may be a reciprocal influence whereby the cultures of both groups are modified; immigrants reach cultural assimilation when they have changed their cultural patterns to those of the host country. They developed a sense of peoplehood in the host country. Lastly, they raise no demands concerning the nature of any public or civic issues involving value and power conflict with their original ethnic background Structural assimilation: large scale entrance of immigrants into major economic and political institutions of the host country; immigrants reach structural assimilation when they have entered and been hospitably accepted into the social cliques, clubs and institutions of the host country at various class levels. They reached the point where they encounter no prejudiced attitudes and no discriminatory behaviors.
Explain the situation of African Americans according to Gordon and his assimilation theory.
The only types of assimilation that African Americans have encountered are: cultural and civic assimilation. Cultural Assimilation has not guaranteed entry into the primary groups and institutions (middle class White Protestant group) nor has it eliminated prejudice, discrimination, or led to large-scale intermarriage with the core society, thusly... They have not reached Structural Assimilation because of the high level of individual prejudice and institutionalized discrimination. However... Gordon concludes that African Americans will achieve structural assimilation eventually. Structural assimilation is inevitable.
