Ethnic groups in USA

Ethnic groups in USA

• there are 106 minor groups in USA today, the biggest ones are Hispanics (people from Spain, they are considered the fastest growing group), Africans (came as slaves), Dutches, Chineese, French, Italian, Russians, Arabs …

• USA are often called “melting pot” or “mosaic”; the “mosaic” refers to many nationalities, colours and cultures of people who immigrated and their variety makes a picture like mosaic; “melting pot” means that all these different cultures melt together and create one new culture

Indians :
• the native Americans were called Indians by Crystof Columbus, because he thought that he was in India; their lifestyle was to hunt, to fish, to move from place to place, but than came a white man and started to build cities, railways and extended his territories (one reason was the gold feavor)

• some living Indian tribes are Apachees, Comanches, Sioux and Cherokees, but some of them were forced to live in reservations (one hundred tousands Indians live in the biggest reservation in Arizona) and some of them adopted the lifestyle of white men (cars, whisky …)

• in 1960’s there was a movement “Indian power” when Indians protested against closing them in reservations; the number of them is now increasing

Black Americans :
• first Africans were brought to America in 1619 as servants and soon some colonies strongly supported the idea of slavery; in the 18th century the slavery reached its peak and most of the slaves were forced to work hard on large plantantions

• the abolishment of slavery was a result of several actions and negotiations which took place during the North and South war and finally in 1865 the slavery ended and the president Lincoln was assasinated

• even later, the blacks were discriminated by white people and it sometimes led to segregation – separate schools, churches, swiming pools, bus stations … for blacks

• in the first half of 20th century many Afro-Americans gained high positions in cultural life, it is called Harlem rennaissance (Armstrong, Elington …)

• thanks to Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King in 1960’s the blacks gained equal positions with the white; they live side by side now but there are still many of them who are on the bottom of social scale
affirmative action program (positive discrimination) – universities and some employers are given certain number of Afro-Americans to be admited

Immigration :
• New York city (called Big apple) can be defined by its ethnic and cultural diversity; you can find there areas like Little Italy, Chinatown and several other ethnic areas with names of their countries

• the greatest waves of immigrants came in NY from 1840’s to 1920’s and their reasons were personal freedom and economic opportunity; they found there schools and jobs which helped them to integrate into the larger community, but the fathers often couldn’t find a job and the mothers felt isolated from friends; so they hoped their children would attend better schools and get better jobs (children were their only connection between the old and new world – they could write and speak English and soon they got better paid jobs than their parents)

• some 20 million of immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1891 and 1954 (was closed), also known as Isle of Tears, because all immigrants feared that they couldn’t pass and after many weeks of exhausting voyage over the ocean they would have to return