http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/26/opinion/becoming-an-american.html
At a soccer game against Mexico in February, the American national team listened in frustration as a chorus of boos erupted during ''The Star-Spangled Banner.'' Thousands of fans threw cups and bottles at the United States players, often striking them. They also attacked someone in the stands who tried to unfurl an American flag.
The match didn't take place in Mexico City but in Los Angeles. Most of the fans were Mexican or Mexican-American. The extreme reactions to their behavior were disheartening but predictable. On one side, the columnist Pat Buchanan declared that ''the Melting Pot is freezing over.'' On the other, a Los Angeles Times editorialist said that critics of the fans were ''xenophobic, nativist, protectionist and isolationist.''
The United States is in the midst of an assimilation crisis -- one inspired not by immigrants but by an American intelligentsia that has abandoned the struggle to help newcomers assimilate. Neither left nor right knows how to respond to a troubling incident like the Los Angeles soccer match.
On the right, nativists argue that immigrants are not capable of becoming American. ''Immigration is a failure because assimilation, contrary to national myth, never really occurred,'' Chilton Williamson wrote recently in the magazine Chronicles. Mr. Williamson, an editor and writer for the conservative monthly, claims that the Ellis Island generation of immigrants never actually became American.
On the left, multiculturalists say that immigrants should not have to become American. As Juan Perea, a law professor at the University of Florida, says, ''Americanization must either be completely reworked or abandoned as a premise of American identity.'' For many in the academic world, assimilation is nothing but a gentrified form of ethnic cleansing.
Both sides have unfortunately ceded a sensible middle ground that supports some level of immigration but also insists on assimilation. As a result, many native-born Americans are confused about what, if anything, they should ask of immigrants.
On the right, nativists argue that immigrants are not capable of becoming American. ''Immigration is a failure because assimilation, contrary to national myth, never really occurred,'' Chilton Williamson wrote recently in the magazine Chronicles. Mr. Williamson, an editor and writer for the conservative monthly, claims that the Ellis Island generation of immigrants never actually became American.
On the left, multiculturalists say that immigrants should not have to become American. As Juan Perea, a law professor at the University of Florida, says, ''Americanization must either be completely reworked or abandoned as a premise of American identity.'' For many in the academic world, assimilation is nothing but a gentrified form of ethnic cleansing.
Both sides have unfortunately ceded a sensible middle ground that supports some level of immigration but also insists on assimilation. As a result, many native-born Americans are confused about what, if anything, they should ask of immigrants.
At a soccer game against Mexico in February, the American national team listened in frustration as a chorus of boos erupted during ''The Star-Spangled Banner.'' Thousands of fans threw cups and bottles at the United States players, often striking them. They also attacked someone in the stands who tried to unfurl an American flag.
The match didn't take place in Mexico City but in Los Angeles. Most of the fans were Mexican or Mexican-American. The extreme reactions to their behavior were disheartening but predictable. On one side, the columnist Pat Buchanan declared that ''the Melting Pot is freezing over.'' On the other, a Los Angeles Times editorialist said that critics of the fans were ''xenophobic, nativist, protectionist and isolationist.''
The United States is in the midst of an assimilation crisis -- one inspired not by immigrants but by an American intelligentsia that has abandoned the struggle to help newcomers assimilate. Neither left nor right knows how to respond to a troubling incident like the Los Angeles soccer match.
On the right, nativists argue that immigrants are not capable of becoming American. ''Immigration is a failure because assimilation, contrary to national myth, never really occurred,'' Chilton Williamson wrote recently in the magazine Chronicles. Mr. Williamson, an editor and writer for the conservative monthly, claims that the Ellis Island generation of immigrants never actually became American.
On the left, multiculturalists say that immigrants should not have to become American. As Juan Perea, a law professor at the University of Florida, says, ''Americanization must either be completely reworked or abandoned as a premise of American identity.'' For many in the academic world, assimilation is nothing but a gentrified form of ethnic cleansing.
Both sides have unfortunately ceded a sensible middle ground that supports some level of immigration but also insists on assimilation. As a result, many native-born Americans are confused about what, if anything, they should ask of immigrants.
On the right, nativists argue that immigrants are not capable of becoming American. ''Immigration is a failure because assimilation, contrary to national myth, never really occurred,'' Chilton Williamson wrote recently in the magazine Chronicles. Mr. Williamson, an editor and writer for the conservative monthly, claims that the Ellis Island generation of immigrants never actually became American.
On the left, multiculturalists say that immigrants should not have to become American. As Juan Perea, a law professor at the University of Florida, says, ''Americanization must either be completely reworked or abandoned as a premise of American identity.'' For many in the academic world, assimilation is nothing but a gentrified form of ethnic cleansing.
Both sides have unfortunately ceded a sensible middle ground that supports some level of immigration but also insists on assimilation. As a result, many native-born Americans are confused about what, if anything, they should ask of immigrants.
