Okay, I see what you are saying.OaktownBear said:
As for the melting pot comment:
Melting Pot era - Hey, we are all Americans and everyone comes and blends in and we act like they are the same. Only the same means basically White.
Post Melting Pot era - It's an insult to treat everyone the same and expect them to "act White". Chinese people eat potstickers with chopsticks and that's okay. Read, Whites are like this and Chinese People are like that.
Post Post Melting Pot era - Just because someone's Chinese doesn't mean they eat potstickers. People are who THEY are and they have their own individual histories. Don't judge them by ascribing population traits to them.
There was an episode of Barney Miller where they had the following gag. White, intellectual type police detective meets Japanese police detective. White detective is being all knowledgeable about Japanese culture and talking to Japanese police detective like he "understands" him. Japanese detective waits for him to finish and then says incredulously "I'm from Omaha!" White detective responds with "That's funny. There's a city in America with the same name!"
I don't see how this applied to what I was saying.
It all sounds very 70's and 80's.
We've come a long way from then!!!
In this era, Henry Louis Gates is setting the record straight, which would be POST POST POST Melting Pot, I suppose.