Is Assimilation Dead?

Abstract

This article considers the decline in the positive attitude toward the term “assimilation” as an ideal for immigrant and minority groups in the United States, and it explores the period between World War I and the mid-1920s, during which assimilation moved from an ideal to a forceful policy, under the name “Americanization.” During this period, attention was given almost exclusively to immigrants; blacks were totally ignored in the debate over assimilation and Americanization. Nevertheless, until the mid-1960s, the dominant black ideal for their future in the United States was assimilation. The failure of assimilation to work its effects on blacks as on immigrants, owing to the strength of American discriminatory and prejudiced attitudes and behavior toward blacks, has been responsible for throwing the entire assimilatory ideal and program into disrepute.