SOCI 142gm Lecture Notes - Lecture 35: Urban Ecology, Melting Pot
SOCI 142 Week 11 (Tuesday)
● Milton Gordon – Assimilation
o How do immigrants in the following generations adapt to life in the US?
▪ Assimilation Theory → Robert Park
o Adaptation: United States
o Robert Park 1920s, Gordon 1960s: Model of Assimilation
▪ Also addressed urban ecology
▪ Gordon built and described more in depth about assimilation
o Based: European Immigrants, descendants
▪ Model adaptation based on European’s experiences
▪ Applies to Africans, Latin Americans, Asians
▪ How accurate is it for immigrants of other parts of the world
o Core Group
▪ Sets standards for life in America
▪ Comprised of Native-born white protestants
● Cultural Assimilation
o Change of cultural patterns to those of host society (host society)
▪ Learn the language, legal
▪ Language is key, way of dress
▪ Learn of values
▪ Marriage: 13 year old women > can’t do that in America
▪ religion
● Structural Assimilation
o Large scale entrances to clubs, institutions, major economics and
political institutions of society
▪ Especially in terms of occupation
● Marital Assimilation
o Interracial marriages occur
o Supreme Court: Loving v. Virginia 1967
▪ Up to this point, it was illegal for non-whites to marry whites
● African Americans: delaying action only
● Questions about Gordon’s Theory of Assimilation
o Recognizes discrimination, but emphasis on immigrants/descendants
o Conflict
o Persistence of race/ethnicity
▪ Doesn’t recognize the persistence and merge of race and ethnicity
o Racism: individual phenomenon
▪ Ignores the political and economical groups of racism
o Culture: linear process
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