T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

much for his metaphor of the United States as a harmonlousorchestra of forelgn language groups" (Quoted in Luedtke?he natlonal ldentlty, then rested on the faith thatunity and dlverslty were supposed to be not only mutuallycompatible but supportive of 'liberty'.E\'en today, In a new age of hlgh technology, race andethniclty continue to influence social relations in asignificant way. Thxs 1s particularly true as far as some ofthe non-whlte raclal or ethnlc mlnoritles are concerned,because lrrespectlve of economic status, they are stillsub~ected to some neva,d nore subtle farms of socialdlscrlmlnation. The other white ethnlc mlnorlties are lessaffected by these, but they too are culturally separated fromeach other and from the domlnant WASP (Whlte Anglo-SaxonProtestant) community. Such cultural dlvlslons asthe complexltles of languages and customs, diversityof asolratlons, and confllct of interests betweenold akd new lmmlgrants have always divlded Americanscclety horizontally, hindered the growth of classconscrousness, and thus made any soclal mobilizationalong class llnes extremely dlfflcult (Kolko1976.67)Certaln ethnlc sub-cultural tralts are preserved becausethey are conslderd to be assets whlch can ensure success inAmerican soclety, such as "Jewlsh proclivity for the