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THE BLENDING OF THE UNITED STATES By Rochelle L. Stanfield For years, Jorge DelPinal's job as assistant chief of the Census Bureau's Population Division was to fit people into neat, distinct racial and ethnic boxes: white, black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American. As the son of an Anglo mother and a Hispanic father, however, he knew all along that the task was not always possible. "My identity has evolved as being Hispanic, although I'm only half-and-half," he explained. He said he thus understood the frustration of interracial couples who have always been expected to assign just one race to their children when they fill out government forms. "They're saying, 'Why should we have to choose between the parents?'" the Census Bureau official said. For the 2000 decennial census, that will no longer be the case. For the first time, the census forms will allow people to check off as many races as apply. As a result, the Census Bureau should obtain a better picture of the extent of intermarriage in the United States. In the absence of such a direct method, a few years ago veteran demographer Barry Edmonston used sophisticated mathematical modeling techniques to calculate how intermarriage is changing the face of the United States as part of an immigration study he directed for the National Research Council of the American Academy of Sciences. His research was summarized in a report entitled The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. But as the Canadian-born, white husband of sociologist Sharon Lee, a Chinese-American, Edmonston really needed no computer to understand the transformation under way in this society. He and his family are living, breathing participants. The face of America is changing -- literally. As President Clinton has said, within 30 or 40 years, when there will be no single race in the majority in the United States, "we had best be ready for it." For his part, Clinton is preparing for that time by talking about racial tolerance and the virtues of multiculturalism. Others are debating immigration policy. Almost all discussion focuses on the potential divisiveness inherent in a nation that is no longer a predominantly white country with a mostly European ancestry. But afoot behind the scenes is another trend that, if handled carefully, could bring the country closer together rather than drive it apart. This quiet demographic counter-revolution is a dramatic upsurge in intermarriage. "Demography is a very intimate deal," notes Ben J. Wattenberg, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) in Washington. "It's not about what activists say; it's about what young men and women do. And what they're doing is marrying each other and having children." Such a profound demographic shift could take place while no one was watching because, officially, no one was watching. Federal agencies traditionally collected racial data using a formula -- one person, one race -- similar to the time-honored voting principle. Thus, the Census Bureau could estimate that on census forms no more than two percent of the population would claim to be multiracial. In the absence of a more straightforward count, no one could know for sure what the demographics are. That's about to change. After the 2000 census, the U.S. Government should have a better idea. In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget, which oversees federal statistical practices, approved a directive allowing people to check as many racial boxes as they believe apply to them. The shift was a compromise between the demands of some interest groups that wanted the addition of a "multiracial" box, and those that objected to any change, fearing dilution of their numbers. To get ready for the 2000 census, the Census Bureau has conducted dress rehearsals in three sites around the United States. In Sacramento, California, 5.4 percent of the population checked off more than one racial box, nearly three times the proportion expected by many experts. The numbers also demonstrate that intermarriage is on the rise. Among people over 18 years old, 4.1 percent checked more than one box; among those under 18 years old, 8.1 percent did so. Meanwhile, in the absence of official numbers, with the heightened tension surrounding racial issues, and with the mutual suspicion that exists among competing racial and ethnic interest groups, there's little agreement on what intermarriage will mean for U.S. society in the future. Some sociologists call Asian-white and Hispanic-Anglo intermarriage simply the latest addition to the melting pot that, since the start of this century, has fused so many Irish, Italian, German and other families of European origin. But despite the rise in black-white marriage, many doubt that African Americans will be included in this mix. "I think the almost ineradicable line in America is between blacks and all others," says Roger Wilkins, a history professor at George Mason University in suburban Virginia and a longtime civil rights figure. "Blacks have always been the indigestible mass. Having said that, however, there's no doubt that something is happening," he continued. "Just look at the ads on television [with] beautiful models, male and female, who are not quite white. Are they a mixture of black and white, black and Asian, Hispanic and white? You just can't tell." Others anticipate that the bedroom will accomplish what other catalysts could not. Douglas J. Besharov, an AEI resident scholar, said in a 1996 article in The New Democrat that the growing numbers of mixed-race youth represent "the best hope for the future of American race relations." Ramona Douglass, president of the Association of MultiEthnic Americans, enthused, "We're living proof that people with two different races or ethnic backgrounds can live together in harmony, that [interracial] families actually do function." Douglass's mother is Italian-American, and her father is a multiracial blend of African American and Native American. "The Jewish community, at least its liberal branches, moved from a posture of outrage to a posture of outreach," explained Egon Mayer, who is a sociology professor at Brooklyn College and former co-director of the North American Jewish Data Bank at the City University of New York (CUNY). "There's been a tremendous upsurge in efforts to reach out to these families, to invite them in and, in a way, to have a multicultural cake and eat it, too." Although sociologists are quick to point out the differences between Jews and other minority groups, they nonetheless acknowledge that the evolution of the Jewish approach to intermarriage may provide a model for the nation as a whole as it discovers, and then confronts, the racial and ethnic blending of the United States. Melting Pot To see the new face of the United States, go to a grocery store and look at a box of Betty Crocker-brand food products. Betty's portrait is now in its eighth incarnation since the first composite painting debuted in 1936 with pale skin and blue eyes. Her new look is brown-eyed and dark-haired. She has a duskier complexion than her seven predecessors, with features representing an amalgam of white, Hispanic, Indian, African and Asian ancestry. A computer created this new Betty in the mid-1990s by blending photos of 75 diverse women. That process was relatively quick, General Mills Inc., spokesmen explain. But they acknowledge that it took quite a while to spread the new image to the whole range of Betty Crocker products. The slow pace of that process itself could be a metaphor for gradual racial and ethnic intermixing in this country. Indeed, it's taking a long time for the new blended American to surface in society's consciousness. Tiger Woods, the young golf great, publicized the trend by identifying himself as Cablinasian, a mixture of Caucasian, black, Native American and Asian. For the most part, the marketplace -- not government -- is leading the way in this evolution. Mixed-race models, particularly men, are in great demand, according to fashion industry experts. And multiracial child actors are now more likely to be tapped for television advertisements. The ad agencies that hire those models and actors "are not idealistic people," Wilkins said. "They are out to sell stuff, and they study trends very carefully. So, what they see is a big market out there that is reached by beautiful people who are not exactly white, or who are yearning for a melting pot America." That serious scholars should be talking about a melting pot is itself a reversal. As a metaphor for American diversity, the melting pot was first discredited after World War I, when the European immigrants streaming into American cities formed distinct ethnic and national enclaves that didn't melt together. The timing was off, it turned out, and the metaphorical pot was in the wrong place. Interracial and multiethnic fusion started after World War II and happened in the suburbs. City folk moved from their Italian, Irish, Polish or Jewish urban neighborhoods into diffuse suburban settings, then sent their kids to large public universities, throwing them together with youngsters from other ethnic backgrounds who, nonetheless, came from families with similar lifestyles. "Most people meet their potential partners either at college or when they start working," said sociologist Lee, a University of Richmond (Virginia) professor who is spending some time as a visiting scholar at Portland (Oregon) State University. "When you have a college education, you're likely to be in a milieu where there will be people of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds, and that increases the chances of marrying someone different from your own ethnic background." Lee is a case in point, having met her husband, Edmonston, director of Portland State's Center for Population Research and Census, when they were students. David Tseng, a special assistant in the U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, tells a similar story. His mother came from Ecuador; his father was the son of a Chinese diplomat in Washington. Their marriage in the late 1950s was unusual for the time. But, says Tseng, "I think it helped that the people with whom they were friendly and socialized with were educated and intelligent and comfortable with people from other lands and cultures." That dynamic is now routinely seen among native-born Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans. "We're seeing very high rates of intermarriage for Hispanics and Asians who are living in fairly integrated areas outside their traditional areas [of concentration] in the Southwest and West," Edmonston pointed out. He cited a study that showed an 80 percent exogamy rate for young, native-born Asians in New England (the U.S. Northeast), for example. Ironically, the rise in immigration and the trend toward multiculturalism that so many analysts view as major factors leading to divisiveness actually contribute to this blending of races and ethnic groups. "Once you fragment ... the society into so many different ethnic origins, you make it mathematically less and less likely to meet somebody of your own ethnicity," said Wattenberg. "That's what happened, basically, to the Jewish population." Whether blacks will follow other minorities into the melting pot remains a subject of debate. Skeptics point to the much smaller proportion of black-white marriages and say it won't happen soon. Others respond that the statistical base is very small because, until 1967, such marriages were illegal in 19 states. Countervailing Forces While many forces are at work to facilitate intermarriage, others militate against it. This is particularly the case for African Americans. The growing segment of the black community that is going to college, entering the middle class and moving out to the suburbs is also following the general trend toward intermarriage. This tendency is particularly noticeable in California and in cities such as Dallas (Texas), Las Vegas (Nevada) and Phoenix (Arizona), where residential segregation has been less pronounced than in the older northeastern and midwestern U.S. cities, according to Reynolds Farley, who has studied African American residential patterns. In California, for example, among 25-to-34-year-old African Americans, 14 percent of the married black women and 32 percent of the married black men had spouses of a different race, Edmonston noted. But in the isolated urban neighborhoods of the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, the old pattern remains. "There is a considerable fraction of the black population that still lives in inner-city areas -- in Detroit, Chicago, New York City -- that has not been caught up in dynamic economic growth," said Farley, formerly a professor at the University of Michigan and now a vice president of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. "They've been left behind, and they are quite far out of it." Another countervailing force is immigration. Immigrants generally don't marry outside their racial or ethnic group. Their children do to some extent, but out-marriage really is most prevalent in the third generation. The most recent large-scale wave of immigration has produced only first- or second-generation Americans. Regardless of the real degree of racial and ethnic intermixing that goes on, the test of a blended society will be the proportion of people who identify as multiracial or multiethnic. Until now, that percentage has been small. That's partly because people tend to assume the racial or ethnic identity of one parent -- often the minority parent, in the case of blacks and Hispanics. But to a large extent, that identity has been imposed by society. "I have a Spanish name and I speak Spanish, so people see me as being of Spanish origin," DelPinal, the Census Bureau official, explained. Racial identification can stem from other sources, such as heightened ethnic pride or the opportunity to benefit from affirmative action and other programs. Over the last few decades, having Native American ancestry has apparently become popular. Between 1970 and 1980, the number of people who checked "American Indian" on their census forms grew from 800,000 to 1.4 million, a much faster increase than could be accounted for by births minus deaths. "People decided they wanted to identify as American Indians, to some extent because of rising ethnic consciousness," observed Jeffrey S. Passel, director of the Immigration Policy Program at the Urban Institute and a former director of the Census Bureau's Population Division. It is this positive approach to racial or ethnic identification on which liberal elements of the Jewish community are trying to capitalize. For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. (In many communities, prayers for the dead were recited for a Jew who married a non-Jew.) As a result, out-marriage was rare. Before World War II, it amounted to less than seven percent of Jewish marriages, according to Mayer of CUNY. But in 1970, a National Jewish Population Survey discovered that in the previous five years, 30 percent of new Jewish marriages were to non-Jews. By 1990, that figure was more than 50 percent. After many meetings, much soul-searching and a lot of acrimonious debate, various synagogue groups in the most liberal denominations and Jewish civic organizations decided to reverse their approach. They still try to discourage intermarriage, but once it occurs, they tend to welcome new interfaith families. Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel of Temple Micah, a Reform congregation in Washington, was one of those who switched positions. In 1979, when he was ordained a rabbi, Zemel recalled recently, "I felt those rabbis who officiated at intermarriages should be excommunicated from the rabbinical associations. Since that time, my thinking has changed enormously." However, he said, he still does not personally officiate at interfaith marriages. "I think if you can find ways to conceive of a diverse, heterogeneous Jewish community, then that's what we'll be looking at in the future," he said. But, he acknowledged, that will require a revolution in outlook for that component of the Jewish community that has been tied together more by European ethnic roots than by its religious practices. The sea change contemplated by Zemel is in some ways analogous to the shift required by the United States as it transforms itself from a mostly white nation to a multiracial, blended society. The first step down that path is probably figuring out just who we are. And that requires an accurate count of all colors and the various shades in between. ---------- Rochelle L. Stanfield, a former staff correspondent for National Journal, is a Washington, D.C.- based freelance writer specializing in demographics and urban affairs. 多年来，人口普查局(Census Bureau)人口处副处长乔治.德尔皮奈尔(Jorge DelPinal)的工作就是将美国人口按照种族和民族分门别类：白人、黑人、拉美裔、亚裔，或印第安人。然而，他母亲是盎格鲁血统，父亲是拉美裔，他早就知道这种分法不总是切实可行的。 德尔皮奈尔解释说："我的血统虽然一半一半，可身份最后还是被确定为拉美裔。"他说他因而明白了异族婚姻夫妇的苦衷，因为他们在填写政府表格时只能为孩子填上一个种族归属。这位人口普查局官员说"他们问，'为什么非要在父母二人中作出选择呢？'" 10年一次的人口普查又将在2000年举行。这次的情形就不同了，人们第一次可以在调查表中填上其所有种族归属。这样，人口普查局就能够更好地了解美国异族通婚的广度。 几年前，由于这种直接统计方法还没有实施，资深人口统计学家巴里.埃德蒙斯顿 (Barry Edmonston)在指导美国科学院全国研究会 (National Research Council of the American Academy of Sciences) 所做移民研究时，便利用复杂的数学模型来计算异族婚姻是如何改变美国面貌的。他的研究成果概括在题为：《新美国人：移民对经济、人口和财政的影响》(The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration) 报告中。而实际上埃德蒙斯顿根本用不着计算机统计就能了解美国社会的这种转变，因为他自己是出生在加拿大的白人，妻子莎朗.李(Sharon Lee)为社会学家，则是华裔美国人。他和家人便是这种变化活生生的范例。 事实上美国的面貌的确在改变。正如克林顿总统所说，不出三四十年，美国社会中将没有任何一个种族的人口占多数，"我们应该为此作好准备。"克林顿本人便是经常谈到族群宽容和多元文化的好处。其他人在争论移民政策问题。几乎所有的讨论都集中在一个不再由欧洲裔白人占主导地位的国家的潜在分裂性。 可是在表面现象之下却涌动着另一股潮流。如果疏导合理，这股潮流将会使美国更加融合而不是走向分裂。这种人口统计学意义上的逆向流动便是异族婚姻的大幅增加。 "人口统计涉及到十分个人化的问题。"华盛顿的美国企业研究院公共政策研究所 (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research [AEI])高级研究员本.J.瓦滕伯格(Ben J. Wattenberg)如是说。"这不是几个活动家嘴上说说的事，而是青年男女实际在做的事，即结婚生子。" 埃德蒙斯顿经过研究预测，到2050年，将有21%的美国人来自不同种/民族通婚的家庭，而今天这个比例估计只有7%。据他和其他研究人员估计在第三代拉美裔和亚裔美国人中至少有50%与异族通婚。异族婚姻在非洲裔美国人中仍然很少见。虽然如此,通婚比率还是从60年代的约1.5%大幅上升到今天的8%至10% 。 人口组成上的这一深刻变化本来会在无人注意下悄然进行，因为官方的确无人理会这件事。联邦机构的传统作法是利用固定格式收集种族情况数据，即一人一族，很像历史悠久的选举原则。因而，人口普查局便根据调查表估计说不到2%的美国人声明他们有多重种族归属。由于缺乏更直接的统计方法，无人知晓人口组成状况到底怎样。 然而这种情形正在改观。2000年人口普查后，美国政府将更加心中有数。1997年，监管联邦统计行为的管理与预算办公室(Office of Management and Budget) 批准一项指令，即人们可以填上自己所有的种族归属。这项指令是某些利益集团相妥协的结果：有些要求在报表中加上"多种族"一栏，而另一些由于担心本集团人数减少而要求维持原状。 为作好2000年普查，人口普查局选择了三个地方进行调查试点。在加州萨克拉门托(Sacramen- to)，5.4%的人声明有多种族归属，比许多专家的估计多了近两倍。数据还表明异族婚姻呈上升趋势。18岁以上的人有4.1%属多种族，而18岁以下的人中这一比例为8.1%。 同时，由于缺乏官方数据、种族问题情势日趋紧张、相互竞争的种/民族利益集团间相互猜疑，人们对异族婚姻在未来美国社会中的影响还没有形成一致看法。 一些社会学家认为，自本世纪初以来，美国便成为融合那么多来自欧洲的爱尔兰、意大利、德国等等家庭的大融炉，而亚裔与白种人、拉美裔与盎格鲁人的异族婚姻不过是新添加的成员罢了。不过，尽管黑人与白人通婚现象也在增多，许多社会学家却对非洲裔美国人能否融合持怀疑态度。 "我认为在美国，黑人和其他人种的界线几乎无法消除，"弗吉尼亚州(Virginia)乔治.梅森大学(George Mason University)的历史学教授罗杰.威尔金斯(Roger Wilkins)如是说。他还是一位资深民权主义者。"黑人总是一个难吸收的群体。尽管这样说，情况无疑在改变，"他继续说道。"只消看看那些俊男靓女模特儿做的电视广告就能明白。他们都不是纯白种人，那么他们是黑白混血，黑人与亚裔混血，还是拉美裔与白人混血？你根本无从知晓。" 还有人预测说卧室能做到其他催化剂无能为力的事。1996年,《新民主党人》(The New Democrat) 杂志中，AEI资深学者道格拉斯. J. 贝沙洛夫(Douglas J. Besharov)的一篇文章说，混合族裔青年人数日趋增长代表着"美国种族关系的最佳前景。" 多民族美国人协会(Association of MultiEthnic Americans)主席拉莫那.道格拉斯(Ramona Douglass) 兴致勃勃地说："我们就是一个活生生的例子。不同种族或民族背景的两个人可以和谐地生活在一起，跨种族家庭实际上可以良好运转。"道格拉斯的母亲是美籍意大利人，父亲则是非洲裔美国人和印第安人的混血儿。 当然，也有很多人认为异族婚姻是一种慢性种族灭绝，最终将导致某些种族的消失。犹太人过去曾持有这种传统观念，他们一直极力保护其为数不多的成员免于因民族融合而失去自我。但是第二次世界大战以后，犹太人同外族通婚的比率极高，美国犹太主义者(American Judaism)的进步力量便开始重新审视这一现象。他们仍然鼓励族内通婚，但不再规避与非犹太人结婚的人，而开始同异族婚姻夫妇建立良好关系。 "犹太人，至少其比较开明的分支，已从怒目相向转为主动求和，"埃贡.迈耶(Egon Mayer) 解释道。他是布鲁克林学院(Brook- lyn College)的社会学教授，也是纽约市立大学(City University of New York[CUNY])北美犹太人数据库(North American Jewish Data Bank)的前任协同主管。"犹太人正在作极大努力向这些家庭伸出友好之手，欢迎他们，并从某种意义上说，共同品尝这块多元文化蛋糕。" 尽管社会学家能迅速指出犹太人和其他少数民族群体的差别，他们还是承认犹太人在发现和正视这种美国的种/民族融合过程中，他们对异族婚姻态度的演变也许能为整个国家提供一个范例。 大融炉 要想看到美国的新面孔，只消到杂货店看看贝蒂.克罗克(Betty Crocker) 牌的食品包装盒就行了。自1936年白皮肤、蓝眼睛的贝蒂合成画像首次亮相以来，她的画像到现在已是第8版了。新画像中的贝蒂长着棕色的眼睛和黑色的头发。与前7任贝蒂相比，最新版的贝蒂肤色更加黝黑，面部特征则是白人、拉美裔、印第安人、非洲裔和亚裔后代的混和。 新贝蒂形象是90年代中期通过电脑技术融合75位不同类型妇女的照片后制作而成的。通用面粉公司 (General Mills Inc.)的发言人说制作过程比较迅速，但也承认，将新形象推广到整个贝蒂. 克罗克食品系列却花费了不少时间。 推广进程的缓慢暗含着美国种/民族融合的缓慢步伐。让社会明显意识到多血统美国人的存在的确要花很长时间。年轻苃的高尔夫球巨星泰戈. 伍兹(Tiger Woods ) 已将这种趋势在公众中宣传。他称自己是"高黑印亚人"(Cablinasian)，即高加索人(Caucasi- an)、黑人(black)、印第安人(In- dian) 和亚洲人(Asian)的混血儿。 基本上是市场, 而不是政府,在这一融合进化进程中起着领头作用。时装业专家说现在最需要的就是多血统模特，特别是男性多血统模特。而电视广告也更倾向于选择多血统的儿童演员。 雇用混血模特和演员的广告代理商"并不是什么理想主义者," 维尔金斯说。"他们的目的是卖东西，所以他们对潮流的研究十分细致。因此，他们看中的是一个巨大的市场，需要那些非纯种白人，或极渴望美国成为真正大融炉的漂亮人儿来招徕顾客。" 严肃的学者开始谈论大融炉问题本身就反映了社会潮流的逆转。作为美国多样性的隐喻，大融炉这个概念首先在第一次世界大战后遭到质疑，因为那时欧洲各国移民涌入美国城市后，并没有被融合，而是各起炉灶，自成一体。 事实证明，当时谈论隐喻意义上的融炉尚为时过早，而且日后的熔炉也不是在市区。种/民族融合是第二次世界大战后在郊外开始发生的。市民从位于市区的意大利、爱尔兰、波兰或犹太人聚居区分散搬迁到各郊区。然后他们又把孩子送到大型公立大学读书，在那里虽然遇到了家住他方的别族孩子，但生活方式却仍然相似。 "大多数人都是在大学时或刚开始工作时遇到其潜在的配偶，"弗吉尼亚州里士满大学(University of Richmond [Virginia])教授、社会学家莎朗. 李如是说。"接受大学教育时，你有可能处在能接触各种民族背景的人的环境中。这样，和异族通婚的机率加大了。"李自己就是一例。她和她丈夫是在大学时代认识的。她丈夫是波特兰州立人口研究与普查中心(Portland State Center for Population Research and Census) 的主任。 美国劳动部养老与福利管理局 (U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration) 的特别助理戴维. 曾(David Tseng) 也讲了自己类似的故事。他母亲来自厄瓜多尔，父亲则是中国派驻华盛顿的一名外交官的儿子。在50年代末，他父母亲的婚姻是极为罕见的, 但曾说："我想父母婚姻的成功得益于他们日常接触的人和朋友都受过教育、有才智，并能与其他国家、文化的人和睦相处。" 如今，这种情况经常出现在美国土生土长的亚裔美国人和拉美裔美国人中。埃德蒙斯顿指出"与传统的西南部和西部聚居区相比，居住在各族混居地区的亚裔和拉美裔美国人异族婚姻的比例非常高。"他摘引的一项研究表明，例如住在美国东北部新英格兰(New England) 地区的当地出生的亚裔年轻人异族通婚率高竓达80%。 具有讽刺意味的是，被许多分析家指责为导致分裂的移民增多和文化多元趋势的主要因素实际上促成了种族和民族的融合。"如果你把社会拆散成一个个种族碎片，那么根据数学原理，你遇到本族人的机率会越来越小，"瓦滕伯格说。"犹太人基本上便是这种状况。" 黑人是否会和其他少数民族一样汇入大融炉仍然有争执。怀疑者指出黑人与白人通婚的比率非常小，因此黑人的融合一时不会出现。也有人反驳说，比率小的原因是统计基数太小了，因为1967年以前，黑人与白人通婚在19个州都被视为违法。 对抗力量 尽管有许多力量在促进异族婚姻，也有因素在妨碍这一进程，对非洲裔美国人来说尤其如此。 越来越多的黑人上大学，跻身中产阶级，搬迁到郊区，他们也处于异族婚姻的潮流之中。根据雷诺兹. 法利(Reynolds Farley) 对非洲裔美国人居住模式的研究，异族通婚趋势在加利福尼亚以及一些城市如德克萨斯州达拉斯(Dallas, Texas)、内华达州拉斯维加斯(Las Vegas, Nevada)和亚利桑那州菲尼克斯(Phoenix, Arizona)尤其明显，因为它们和美国东北部及中西部的老城市相比，居住隔离的情况没有那么突出。埃德蒙斯顿指出，例如在加州，25至34岁的非洲裔美国人中，14%的已婚黑人妇女和32%的已婚黑人男子有异族配偶。 然而，在美国东北部和中西部城市居民状况泾渭分明的市区内，旧有的模式依然存在。法利说，"黑人人口中有相当一部分仍住在底特律(Detroit)、芝加哥、纽约的贫民区。这些城市的内城地区还未经历经济高度增长。"法利说"那些人跟不上，被远远舍弃在一边。" 法利以前是密歇根大学 (University of Michigan) 的教授，现任纽约市拉塞尔. 塞奇基金会(Russell Sage Foundation) 副会长。 另一股对抗力量是移民。移民通常不会与其种/民族外的人通婚。他们的孩子有一部分会与异族通婚，但只有到第三代这种现象才变得普遍。然而从最近一次大规模移民潮至今，还只有第一和第二代移民。 无论种/民族混融实际达到了什么程度，检验社会融合程度只能靠声明自己是多种/民族归属的人的比率的判断。迄今为止，这一比率还很低。部分原因是人们倾向于选择父母二人中一种/民族身份-通常选择具有少数种/民族身份的父亲或母亲，例如黑人或拉美裔人。而在很大程度上，这种身份选择是由社会强加的。 人口普查局官员戴尔皮奈尔解释说。"我有个西班牙名字，说西班牙语，所以人们把我的祖籍看做是西班牙。" 种族身份的认定也取决于其他原因，如民族自豪感增强，或可从肯定性行动计划(affirmative action) 或其他项目中获益。在过去几十年中，印第安人血统显然颇受青睐。1970年至1980年间，在人口普查表上声明属"美洲印第安人"的人口数量从80万增至140万，造成这一增长速度的原因远不止于"出生人口减去死亡人口"。"人们决定要美洲印第安人的身份，这在某种程度上是出于不断增强的民族意识，"城市研究所(Urban Institute)移民政策项目(Immigration Policy Program)主任杰弗里.S. 帕塞尔(Jeffrey S. Passel)说。帕塞尔曾任人口普查局人口处(Census Bureau Population Division) 处长。 犹太人中的开明分子正是力图用这种对待种/民族身份的积极态度。两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。(在许多犹太人中，诅咒一个与外族通婚的犹太人，就背诵为死人祈祷的祷文。)因此，与外族通婚非常少见。据纽约市立大学的迈耶统计，第二次世界大战前异族通婚者在所有已婚犹太人中所占比例不到7%。但1970年，一项全国犹太人口普查(National Jewish Popula- tion Survey)显示在过去5年中，新婚犹太人有30%是与外族人结婚。到1990年，这一比率已超过50%。 经过多次会议，多次诚挚的自我反省和多次言辞尖刻的争论，各种各样最不保守教派的犹太会堂组织和犹太人市民组织决定改变他们的策略。他们仍然尽量不鼓励异族婚姻，但一旦既成事实，他们便欢迎这些多信仰的家庭。 设在华盛顿的改革派教会弥迦会堂(Temple of Micah) 的拉比但以理.G.泽梅尔(Daniel G. Zemel)便是转变立场的人之一。泽梅尔最近回忆道，1979年他被授与拉比职位，"我当时认为应把那些主持异族结婚婚礼的拉比从拉比协会中驱逐出去。可后来，我的思想发生了很大变化。" 相关链接：教学论文
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