Look at the lovely, middle class, comfortable and comforting family. Dad in glasses and cardigan. Well-coiffed, attractive, mother. Three squared-away boys. We can imagine Bonanza, The Virginian, or Gunsmoke on the TV.
Now close your eyes and picture the same family members, but from a different ethnicity. Nice, assimilated folks of African, Middle Eastern, or Latin American origin. How easy or difficult is it for you to imagine the same scene with different players in the roles?
Why is it that Norman Rockwell images are the default setting for happy, historic, sentimental memories? Christmas is coming, and its a beautiful thing. Martin Luther King Day is mere 3 weeks later. These are really good times to reflect on what constitutes normal, patriotic, assimilated, happy Americans. The "melting pot" myth of the 1950s and 60s was a great and comforting concept as long as everybody aspired to be just like the archetypal Anglo-American, middle-class family. Germans, Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Southern Europeans worked hard to conform and be accepted into middle class America. The first generations went through bitter discrimination and lower class status, but later generations assimilated.
Where are we in imagining and defining who can belong in that picture?