Wednesday, April 4th Assignment - #6 p.461

Fredrickson rejects the claim that an emphasis on ethnic identity threatens the unity and stability of American society because he believes that the best hope for a cohesive society is a "cultural pluralism that is fully inclusive and based on the free choices of individuals to construct or reconstruct their own ethnic identities" (459).  A Euro-American backlash against ethnic diversity poses a greater risk according to Fredrickson because if society remains how it was with an overwhelmingly Euro-American population then ethnic diversity cannot be reached.  I guess a recent example of divisiveness would be the ethnic and racial diversity here at Hofstra.  Though we definitely have a diverse campus, it is still mainly white.  And people of the same race and ethnicity tend to congregate with each other on campus, making it easier to see the divisiveness between the different racial and ethnic groups.  But even though there is a separation, I don't believe that Hofstra or its students are racist.