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Who are We? Chapter 11 ERA

In this chapter of Who Are We  Huntington talks about the renewing of the American identity. He says that there are four main shaping trends that are influencing this; the ending of ethnicity, race is constant, blurring and fading, bifurcation, and a gap between the salience of national identity. 

Huntington says that there is an end to ethnicity in the country. People from all over the world are losing their native countries identity and making one as the American people. This is happening from years of assimilation though multiple generation. There are no longer ethnic separations in education, occupations or residencies. He says that interethnic marriages are creating this melting pot reality, and now we are shifting from a “ multiethnic society of a few dozen ethnic groups into a nonethnic society of tens of millions of multiethnic individuals” (299). 

Race to Huntington is blurring and fading in the new identity. Again, interracial marriages are blurring the lines between races because the offspring is not identifying as one are but both, “More Americans think of themselves as multi-racial rather than as belonging to a single race” (306). Due to the fact that there is an increase and acceptance of multiracial marriages the line of defining oneself to one race has become a tricky situation, so much so that the government has provided the option of checking multiple race options on forms. 

Bifurcation has happened for two main reasons. Firstly, the growing numbers of Hispanics has halted assimilation of the group because they want to keep their identity in a Spanish speaking Hispanic community apart from the Anglo-protestant community. Secondly this is causing a bilingual, bicultural society for the group. 

Lastly Huntington argues that there is a democratic divide between the elites and the public. He says that the elites are more liberal and less nationalistic than the general public causing their bigger influence to push the government their way. The public is more focused on military security and the domestic economy while the elites are invested with international security, and economic development of foreign nations. 

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