Mark Laffey queries: Patrick Mason equates large Africa-American populations in the South with cult- ural diversity: am I missing something here? Ah, well, Mark you're missing the entire context of my remarks. 1) I placed "cultural diversity" in quotes in my remarks. You've removed the quotes and hence altered the meaning of my statement. 2) I only wanted to demonstrate that the current "browning" of America is not new. In the past, indigenous groups, Latinos, Asian- and African-Americans have been a larger fraction of the U.S. population than those groups (collectively) are today. So, my brief missive was simply a clarification of a posting by Shawgi Tell. Finally, as a statement of basic math, if one measures "cultural diversity" by the ratio persons of European descent:persons of non-European descent, then the massive European immigration into the U.S. during say 1870-WWI reduced U.S. "cultural diversity." Of course, the large flow of immigrants from Europe were heavily Catholic and Jewish -- and thereby culturally distinct from WASPS -- but recent fears about and animosity towards today's immigrants have nothing to do with religion or language. The current negative attitudes are about racism. peace, patrick l mason
