Majority groups support assimilation, except when they're not majorities
Friday, January 6, 2012 - 15:30
in Psychology & Sociology
We generally think that views about how to integrate a diverse society depend on people's positions in that society -- that is, whether they're in the racial, religious, or cultural majority or a member of a minority. In the US, "people tend to believe that blacks prefer pluralism and whites prefer assimilation," says a psychologist. Assimilation asks minorities -- whether newly arrived or historically rooted -- to drop their cultural identities and adopt the ways of the majority.