Examples Of Assimilation Of African Americans

For African Americans migrating from the southern United States to the North and the West Coast, they almost all shared similar experiences. They were worn-down by the Jim Crow south and the restrictions placed upon them and were seeking new opportunities to better themselves and the future generations that would come after them. Although sharing this similar experience and background, each individual went through their own unique form of assimilation. The first form of assimilation noted was cultural pluralism of the many southern immigrants who held on to their traditions even when they flew in the face of the norm. According to Wilkerson (2010), “the people brought the Old Country with them” (p. 240). This included everything from traditional southern food like hominy grits and greens to customs such as greeting people whom you passed by on the

According to Wilkerson, “some people disappeared completely- the palest Creoles passed into the white society, never to be seen again in the colored world” (256). Although this was no doubt a relatively low number of individuals capable of this type of assimilation, it mirrors that off the Southern and Eastern Europeans immigrants who dropped their entire culture to become a part of the dominant white culture. They completed the race-relation cycle and had fully assimilated into the common culture and had been accepted as one who belonged. These three forms of assimilation on shed a small light on the spectrum of various assimilation that African Americans went through during the great migration. For each individual it was unique and their level of assimilation into the dominant culture varied depending on what aspect of their life was being effected. These various examples show that even when coming from similar circumstances and experiences, assimilation is an individual process that is different for each participating