America, he said, “has been a melting pot for people of European descent.’’
“So if you’re a Swede, a Norwegian, an Irishman and a Frenchman, after the second or third generation, your kids are all alike,’’ Stringer explained. “They don’t have any accents. They’re indistinguishable.’’
Not so with Latinos. Or Asians.
“Talk to Asians,’’ Stringer said. “Even though they’re affluent, they’re an educated, cultured group, they still have a sense of maybe not fully participating in American life.’’
Even African-Americans, he said, “still have not been fully assimilated into American culture.”
Then there’s the Latinos, who have close ties across the border.
“They go back and forth,’’ Stringer said. “They have their connections with their family, their connections with their culture, their language, their connections with their country are stronger than when you came over from Russia, or you came over from the Ukraine, or you came over from Italy or wherever, you were crossing a sea and you didn’t have these lines of connections.’’