I have always argued that the United States is not so much a melting pot, but a mosaic. The boundary lines between cultures have always been blurred, however, fusing into something new and unique. Some of the trends affecting the U.S. were pointed out by Michael Shelton in his article "Camps in a World of Change" in the Sept/Oct 2006 issue of Camping Magazine:
An increasingly diversified world is already occurring, will not abate, and is changing the entire fabric of the United States. Some of the factors affecting diversity include immigration, intermarriages (of third-generation immigrants, 41 percent of all Asians and 65 percent of Hispanics marry across group lines), the breakdown of traditional classifications (the strict delineation of black/white/Asian/Hispanic categorization is a relic of the past), and a widespread movement of voluntarily seeking out and celebrating ancestral "roots."
Cultural Fusion is occurring not just on the pop culture level, but in terms of the modern American family as well.
Shelton wrote a series of five articles on Managing Diversity in Camping Magazine. Although the intended audience of these articles is camp professionals, the information holds valid across a spectrum of industries. Check it out starting with the first issue: http://www.acacamps.org/campmag/0609.php and then move forward through the archives.
