I found this passage from Ed McBain’s novel, Romance, very interesting.

…. no such thing as a melting pot anymore…we (had been) supposed to take them all in, welcome them all with a warm embrace, hold them close and dear, cherish them as our precious own, forge from a thousand tribes a single strong and vital tribe. That had been the idea….but somewhere along the way the idea began to dissipate….the current hot idea was to keep sacred and separate the heritage of distant lands and foreign tongues. Not to contribute these treasures to the solitary tribe, not to share this wealth with the other members of this great tribe, but instead to protect this private hoard from all other hordes, to keep this fortune ever and always apart.

Where once “separate but equal” was a reviled notion, it was now viewed as something to which an entire people might actually aspire….Where once the noble idea of a “rainbow coalition” conjured an image of bands of different colors riding the sky together in a bonded arch that led to a shared pot of gold, the impoverished expression “gorgeous mosaic” now conjured a restricted vision of tiny chips of colors separated by boundaries, each unit secure in its own brilliance and beauty, none contributing to the grander concept of a unique and remarkable whole.

Where once people pounded on the doors of opportunity and shouted, “Forget we’re black, forget we’re Hispanic, forget we’re Asian,” these same people were now shouting, “Don’t forget we’re black, don’t forget we’re Hispanic, don’t forget we’re Asian!” Where once there was pride and honor and dignity and hope in being American, now… (many) chose to cling to an ethnic identity that seemed (in retrospect) to be unchanging, rather than to fall for the bull**** of one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all..