Diversity in the U.S.: Americans Getting Along,

¶ … Diversity in the U.S.: Americans getting along, but divisions remain," was written by Katy Steinmetz. The article provides an overview of opinions of cultural diversity in the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The author spends a good deal of the article citing and analyzing evidence from a poll regarding different views of Americans pertaining to cultural diversity.

One of the most salient aspects of this article is that it dedicates a significant amount of text to the opinions and feelings of senior citizens -- meaning individuals who are over the age of 65. As the title of the article suggests, Americans are still distinctly divided over cultural ties which include, but are not limited to, age, race, ethnicity and religion. The key points in the article include the fact that senior citizens are more suspicious of, and less tolerant, of individuals who are not European-American or Caucasian.

Specifically, the article states the fact that "…left leaners and Millenials are more comfortable with non-whites…More than 50% of young Americans say they speak with African-Americans on a daily basis, while 25% of seniors do" (Steinmetz, 2011). It is crucial to note that Millenials are individuals who were born in the 1980's and afterwards, which denotes that senior citizens are not part of this category. Still, it is important to realize that these divisive views in the article are couched in a framework which both implies and belies tolerance for cultural diversity.

Such a paradox is readily explained by the fact that over 90% of individuals surveyed in the aforementioned poll conducted by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute favor religious tolerance, whereas more than 80% favor ethnic tolerance for groups including "African-Americans, Hispanics, Catholics and Jews" (Steinmetz, 2011). Still, approximately 50% or more of major ethnic groups (including Caucasian, African-Americans, and Hispanics) believe that they are targets of racial discrimination. Personally, I believe that this article is extremely revealing about the state of racial relations in the United States today.

Due its reputation as the land of opportunity, there are numerous people who still view the U.S. As the proverbial melting pot for which it was traditionally known. This image is probably still relevant to a number of young people as this article suggests. Still, it is noteworthy that many of the older individuals (seniors) still seem to embrace he ideology that dominated the majority of the 20th century, when segregation and race played a principle role in the determining of a person's status.

I actually wish that America were better integrated and that there were fewer people who would not determine their attitudes and behaviors towards others based on ethnicity.