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Having pockets of non-assimilating immigrants who do not share the majority of those things are just holes in our social fabric. Sure, it can take a few holes here and there, but we're importing, illegally and at our own expense mind you, millions of immigrants into our country each year. If a single family moves into a neighborhood and is surrounded by American culture, they'll assimilate. If hundreds of families move into an area in quick succession there's no longer pressure to adopt American cultural norms because there are plenty of families similar to you nearby. You don't need to learn English, there are already businesses that speak your own language nearby. You don't need to develop a taste for American interests and entertainment, there are lots of people around you that already share your own nation's interests and entertainment.

All that from a grocery store?

Look, I get that assimilation is important, but so is a tapestry of mixed inputs.

You want monoculture? Move to Northern Minnesota where all the food is meat and potatoes, ketchup is "spicy", Polish is "ethnic", the music is interchangeable, and the people are so damn sure that they are the enlightened ones because they have never had their worldviews challenged. You'd love it here. All white people.

Jewish quarters are some of the most fascinating places to visit in European towns and cities. Same with Chinatown, Little India, or Arab Street in Singapore. Hell, for that matter, there are communities inside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem for both Jews and Muslims, and they get along a lot better than media would have you believe.

Now, if places are creating closed off ghettos where outsiders are intimidated and targeted, or if they refuse to learn our language, that's fair to criticize. That being said, it's also something where the comfort of your own language does not mean that it's "easy" to get by without learning the local lingo. When I lived in Japan, I could get by without knowing any Japanese. That didn't make it "easy", and I still worked to learn it. I just didn't show up knowing it and I spent time with other English speakers because it got exhausting to struggle ALL the time with a new language.

To rail against them for being different AND working to be part of America? You sound silly.

This post was edited on 12/19/23 at 3:53 pm