英语国家概况 美国 U3

A family of black Americans
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Major groups of Hispanics
A Spanish language and cultural background is the inexact basis for calling people with ethnic origins in the Caribbean, Central and South America “Latinos” or “Hispanics”. Americans have been using the term to refer to American residents from such countries as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cubans — the three major groups in the American Latino population. In 2000, the Latino population went up to 35.3 million, replacing African Americans as the largest minority group in the United States. Mexican Americans, about 60 percent in the Latino population, lag behind Puerto Ricans and
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1. Black slavery
only with the victory of the northern states in the Civil War of 1861－1865. The U.S. Constitution was then amended so as to outlaw slavery, and to grant automatic citizenship to any person born in the United States.
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A melting pot
Racial and ethnicity in the United States
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1. Composition of European Americans
According to the most recent data released by the U.S. Bureau of Census, about three-quarters (75.1%) of all American citizens are descended wholly and directly from people born in Europe, and a small number (under 5%, mostly elderly) were themselves born in Europe.
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2. Civil Rights Movement
Watch a video clip about Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream”.
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3. Status of black Americans now
By the 1970, blacks were registered as voters in the South almost in the same proportion as whites, and many blacks were elected to important offices in southern states. Over the past three decades, blacks have been elected as mayors of several of the nation’s biggest cities, including Chicago and Washington, D.C.; others have been elected or appointed to many of the highest national and state offices in the South as well as in the North, including the Cabinet and the Supreme Court. There are now some thousands of black millionaires, not only athletes and entertainers, but also
A slave family
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2. Civil Rights Movement
Black opposition to discrimination was led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, with strong support from liberally-minded whites. At this time, there emerged a black clergyman, Martin Luther King, who soon became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Between the late 1950s and the 1960s, the United States witnessed active protests, both non-violent and violent, against racial segregation of all kinds in most of its major cities. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, many laws were passed to eliminate racial discrimination, and southern racism was soon in full retreat.
Do You Know? Focus In
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Do You Know?
Why do we often call the United States “a melting pot”?
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Do You Know?
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Focus In
• Get a general knowledge of the diverse cultures of the USA • Learn the impact of immigration on the American culture • Be familiar with the major events of the Civil Rights Movement • Understand basic values and beliefs of American people • Learn some cultural concepts concerning American character
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2. WASP
English-style house in the Uniteslavery
The sheer number of African Americans in the land is quite significant, for it helps them figure prominently in the present-day American political, economic, social, and cultural life. When Africans were brought to the American South in the early 1600s, they were initially treated as indentured servants rather than as permanent slaves. By the late 1600s, however, hereditary slavery had become the rule and blacks were degraded to the status of property. Some slave-owners treated their
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1. Black slavery
slaves better than others, but all had ultimate power over what was theirs. For blacks, slavery meant extremely hard work, miserable living conditions and indescribable humiliation. Towards 1800, the southern states stopped the slave trade, and from then onwards no more slave ships came in, except for a few which came illegally. But by then, there were nearly a million slaves in the plantations of the South, and the U.S. Constitution had not changed their status. Southern slavery was ended
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1. Composition of European Americans
Major ancestries
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2. WASP
Still, the great majority of Americans are Caucasian, and the mainstream culture of the United States is primarily WASP in character. America still reflects its British origins in ways that go far beyond the language, particularly in architectural design and legal system.