Fredrickson

In Fredrickson's "model of American Ethnic relations", he argued that racism does not only apply to people who are black or Asian, it also apply to those whose ancestries were Irish, Italian, Polish and Jewish. The differences do not only exist in the color of skin. And people often like to seperate one group from another. So they've created different models of ethnic relations.


The first model, which is called one-way assimilation, introduced the idea of getting all different people from different origins to the same level. This is somehow ironic, because while the model aimed at eliminating Ethnic Hierarchy, it actually suggested that different people from different origins were not on the same level, thus constrasted its aim.

The second model, cultural pluralism, claimed that "celebrate  differences among groups  rather than  seek to obliterate them"[p455]. This is a quite idealistic idea of unifying different people. My opinion is that since people are so different, they just can't be unified perfectly.


The third model, Group Separatism, which is in contrast to group pluralism, suggest that different people should live in seperate areas. There would be fewer conflicts, but also less cultural communication. This model "might be viewed as a utopian vision  or rhetorical device  expressing  the depths  of  alienation felt  by  the  most  disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups in American society"[P459]. Disadvantaged groups seek to protect themselves in this way. This is a more practical model than cultural pluralism, but still idealistic.