[Yardstick]

The second generation adapts to America, and in doing so, changes it as much as it changes them.

No, if the melting pot is working as it should, America changes the second generation much more than the second generation changes America. It isn't an even trade. Just look at language. By the second generation America has replaced their native language with English, and in return English picks up a few colorful ethnic terms.

It's all about the melting pot, man.

[Clemenza]

If America were a "melting pot" (a term created by the early 20th century left, btw), there would be NO black people, Puerto Ricans, etc., or white people for that matter (we would all be sort of mauve).

Check any professional survey or spend time around immigrants and you will see that their children prefer English, speaking their mother tongue largely with their parents. Knowing Polish was the ONLY way my grandfather could speak with his mother, who never learned English.

Any revisionist nonsense about the left-wing myth (now adopted by the neoconservative right) about a "melting pot" ignores the true history of race and culture in America. I happen to prefer the term "salad bowl" as being more realistic.

My original point still stands: America changes the "ethnics", and the "ethnics" change America. This is a natural process and CANNOT be changed.