[rhino369]

>Anecdotal example: In Brazil, you don't see people claiming they are Irish when their families have lived in the US for generations.

That is actually the key to Americas success. The total separation of ethnicity and national identity. It allows an immigrant to keep their ethnic identity and merely add an American one.

It's also helps when a white 5th generation american thinks they are Irish and American. They'll be less likely to believe that a newly arrived Mexican isn't really American. They intuitively know you can be both.

[vinceguidry]

That is something we inherited from the British. You can be British and any ethnicity. The US just took that idea and rolled with it.

America's success results largely from its geography. Being isolated from Europe by a large ocean and having the mighty Mississippi river system to build an agricultural powerhouse from made it pretty much inevitable.

[rpgmaker]

Except that Brazil is known to be pretty racist, even by Latin American standards. There is, somewhat surprisingly, a lot of racism in Latin America.

[fortes]

I disagree completely, I think that type of attitude leads to the notion of "Real" Americans. Keeping the ethnic identity is the opposite of the melting pot.

In Brazil, you're just Brazilian, regardless of color.

[umanwizard]

100% of the Brazilians I have met (I'm in the US) are middle class and above.

Also, as if by magic, 100% of them appear white (or mostly white), despite non-whites making up a large fraction of Brazil's population.

It's absurd to act like everything is great for racial minorities in Brazil.

[apalmer]

Brazil has a pretty significant and open classism via race issue. Not sure we should hold them up as a superior melting pot...