Dinaw Mengestu Quotes

Race wasn't an issue. My family was French, but Yorkville was a melting pot of races and cultures.

I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

We can make the United States a 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity.

I'd work to make it hip again to spend time in our fabled and fabulous land. But with a Puerto Rican father and a Jewish mother, I would probably be better suited as mayor of New York.

I really love Japan, and I liked living there very much, and there are so many terrific things about Japan. However, I do think what's amazing is that Japan really prides itself on being monoracial. It doesn't have the same kind of idea as in the U.K. or Canada or the United States, in which the idea of diversity is a strength.

I've always seen myself as an all-American kid, you know. You're not just white or black or Asian or Latino. We're in the melting pot of America.

The idea of the beauty of diversity came from just growing up where I grew up. Los Angeles is a very big city - there's Little Ethiopia, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, there's African-Americans, Latinos, Europeans.

America gave the world the notion of the melting pot - an alchemical cooking device wherein diverse ethnic and religious groups voluntarily mix together, producing a new, American identity. And while critics may argue that the melting pot is a national myth, it has tenaciously informed the America's collective imagination.

London is the most multicultural, mixed-race place on Earth.

I don't know if it's because my father's from Argentina, that I'm the son of an immigrant, I don't know if its because I'm Jewish, but I have always been mindful that the best insights occur when you have some kind of an outsider perspective.

Well, I think it's real important that people understand, first and foremost, those of us that have lived in Arizona or in southern California, we have a very diverse population. The Hispanic population has been part of all of our lives since we've been born here or since we've grown up here.

I'm a first-generation American, so I had friends from several cultures while growing up, including Indian and Iranian friends.

The Indo-Canadian community has been a microcosm of the people of Indian origin living abroad besides reflecting India's diversity.

I choose to be American, I choose to live in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I choose to have Puerto Rican/Jewish neighbors, and I choose to maintain my Chinese identity.

America's a melting pot, all races, cultures, religious choices.

Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting.

The melting pot was always a tension between difference and sameness.

Our nation has been called a melting pot. I think of it more as a mosaic, one to which many groups make their own distinct contributions.

Assimilation is what has made America great.

There are men of eighteen different languages; they are scattered here and there upon the [Hudson] river.

This is a country where Jews and Arabs speak without fear. Where people come from different cultures the world over. Where everyone becomes Brazilian rapidly.

I've grown up in a very diverse background.

One reason I'm grateful to call Hawai'i home is that the people of these islands embrace diversity and celebrate the colorful fabric of race, ethnicity, and religion that make up our people, place, and culture.

I grew up in an environment in Birmingham that was really multicultural, with black kids, Irish kids, Indian kids.

More than 300 languages are spoken in London. Religions are freely practiced. Rich and poor live on the same street, side by side. We've actually escaped many of the most difficult problems - integration and community cohesion.