"The metaphor of the #UnitedStates as the great #MeltingPot, in which immigrants from around the world come together and melt into one unified society through the process of assimilation, is a cherished idea. [...] In reality, only #European #immigrants were allowed to melt, or assimilate, into dominant culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, because, regardless of their ethnic identities, these immigrants were perceived to be #white and thus could belong."