Many ingredients came together to make one useful and solid, albeit stifling and homogeneous material. Today's historians have largely moved into culinary analogies for the expression of culture. Today, the nation is a salad bowl, or layer cake, where cultures can fit into a whole while still maintaining identity. There is something to be learned from this analogy. Every aspect of individuality should be treated like this.
Difference is the catalyst behind strength, progress and opportunity.
Stifling differences with labels is entirely counter-productive.