American society is a composite of many ethnic groups from throughout the world.
Each person , d each ethnic group brought components of their culture with them when they came to North America. Their numbers, their timing, their socioeconomic strength, and their political power played roles in determining how their culture impacted those who preceded them, those who were their contemporaries, those ho followed, and the overall society of the United States and Canada. The culture of some groups came to dominate, others saw their culture play a smaller role in the emerging dominant society, others saw their culture almost disappear in the process of assimilation, and a few groups found that they were, to varying degrees, on the margins of the dominant society. This marginalization has often had a spatial component as well as economic, political, and cultural components. In this class we will examine four ethnic groups in North America that have experienced significant degrees of marginalization.