Blacks as 'serviceable other'

The American experience teaches us that integration is not just mere proxim ity, but an active process based on joint participation and mutual acceptan ce. It is only in the creation of a common superordinate structure shared w ith the majority that minority groups can aspire to be associated with the dominant culture. Ironically, America has become most successful in allowin g various immigrant groups to become part of its mainstream by abandoning t he idea of blind assimilation. This paper analyzes the integration of volun tary immigrants who, while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness, have come to share the 'American dream'. It is however in their social represen tations of Blacks, defined negatively as the "other," that they have reduce d their social distance to the dominant Angle-culture and facilitated their inclusion. By reconstructing their own cultural distinctiveness, like othe r groups, in juxtapositin to America, some Blacks have transformed themselv es into African Americans to achieve the same level of integration. Copyrig ht (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.