Assimilationist

From Homolexis Glossary

In terms of sociology an assimilationist is one who advocates that ethnic and cultural groups blend with the larger society. This sense goes back to 1899.

In their opposition to merger with the dominant society, Queer Nation and other radical activist factions have sought to endow assimilationist with an aura of negativity. Among other things, the term serves to stigmatize gays and lesbians who shun flamboyant, “in-your-face” lifestyles, and who seem willing to compromise with the political establishment. The prescriptivist assumption behind this condemnation is that gays must remain perpetually queer, that is to say, nonconformist and rejecting of society’s mainstream. The term is exclusionist rather than inclusive.

The sociologist Stephen O. Murray has recently coined the term deassimilation to designate the larger process of resistance to fusion. Deassimilation has been fostered by the so-called “roots movement” in which members of ethnic minorities are encouraged to seek out and cultivate distinctive features of their heritage.

The assimilation process has not always been regarded as unfortunate. The British Jewish writer Israel Zangwill introduced the term melting pot in 1908, to designate the process of ethnic fusion he detected in America. Theodore Roosevelt, an avowed opponent of “hyphenated Americans,” welcomed the new term. One should also recall the word integration, favored by civil rights leaders in the 1960s. Whatever one thinks of the process it is probably inevitable, as formerly despised minorities shed their stigma and seek the place that is their due in the larger world.