American's come from every ethnicity, religion and culture and as a result of the mixed ethnicity in US, there are more from Irish ancestry than in Ireland, more Italians in New York than in Venice, as well more Polish, blacks, Jews than in their leading cities of their countries. As consequence we cannot speak of a standard 'minority' or 'majority' model. The largest ethnic group is the British one representing 15% of the American population, on the second place are the Germans with a percentage of 13% and 11% are blacks. As a result of this mixture many Americans don't identify themselves ethnically because they can't. Diversity and unity remain in tension nowadays as always. There are not two groups alike regarding geography, age, occupation, income, culture etc. To explain these differences may be difficult. Most black people earn less than the white ones. Before the World War II, many Jews, blacks were excluded from society, but after the WWII they came to the attention of the Americans, especially blacks that joined professional sports. Intermarriage also occurred among people of different nationality. On the road toward pluralism and cosmopolitanism occurred many conflicts that resulted with many loss of lives; this event is also known as 'race riots'.
The Know-Nothings, an anti-immigrant party elected 6 governors and dominated several legislatures in the 1850s. An immigration legislation was enacted in 1920; this act cut off the immigration. The high rate of dependence on charity, disease, lack of personal hygiene and crime were the main characteristics of the immigrants. Religious persecution also occurred against Quakers, Mormons etc. Each ethnic group had its own era when it came to America; so that the Irish came in 1850, Jews half century later, and Mexican-American half century after the Jews. The geographic distribution was quietly diverse; so that Scandinavians settled in upper Midwest, Cuban refugees in Florida, Mexican-Americans in Southwest, blacks in the South and so on.
