Where everyone's minority
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The text I’m going to present is an article written by Stodghill and Amanda Bower and published in the American magazine Time on August 25, 2002.
The article deals with the ethnic groups in the United States and their growing importance in some cities like Sacramento in California.
I will divide my commentary into 4 parts:
1. First I will locate the city of Sacramento and Sequoia Way and explain why many ethnic minorities live there. 2. Second, I will describe the harmonious life of the different ethnic minorities in this district. 3. Then, I will speak about the tension that also exists there. 4. Finally I will present an image of the American population in the future, using figures presented in the text.
1. The journalists used the example of Sequoia Way to illustrate the diversity of the American population; so to start with, I would like to say a few words about the area. Sequoia way is a street in the city of Sacramento in the state of California. At first sight, it’s an ordinary street but what is special about it is the mosaic of people who live there. California is not far from the Mexican frontiers, which explains why so many Hispanics live there (22%). It also attracts Asian immigrants (17.5%) because they just have to cross the Pacific Ocean to get there. Adding to that, the African-American (15.5%) and the whites (41%) have moved to the west of California in order to find new job opportunities and better life conditions.
2. All these ethnic groups make what is called the “American melting pot” and Sequoia Way is compared to “Baskin-Robbins” (line 22) which is a chain of ice cream stores because of the different colours and flavours you can see and smell there. The shopping centres or the Malls are compared to the United Nations’ cafeteria because the people you see come from different origins. They live together in almost perfect harmony (I quote: “ethnic minorities live side by side