Sam Francis and the Triple Melting Pot

Sam Francis and the Triple Melting Pot

It was sheer coincidence, which of course does not exist in the mind of God, that allowed me to take part in this year’s Arbaeen march organized largely by Iraqi Shi’a in Dearborn, Michigan. My opportunity to go on the real Arbaeen pilgrimage from Najaf to Karbala in Iraq to mourn the death of Hussein ibn Ali at the hands of the wicked Khalif Yazid had been thwarted by an unexpected surgery three years ago. Participating in the American replication of that march was more interesting from a sociological point of view because it allowed me to ponder one of the fundamental pillars of ethnic life in America, namely, the Triple Melting Pot. For those who are unaware of its existence, the Triple Melting Pot is “a metaphor that describes a pattern of assimilation in which various nationality groups merge through intermarriage, but with a strong tendency to do so within the three major religious groupings: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish.” The Triple Melting Pot argues that “as immigrants assimilated into American culture, religious boundaries would replace ethnic boundaries as the main point of differentiation among people of European descent in the United States.”

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Francis’s Legacy - Dr. Jones' Speech at the Samuel T. Francis Memorial

Francis’s Legacy - Dr. Jones' Speech at the Samuel T. Francis Memorial

I first met Sam Francis at a meeting of the John Randolph club in Chicago. He was sitting at a table with Tom Fleming. Both men are two years older than me. Both gave me the impression that I was a freshman trying to sit at the Junior Lunch Table in the School Cafeteria.

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