Jean Toomer's book Cane reflects social attitudes toward race and racial matters and so can be linked to the statement by W.E.B. DuBois that "the problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line." Race itself becomes a source of social and cultural marginalization for many black people and has done so since blacks were removed from Africa and brought to this country as slaves. Once slavery ended, many may have thought blacks would be assimilated into society over time, and while this has occurred, it has not been rapid enough and has not meant that they do not feel marginalized in a society that rewards some groups and leaves others by the wayside.
Americans do share a common national identity at some level, but at the same time, different groups in American society have somewhat different perspectives on the degree to which they belong to the larger entity of America. America is often referred to as a melting pot, a reference that is meant to indicate the fact that so many different kinds of people have come here to join the larger American society. The virtue being promoted in this concept is the virtue of assimilation, and it was long felt that even if the first-generation immigrants were unable to assimilate fully because of linguistic or cultural differences that might emphasize their separate identity, their children would be fully assimilated and "Americanized." In sociology, there have been two perspectives on this issue, the assimilationist which held that assimilation was inevitable, and the pluralist which held that it was not necessarily inevitable. Inevitable or not, Americans generally have the same view of what the American nation means, for they have been taught this view as the ideal. Many groups know, however, that the reality falls short of the ideal. America is effectively a multicultural society which on the one hand benefits from an infusion of different beliefs, mores, and traits, while on...