| A | B |
|---|
| civil religion | The religious dimension in American life that merges the state with sacred beliefs. |
| Columbia Coalition | Founded in 1971, employs lawyers to handle cases of Italian Americans who claim they are victims of bigotry. |
| creationists | People who support a literal interpretation of the biblical book of Genesis on the origins of the universe and argue that evolution should not be presented as established scientific thought. |
| denomination | A large, organized religion not officially linked with the state or government. |
| Engel v. Vitale | The 1962 Supreme Court decision in this case that disallowed an allegedly nondenomination prayer drafted for use in the New York public schools. |
| ethclass | The merged ethnicity and class in a person's status. |
| ethnicity paradox | The maintenance of one's ethnic ties in a way that can assist with assimilation in larger society. |
| life chances | People's opportunities to provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences. |
| padrone | Many Italians received their jobs through an ethnic labor contractor. |
| "plastic reindeer rules" | Displays that combine creche, the Christmas manger scene depicting the birth of Jesus, or the Hanukkah menorah, and also include Frosty the Snowman or even Christmas trees have been ruled secular. |
| principle of third-generation interest | Marcus Hansen's contention that ethnic interest and awareness increase in the third generation, among the grandchildren of immigrants. |
| respectable bigotry | Michael Lerner's term for the social acceptance of prejudice against White ethnics, when intolerance against non-White minorities is regarded as unacceptable. |
| secessionist minority | Groups, such as the Amish, that reject both assimilation and coexistence. |
| symbolic ethnicity | Herbert Gans's term that describes emphasis on ethnic food and ethnically associated political issues rather than deeper ties to one's heritage. |
| Yoder v. Wisconsin | The case in which the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision that a cumpulsory-education law violated the Amish right to religious freedom. |
