The dominant ideology of the United States has stressed as a primary precept the nation’s willingness to accept and incorporate new peoples. Patriotic boosters have promoted the nation as the exemplary model of cultural pluralism and inclusion, but immigration has remained a topic of protracted debate. Controversy occurs because racial theory underpins America’s national ideology. The 19th-century Anglo-Saxon elite that governed, financed, and controlled the nation racialized many immigrant groups as inferior. Irish immigration to the United States in the decades following the Great Famine provides an example. A process of racialized incorporation is outlined, and an example is presented using archaeological remains from Albany, New York. Speculation is presented about the connection between racialized social position and cut-sponge-stamped ceramics.

美国占主导地位的意识形态强调说，该国愿意接受和接纳新人民是首要原则。爱国主义的拥护者已经将国家作为文化多元化和包容性的典范而得到了推广，但是移民仍然是旷日持久的辩论主题。之所以发生争议，是因为种族理论是美国民族意识形态的基础。统治，资助和控制国家的19世纪盎格鲁-撒克逊人精英阶层将许多移民群体种族化为劣等。大饥荒之后的几十年中爱尔兰移民到美国就是一个例子。概述了种族融合的过程，并举例说明了来自纽约奥尔巴尼的考古遗迹。