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(jazz music)

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- I first met Pat in 
1961 when I called him up

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and told him I'd like him 
to write for Commentary,

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and he said he'd be delighted.

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- At that time, I'd become 
involved in a project

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to write a book on ethnic 
groups of New York City.

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I wanted to find someone

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who both had some 
intellectual sophistication,

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but also had direct 
experience and involvement.

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Irving Kristol, who was editing 
The Reporter magazine, said,

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"You should talk 
to Pat Moynihan."

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And so we met.

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- Irresistible, and he always 
was, the charm, the wit.

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Always a lot of fun.

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- We'd have these 
long walks in New York

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and we'd... (laughs)

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We observed the buildings

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and sometimes step 
into a bar and so on.

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And he always drank 
much more than I did,

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but it didn't seem to 
affect him in any way.

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And eventually, Pat wrote a 
wonderful essay on the Irish

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in New York and America.

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(uptempo piano music)

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- [Narrator] When it 
was published in 1963,

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Glazer and Moynihan's book, 
"Beyond the Melting Pot",

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transformed how 
ethnicity was viewed.

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It challenged the notion 
of a homogenized America

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and instead presented a country 
of jostling ethnic groups.

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- There had been this idea

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that we'd all come over 
here, we were all different,

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we'd go into a melting pot,

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which is- 
- [Speaker] Israel Zangwill.

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- [Pat] Israel Zangwill.

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- [Speaker] The play, 
"The Melting Pot".

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- [Pat] Right.

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And that was our 
creed and our hope.

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What we looked at 
was a city in which

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that hadn't happened at all,

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and if it wasn't gonna 
be there in New York,

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wasn't gonna be there anywhere.

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- Pat Moynihan was very proud

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and really claimed, I think, 
with some justification,

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that he was present 
at the creation

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of this whole idea 
of studying ethnicity

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as a serious academic subject.

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(uptempo piano music continues)

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- I remember I was 
raised on 42nd Street

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and taught to think that all 
the people lived on 43rd Street

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and 11th Avenue 
were somehow animals

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and against us enlightened 
people who lived on 42nd Street

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and 11th Avenue.

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(uptempo piano music continues)

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We're a pretty mixed up 
population, and always have been

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and are always going to 
have some of the tensions

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that come with this.

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That's one of the things

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that makes life 
interesting in the city.

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(uptempo piano music continues)