When the Italians came, they spoke Italian for a long time, especially in their neighborhoods.  The same can be said for the Germans, Swedes, Poles,  Chinese, etc,  and you know what, people of those times made the same complaint as you.  "Identity politics" is something people made up in order to disparage the continued fight for equal rights, and liberal/Marxist is a term invented to disparage those who fight for equal rights .  You are absolutely right that equal rights should lead to color blindness, but it also goes the other way - you need equal rights for everyone to achieve color blindness.  And Dean, this country has talked of the melting pot for more than a century, and for more than a century many people have excluded immigrants and people of color from the pot.  You say you worked in the civil rights movement, yet you ignore history with the comment "dismantle the melting pot idea which made us so cohesive".