Sociologists study inter-group relations along a spectrum that measures tolerance between the groups. At the least-tolerant end of the spectrum is genocide, in which a dominant group attempts to wipe out other groups. A nonprofit group called Genocide Watch monitors cases of genocide around the world. Unfortunately, genocide still exists in the modern age. Most cases of genocide in the world today are perpetrated in Africa. Genocide Watch has declared three genocide emergencies (which means they are already happening) in Africa. The three countries in which one ethnic group is attempting to eliminate other groups are Sudan, Congo, and Ethiopia. In Sudan, the targets are ethnic groups in Darfur (Fur, Massalit, and Zhagawa groups). Over a quarter of a million people have been killed in this example of genocide.
On the other extreme of the spectrum is amalgamation, in which ethnic groups combine through intermarriage and become one. In the United States today, European ethnic groups have combined to the degree that they are predominantly identified as "whites." In the past, a variety of distinct ethnic groups from Europe immigrated to the United States. This is especially true of the period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I. Germans, Italians, Slavs, Poles, and Greeks are some examples of these groups. For decades, these groups remained ethnically separate and the group dynamics would have been identified as pluralism. Over time, and even today, people from different European ethnic groups marry one another and the distinctions have essentially disappeared.
Intermarriage between whites and African-Americans was prohibited by law in many states until the Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 1967. While there are many examples of interracial marriage in the United States, it is not possible to use as an example of amalgamation because racial and ethnic distinctions between the groups have not disappeared.
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