pdq: By an ethnic pest zone I meant a place like the ones I had just mentioned, where certain subgroups have given each other plenty of reason for mistrust for so long that membership in one or another of them has to be the most important fact in each member's life. By "much trying" I meant various attempts (often, these days, under the rubric of the pernicious pseudoconcept of "identity") to induce that state of mind in Americans.

Jim Dixon: Yes, I should have paid more attention to where the question was coming from. Of course, there are many other places that are not ethnic pest zones. We Americans used to be in the habit of belittling their accomplishments by saying that they had an easier job because they were ethnically homogeneous. That is no longer true (to the extent that it ever was), but Britain, France, Holland, and Germany seem to have kept up their decencies pretty well. There are, indeed, sons of bitches everywhere (in the '40s, George Orwell collected some pretty vile remarks about refugees in Britain), and they are good at getting into the news. We'll see.