America Is A Melting Pot

America is the "great Melting Pot". From an early age every "American" is taught that America contains a mixture of the world 's cultures in a perfectly blended mixture. We honor and respect all cultures and invite them to bring their customs here to the United States. But do we really? Take for instance, the Hmong refugees who involuntarily moved to America. Cultural Assimilation seemed to be forced down the refugees throats. Keeping their native customs was looked on with horror and disgust.

Several years ago, America was taught to be a 'melting pot,' a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society, but now America is more of a 'salad bowl' where instead of forming an incorporated entity the people who make up the bowl are unwilling to unite as one. America started as an immigrant nation and has continued to be so. People all over the world come to America for several reasons. Most people come to America voluntarily, but very few come unwillingly. For whatever reasons they may have for coming they all have to face exposure to American society. When exposed to this 'new' society they choose whether to assimilate or not. Assimilation

Paula J. Johnson, a curator at the National Museum of American History, says that foods such as wasabi, Sriracha, and hummus would have been considered “foreign foods” 50 years ago, but today they are common, everyday staples for many people across America. Ramanathan briefly states before this that the only constant in American foods is global influence and then goes on to say that it’s not uncommon in modern times for people to eat, for example, Thai food for lunch and then Italian for dinner. She writes that America has people from all backgrounds, cultures, and countries and their influences are present everywhere, especially the food. In America today, there are so many influences on our foods that using the term ethnic to describe them makes it sound foreign when the food is something people eat every

America is greatly influenced and enhanced by the many versatile cultures which inhabit it. Cultural diversity has added to our economy in such a way that it brings innovated ideas and contact structures throughout the world. International cuisines have come to America through subcultures, have expanded the food industry, and have allowed English Americans to try new foods and flavors. Immigrants have brought with them religious values that greatly differ and vary from those at which were natural in the main stream American culture. The educational development through foreign nationals has led America, as a nation, to excel and be deemed one of the most intelligent nations in the world! Consequently, the subcultures have kept our

The United States first became identified as the world’s greatest melting pot after the waves of immigration from Europe and neighbor countries to America. The culture they brought over combining with the culture of the Native Americans and those who previously set up foundations within the Americas.

So many times the phrase "melting pot" is used to describe the United States of America. It is a country built on ideals such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other basic human rights. These  ideals, though they may have originated from European men labeled as liberals, eventually captured followers from all over the world. Soon, America was a mixture of peoples with different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and cultures all working together for the "American Dream."

In Forging a New Vision of America 's Melting Pot by Gregory Rodriguez the author expresses support for a heavy Mexican influence in the United States and integration of races. The author made some points about how legislatures have tried to stop Mexicans from entering the country and have repeatedly tried to keep them down as second class citizens. It seems that he wants Mexicans to have more influence in mainstream media, but I feel as if he 's pushing it too strong. I 'm all for equality, but it seems that he wants Hispanics to take a very large piece of the pie. I prefer an equal amount of the pie for all. It seems that the issue the author is stating about discrimination and legislative action against Hispanics comes from issues stemming from the old days. He mentions the Nineteen-twenties Texas representative John C. Box and his controversial views on immigration of Mexicans, but then he states a strong support in the Nineteen-nineties and their “Latino issues are American issues” mantra. I see why some people may be worried that Mexicans are taking over, because they may lose a little of their culture. Although change isn 't always bad, we cannot just barge in and force a change. America is a diverse country and we have a piece of the whole world here, so for one social group to complain and want their influence to be on a grand scale is just preposterous. We all need to share this melting pot of stew.

Final Essay The myths of this chapter were all interesting, but two of them were especially noteworthy. The Myth of the Melting Pot and of the Myths of Freedom were the most significant and far-reaching myths of the book. These are myths that every American has engrained in their minds.

America the great melting pot. Some have argued that the melting pot analogy is inaccurate. Instead America is like a tossed salad. A person can see all the individual ingredients that make up the salad. People will argue of what can go into a salad and what cannot go into just as people will argue about the place of certain groups with America. Some find disgust in certain groups of people and praise other. The situation is dynamic. The way people interact with groups are constantly changing and morphing due to different influences. Antisemitism is one of the ways people interact with the tossed salad that is America. Antisemitism in United States is on a decline because other groups are being used as scapegoats instead, Jews are not seen to pose a threat, a strong Holocaust remembrance, and the hatred of African Americans continues to be the predominate form of hate in the American context.

BBC News states that “ the melting pot imagery has been contested by the idea of multiculturalism, the “salad bowl theory”, or as it is known in Canada, “the Cultural Mosaic”, whereby the immigrants retain their own national characteristics while integrating into a new society” (“Melting pot America”) . BBC News put into words that while immigrants are trying to settle into a new society and new culture they can express their lifestyle along the way. The process of integrating into a new civilization is all about coming together as a whole which creates “America’s Melting point” status. BBC News explains that immigrants have been coming into the United States and have been able to keep and bring in their cultural background during the development. Brandi Waters states that “America is a country of immigrants… one thing that every immigrant brings with them is their culture”. He claims that to be the reason why America is known as the melting pot with all new immigrants with different cultures blending with the American culture (“America: a Melting Pot of Cultures”). Brandi Waters has well explaining that immigrants contribute to the American culture. They expanded on the diversity and culture involving themselves with the already settled in, but also mixed variety United States of America. Waters is explaining that America’s melting pot is made up of all the diverse

She compares multiple food analogies that all express this common theme, such as the tossed salad, which implies that “Ingredients are encouraged to retain their cultural identities, thus retaining their integrity and flavor while contributing to a tasty and nutritious salad” (4). A more well known analogy, the melting pot, states, “the ingredients in the pot are combined so as to lose their discrete identities and yield a final product of uniform consistency and flavor” (“Melting Pot”). A compromise between the two, the ethnic stew, allows for some unified culture but still permits the ingredients in the stew to retain their cultural identities. Gloor notes that all of these models have something in common, “Each ingredient is important and the final product would not be the same if some distinct ingredient were missing”

The increasing accommodations directed toward immigrant culture worries many Americans. Americans fear the special treatment granted to immigrants will affect the unifying force of the country. Today, the trend is toward multiculturalism, diversity and adapting the newcomer, rather than on the newcomer adapting himself or herself to a diverse society (61).

The United States is commonly know as a melting pot of nations, in which people from around the world have emigrated to form a homogeneous yet varied culture. Although we come from different ethnic groups, we are usually bound together through our common English language. This becomes an issue, however, when immigrants are not familiar with English and American culture, and instead attempt to keep their own heritage alive. They are often torn between identities through language, the one they speak at home which they are familiar with, and the one they must adhere to in public. This often leads to struggle and conflict on both sides, dealing with different cultures and how people react when assimilation occurs. Because of this, living in the United States often requires us to completely accept only one identity, even though hints of the other may spill over at times.

The salad bowl (acculturation) is basically learning and participating in a second culture. Putting different people in one area, while not developing other cultures. These people who fall under this category keep their own identity. The melting pot (assimilation) is taking on the characteristics of the host culture. Basically bringing different religions and people together and being influenced by them and picking up on their culture while at the same time losing your own culture and customs. Amal is more of a melting pot to me because she changes her name to Amy, decides to wear a bikini which would never be acceptable in her culture back home, she rides a bike around, has a very American name for her daughter; Sarah, and tries not to bring any of her old customs to her new life in America. Her transformation to the United States was interesting because she tries to avoid her culture and her customs, doing anything she can for people to not know she is not from the U.S. This leads to her falling under the category of a melting

The “melting pot” culture refers to people from various cultures coming together to create a new unique culture. (Lorenzo, 2000) In other words, these cultures have ‘melted’ together in a ‘pot’. For example, Chinese, Koreans, Germans and more cultures blended in together to create a whole new American culture. They are not Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans or German-Americans anymore but just Americans. On the other hand, “salad bowl” culture refers to immigrants who do not lose the aspects of their cultures. . (Lorenzo, 2000) To put it in another way, you can still clearly see the different ‘ingredients’ in a ‘salad bowl’. As a contrast to the melting pot theory’s example, Chinese-Americans, Korean-Americans and German-Americans will still keep the unique traits of their cultures while living together in the country. America has been traditionally referred to as a ‘melting pot’, but recently; there are people who argue that ‘salad bowl’ will be a better description of America’s society today.