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American Stereotypes of Immigrants Essay

Decent Essays
America was widely known as a “melting pot” of sorts for many generations. The country earned its title by accepting immigrants of various cultures and molding, or melting, them into the American lifestyle. However, the “melting pot” idea of America is starting to dissipate. According to a Newsweek Poll on the public, “only 20 percent still think America is a melting pot” (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.4). As more Americans push away immigrants and create stereotypes against said immigrants, America continues to lose its title as a “melting pot.” There is ethnic friction in America and people have begun to have a hard time assimilating (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.18). .America is beginning to place a negative outlook on its…show more content…
“When all imagemakers rightfully begin to treat Arabs and all other minorities with respect and dignity, we may begin to unlearn our prejudices” (Shaheen 87).
Immigrants come to America in search of freedom and acceptance of their cultures. According to America’s title as a “melting pot”, immigrants should be able to come to America and find exactly what they looking for. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Richard Rodriguez covers this in his essay “The Fear of Losing a Culture” when he says, “Hispanics want to belong to America without betraying the past. Yet we fear losing ground in any negotiation with America. Our fear, most of all, is losing our culture” (Rodriguez 94). If there are people from cultures who are scared to belong to America for fear of losing their culture, how can America be a “melting pot”? Rodriguez shapes the American culture in a very detrimental way. He speaks of how America believed its national strength came from diversity, but Latin America is really the bed of so many races and cultures (Rodriguez 94-95). America has turned a blind eye to Latin America, refusing to believe that Latin America is so diverse. Latin Americans have much to offer from their passion and dedication to hard work. Regardless of what America wants, Latin Americans will change America as it forces them to change (Rodriguez 95).
Peter Marin writes about how America is not a “melting pot”. He mentions that though that might not be so bad for America, it does
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