Summary:
America is not such a melting pot as it is a country of integration. The immigrants who came to America assimilated, but not totally. Whether a country of integration or of a melting pot, America thrives and has always thrived due to the surplus of immigrants finding sanctuary in America.
The Melting Pot
What makes an American an American? Is it the reputation of Americans being
Christians, or is it the white European cultures. When an Indian man walks
through your neighborhood, do you suddenly assume he is American, or do you
assume is he from India like most people? This ignorance, or in more polite
terms naivety, is what makes America the melting pot that it is. The melting
pot is "an environment in which many ideas and races are socially assimilated
." (Webster's Dictionary) When immigrants come to America they are forced to
assimilate. The assimilation is not by physical force, but it is more so to
conform to the "normal behavior" of the "American" or to the white European.
Who wants to be called an outcast or to be teased? Assimilation among
immigrants is as frequent as it is, because being a victim of mistreatment is
a detrimental experience.
The melting pot is what makes America what it is. America is a country that
waves its freedom proudly on a material that contains stars and stripes.
America is a country that possesses three cars for each family, and can pay a
dollar and 60 cents for gas. In America you can clearly denounce your
president, while in a third world country you would probably be put to death.
It can be argued that our country is the best country in the world, and it is
taken for granted like our ability to walk and to talk is. Americans welcome
the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food,
the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of
America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the
wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in
fact are the people who built
America. The melting pot is an advantage to our society because it creates a
diverse unity of people with different beliefs and different perspectives. The
melting pot makes America more open minded and wiser.
Do you recall that Indian I used as an example in my first paragraph? That
same issue can be related to Takaki. Takaki was an individual born in America,
but was a man of Japanese lineage. This Japanese lineage derived many
hardships and trials he had to face in everyday situations. One of these
trials was an incident he had to face in a taxicab. The taxicab driver asked
Takaki where he was from; even after it was clearly obvious he spoke perfect
English. This annoyed him and led him to analyze the circumstances. He
contested these attributes that people gave him had to do with the melting
pot. Takaki argued that America was a crisscross of immigrants, meaning so
many immigrants came to America and integrated in with each other. Thus they
learned to respect each other's cultures, beliefs, and diversity. Although,
Takaki made this argument, he also believed that one race is particular had a
harder time melting and assimilating than any other race. He believed the
black race lacked values and work ethic, and therefore could not conform as
easily to America as minorities such as Asians could. He argues that blacks
lack middle class values of thrift, hard work, self-reliance, and family
values that they need in order to succeed. On the other hand, he also
confesses his admirations for the gains of the Asian Americans in the United
States. He attributes the success of Asian Americans to their strong family
values and ethnic enterprise.
Two articles convey the issue of the melting pot very well. One, the first
article, is against the melting pot, and the second article is pro melting
pot. The first article, which is against the melting pot, raises a few issues.
The article argues that the immigrants arriving today are younger and not as
educated as the immigrants before 1970. Aside from this issue there is also a
language problem. In Miami 3 quarters speak a language different than in
English in their homes and 67 of those say they aren't fluent in English. In
New York 4 out or 10 say they speak a language differently than English. It is
also believed that the domestic migrants such as the blacks and whites are
being "pushed" out, at least in part, by competition with immigrants for jobs.
Because jobs are often a matter of whom one knows, immigrants thus have more
"connections" and receive the jobs over the domestic migrants. In California,
for example, Mexican immigrants are employed overwhelmingly as gardeners, in
apparel and furniture manufacturing, and as cooks. Koreans open small
businesses, Filipinos become nurses and medical technicians, and African
Americans work in government jobs.
On the other hand an article in favor of the melting pot does not use many
facts, but instead uses human emotion. When I read this article a new sense of
American pride was kindled inside of me. This article delineates the greatness
of America. What makes America so great this article argues, is the diversity,
the distinct religions, and the abilities to exercise them all, the education,
the freedom of speech, and the lack of oppression and suppression. The article
also discussed almost immediately after the airplane crashes, the divisions
that so often define our lives became irrelevant. As people scrambled to help
the affected and the injured, race was not an issue. When it came time to find
lost loved ones, religious preferences were not a factor. When it came time to
help co-workers escape falling debris, sexual orientation was not an issue.
This feeling swept the nation almost at once. The government, so often defined
by divisiveness and contention, rallied around the president and resolved to
support efforts to bring our nation together. The multicultural America did
not turn against each other, but they joined together in harmony to mentally,
physically, and emotionally battle the acts of true evil.
The melting pot does not come merely through writers and articles, but also
through real life situations. A movie, which delineates the melting pot, very
well is "Not Without my Daughter." It is about a woman named Betty and her
husband, Moody who came to Iran from the USA to meet Moody's family. With them
was their four-year-old daughter, Mahtob. Appalled by the unpleasant living
conditions and horrified by what she saw of a country where women are merely
belongings, and Westerners are despised, Betty soon became desperate to return
to America. But Moody, and his family, had other plans. The mother and
daughter became prisoners of an increasingly tyrannical and violent man.
The movie "Not Without my Daughter" brought the melting pot into an entirely
different perspective. In this case the melting pot did not take place in
America, but in Iran. The disadvantages of the melting pot in these
circumstances far outweighed the advantages. Since Iran was a third world
country, Better and Mahtob had to get accustomed to many things such as
religion, lack of a good education, lack of freedom, and a primitive living.
Unlike America Iran did not have freedom of religion, and this affected Betty
and Mahtob tremendously. Since they were both Christians, they had a tough
time accepting the only religion of Iran, Islam. One memorable moment in the
movie shows them both praying to Jesus, and asking Him to be with them. The
difference in education between America and Iran is vast. The Iranian
education system is extremely primitive, and Mahtob could not adjust
throughout the whole movie. American schools give children a certain freedom
that facilitates their growth process and their uniqueness. Also as soon as
Betty and Mahtob knew they were being held hostage in Iran, their freedom was
taken away from them. They were forced to stay inside the apartment, and
follow all the orders Moody gave them. Hitting your wife was allowed, and
letting her suffer emotionally and mentally was very common. If any of this
occurred in America, the police and divorce would have threatened Moody with a
snap of the finger.
The advantages of the melting pot when it came to "Not Without my Daughter"
were scarce. One advantage might have been that Betty and Mahtob could learn
about a different culture and different religion, while at the same time
trying to keep their own values. Another advantage could have been that
Betty's and Mahtob's relationship grew stronger, and they became closer after
this devastating ordeal. Another significant advantage would have been that
they became even closer to God through this traumatizing circumstance, and did
not let the bondage of another religion force them to change their beliefs.
America was given the name melting pot because thousands of immigrants were
coming to America in search of a better life, more jobs, and freedom. It was
thus said that all these different cultures were being poured into a giant pot
called America, heated and thus molded into one kind of person. In actuality
the melting pot does not exactly define what America is. Americans are
considered Americans, not merely because of religion, or how they dress, but
merely because of their birth location. In essence they are Americans only
because they are born in America. The melting pot says all Americans
assimilate and follow the model minority, but this is not entirely true when
pertaining to America. Many foreign languages are still spoken in many homes
today, religions such as Muslim, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism are all
practiced in America to a great extent. In retrospect America is not such a
melting pot as it is a country of integration. The immigrants who came to
America assimilated, but not totally. Whether a country of integration or of a
melting pot, America thrives and has always thrived due to the surplus of
immigrants finding sanctuary in America. Immigrants such as Albert Einstein
and Alexander Graham Bell have enriched this country immeasurably through
their contributions to literature, science, philosophy, and political life.
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless,
tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"(Lazarus)
This is the complete article, containing 1,692 words
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