Tossed salad vs. melting pot

[Marthe48]

When I was in grade school, we learned that the U.S.A. was nicknamed The Melting Pot of the world, meaning our citizens were from all over the world and cultures mingled to make us the nation we are. In high school, our history teacher said we were more like a tossed salad, meaning that while we shared being American, we also preserved heritage and cultures brought from our country of origin. That was the middle of the 1960's. In the world outside the classroom, people were starting to refer to themselves as Afro-American, Italian-American, Irish-American. Or if they weren't describing themselves, maybe the media coined the designations. I don't know if pride in our cultures led to the downfall of our unity. Or maybe the unity was only skin deep.

I was glad that my teachers armed me with the awareness to embrace what we share and respect the differences. I am old enough to see that even if we are all Americans, we got here in vastly different ways, and some of the roots are twisted in ways that affect the branches. Even if I thought that all through the 60's and 70's Americans were approaching a unity that defines us, especially, as a cultural mix that celebrates the best of human nature, I was way off. Across the social, educational and economic spectrums, there are so many people who should know better, but don't and worse, make no effort to try to change their outlook about people who are different. The same people who like rap, hate blacks. The same people who love Thai food, hate Asians, and don't bother to make any designation about which Asian country people are from. And so on. Too many of us are willing to take what we want, and hate the rest. White Americans have tacit permission to do this, but I have met people from other cultures who dislike white people for the same useless reasons that causes racism. This is not to say that whites don't deserve being distrusted and unfriended. We strike back harder and more often, like angry wasps, and too many times see differences as threats. And of course, we are leaders in the world in the matter of institutional racism, sexism, otherism.

I'm hoping that if Mr. Biden is elected, that we can get back to work on enlightening people in this country, so we return to a united front to the world that is much more than skin deep. We need a lot of self-examination and we need to find a way to soften the hateful minds that turn people into terrorists.

[greenjar_01]

1. Given the multiple meanings of tossed salad

[Marthe48]

2. I guess I thought of my dinner :)

A lot of what my history teaching team said really stuck with me

[greenjar_01]

3. Ha!

[Ponietz]

6. Me too- thanks

[Behind the Aegis]

5. And that gif just took me in the wrong direction...

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Sara Weddington, of Roe V Wade fame, made the same comparison.

I heard her speak back in the early 90's and she said the same thing. Frankly, I feel it is a better analogy.

[treestar]

7. I don't know

maybe not complete melting, but we do become other than our origins. I've read Italians, Irish, sometimes don't like when Americans claim they are Italian, Irish, etc. To them, we aren't that.

I also notice socializing in a group of mostly immigrants, that the Americans tend to come together, regardless of race. We have more in common as Americans than differences and people from other continents of the same race are not closer to us even if from our continent of origin. Euro Americans and African Americans have more in common that Euro Americans with Europeans, or African Americans with African.

Hysteria against immigration seems greater in Europe. They aren't used to it. For us, it's a way of life. We are better able to handle the diversity.

[Marthe48]

8. I hope you are right

I see the conflict over refugees in the countries in Europe. I hate that people in such dire need are being turned away anywhere. After WWII, they were called Displaced Persons, and countries didn't think twice about accepting the people chased from their homes by war. Not only should the countries that are stable open their doors to the unfortunate, once new people are in a country, the residents should be more open to welcoming them and getting the new people to a point they can come to terms with the changes, some traumatic, and become productive. The hating isn't necessary and ends up doing more harm than good.

[Klaralven]

9. A nation with diverse cultures will only survive if it also has shared ideals

[trackfan]

10. We were also taught the melting-pot/salad-bowl thing. Salad bowl was true then; that will change.

Any observation of history over the long haul indicates that, if this country is around in the distant future, i.e. if we remain some kind of continental nation, and do not balkanize, we will be a new race. We will be better looking for the mixing too, like Italians. We'll be a smooth mixture of Mexican, European, African, and Asian ancestry. Ultimately, there is no stopping love; all the races will mix.

[csziggy]

11. We are already mixed - the idea of "race" has never been correct

There are different cultures but within those cultures, there has always been wide varieties of humans no matter what the prejudiced claim.

No matter how far back in history or even prehistory you look, humans have always been mutts. Cro-Magnons bred with Neanderthals, and with Denisovans, and probably with other human varieties during prehistoric times.

During early human history, there was a lot of mobility among groups - people with Celtic characteristics have been found in East Asia, Sub-saharan characteristics have been found in Britain, even European characteristics found in North America.

In historical times, mixing of peoples from different parts of the world accelerated and is just speeding up more and more.

The Columbian Exchange means that DNA cannot be a good way to sort out which human "strains" were where when - during the early Spanish occupation of the territory from California to Peru ships crew from the Philippines would land in the New World and not take the return voyage to their homelands. Chinese traders moved enmasse to Mexico.

So when indigenous peoples of the Americas are tested for "foreign" DNA after five hundred years it is difficult to determine if that Asian trace was introduced by original settlement or if it was "only" since European (or even Chinese - see Charles Mann's book, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Paperback) explorers traveled to the "New World."

Other than objecting to the 'short-hand' of "race" I agree with your last statement "all the races will mix."

[a kennedy]

12. When I hear the term melting pot, I think of one of my favorite restaurants......it's a fondue

restaurant, and it is delicious and one of my top 10 favorite restaurants. Sorry....

[Marthe48]

13. lighter fare than this