United States : Melted Pot

[SoCalDem]

Historians have alternately labeled America as a 'melting pot' or 'salad bowl'. The melting pot myth evaporated when newer waves of immigrants quit being eager to jettison their heritage, languages, and customs. Salad Bowl Nation emerged as the 'new and improved' symbolic image for America. The idea was that melting pot just turned everyone into a boring mooshy concoction , that had no character...Salad bowl meant that everyone could hang onto their own distinct 'self', and yet mix together in an appealing. blended-but-not-congealed mixture, complementing each other without any one entity overpowering the others..

Fear and loathing of "the other" has always run just under our surface, like an underground stream. Revisionist history tells us that we are just one big happy family, eager to lend a hand to all who need it.

In reality, 'groups' have always defined us. We have never been all that friendly to 'the other'. Westerners CAME to this country, looking for freedom, and it did not take long for them to start depriving the people who were already here, of THEIR freedom.

Immigrants were welcomed, as long as they were needed for the dirty work. If they were white, unobtrusive, and strong-bodied, they eventually were allowed to assimilate.

Groups that did not fit the western mold, were only needed for their labor. They were always expected to 'know their place', and have never really been welcomed or accepted. They have been accepted grudgingly, but only temporarily. Every time they have asked for/demanded/sued for/marched for rights, they have been shunned in one way or another.

Slavery was 'ended', but as soon as the freed slaves started to become real citizens, and started to serve in the legislature, new 'laws' appeared, to once again, put them back 'in their place'. It's no accident that almost a hundred years elapsed before those rights were once again in place..but WERE they? Voting rights, unemployment rates, housing, poverty, education...can we really say that the descendants of slaves, and others who came later, but who looked like them have truly 'made it'? Some have, but in a heartbeat, a black lawyer/doctor/professor/businessperson can be spread-eagled on a car hood, if a cop thinks he 'fits a suspect's profile' or looks 'out-of-place' in a neighborhood..

Chinese were welcome enough to build railroads, but the early arrivals were not 'allowed' to bring wives and family. Their labor was all that was wanted, and the ones who did survive, clustered into their own communities for safety, as much as comfort. They were expected to 'go back to China' once their work was done.

We USE people here, but rarely really accept them.

Late Twentieth century immigration that so many bigots rail against is largely due to wars that we either started, or participated in, and failed foreign policies. The influx of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Haitian, Nicaraguan, Honduran, and so many others are comprised of people who looked at America as their last best chance to live. Most of these people would have happily stayed in their own countries, had our government not barged in and helped destroy their way of life.

The US has always romanticized our melting-pot image, but all it takes is a walk through any city/town to see that it's not the case in reality. People lead lives separated from people 'not like them'.

The difference now is that vitriol is accepted in more and more circles.

The deliberate nurturing of hatred and fear of the other, is a terrible thing, and it's more prevalent now, than it's been for decades.

When the Japanese were interred, it was out of an extreme fear of people who were never really assimilated into America. They owned businesses, sent their kids to school, owned homes, and were part of the community, but probably most people outside their own groups never really saw them as "Americans". THEY did, but the ones who controlled government did NOT. That's why it was so easy to demonize them and send them away. The Japanese people believed the melting pot myth, and were horrified to learn that they could NEVER be 'real' Americans as long as they looked the only way they could look.

There are people still alive today , who think nothing of calling any Asian person a 'jap'.

Soon after the WTC horror, is didn't take long for people to start the demonization of any darker skinned person, who 'might' be middle-eastern. Sikhs were attacked, Turkish people, Greek people...anyone who 'looked the part' was automatically assumed to be 'one of them'.. and just who is 'them'?.. Why anyone who is not one of 'us', of course.

Now the division has been ratcheted up another notch. The republicans have managed to spread their vile within 'our own ranks'. Now we are more divided than ever. People need to take a daily look at the papers and TV to find out who their 'enemy of the day' is.

There are Christians and then there are CHRISTIANS
There are people who love the war and people who hate the war
There are people who think the economy is just peachy, and people who think it's going straight into the shitter
There are people who think the government knows what's best for you and people who think THEY are the best ones to decide their own path
There are people who think that women should have control over their own bodies, and those who think that legislators know what's best for women
There are people who think that it's OK to hire illegals for cheap wages, but they should not be allowed to breathe 'our' air, or live here
There are people who think that only their votes count, and people who think that all votes should count.

Once upon a time, people minded their own business, and didn't feel the need to critique other people's lives. Most people led busy enough lives that their time was occupied with their own endeavors. These days, there seems to be a hyper-vigilance towards 'other people's business and lives'.

We never really were a melting pot...we only tolerated each other, and tolerance is an endangered commodity these days.

We are being lined up and made to choose.. Styron's heroine had to do that and it drove her insane.

[NMMNG]

1. Excellent post

If I, an enemy of more than one day, may say so.

[SoCalDem]

2. enemy?? when?? of whom??

:hi: