National Mythology: The Melting Pot

There are a number of mythologies that people don't seem to understand for the myths they are, but here I will address one: The melting pot. It was never a cultural ideal. It was instead a cultural mechanism to induce immigrants to assimilate into Anglo-American cultural norms. Henry Ford used to stage plays at his factory: immigrants walked onto the stage in immigrant garb, entered the melting pot and emerged dressed as "Americans"--adopting the dress and mannerisms of Anglo-American culture and thereby signaling they knew how to be American.

Not everyone was, of course, capable of melting. Nineteenth-century images of the melting pot often portrayed an Irishman on the edge, refusing to melt.


Then there was the fact that African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Tribal Peoples, and Asian Americans were kept out of the pot.

Some seem to think Civil Rights meant everyone was supposed to melt, to become like the dominant culture. Following the Civil Rights movements of the 60s, a new metaphor emerged to describe America, the mixed salad bowl. Americans come from a wide array of cultural backgrounds. While part of the same country, we are not all the same ethnically, racially, or culturally. The salad bowl was meant to convey the idea that people could be part of a common nation without having to assimilate, to become like Anglo-Americans, in order to be productive members of society. They could speak native languages and engage in distinct cultural practices without being un-American. America was better off as a mixed salad because the various elements all contributed to the whole. They didn't have to erase their identities and "melt" in order to belong.

Now some here long fondly for the good old days when everyone was like them, didn't express cultural difference, and didn't talk about concerns about cultural appropriation. Those good old days were good for a select few, but not for most of us. They were good for the dominant culture, race, and gender, but not the majority of Americans. The good old days were an era of Jim Crow segregation. I do not long for those days. Being part of an inclusive society means that you are going to be exposed to ideas that make you uncomfortable. A diverse society means that people of color, of different immigrant or ethnic backgrounds, are going to talk about their experiences in ways that make many of you uncomfortable. To never be uncomfortable is to never learn. My plea is that you try to embrace that discomfort and learn something about the lives of others.