America The Salad Bowl

All of us have heard the phrase, "America the melting pot." They teach us that throughout school and I lost a scholarship when I contested that line of thinking. I looked at the judges and said, "I believe America is a salad bowl." That instantly got their attention.
If America were a true melting pot there would be no " [fill in the blank] - American." It would just be American. In a melting pot you can't separate what you don't like, but with a salad bowl you can and that's what happens in America. Just like some people don't like onions, black olivers, peppers, croutons, etc...But the salad bowl allows the people to keep cultural differences alive instead of eliminating all traces of them.
What made me bring this up? Well, the elections did! Think about it, the candidates are going for the Hispanic vote, black vote, or [fill in the blank] vote.

Is the U.S. a salad bowl or a melting pot?

6 comments:

Arlene said...

I like your salad bowl!! Makes so much more sense!!

Sam said...

Wow...at least one person can see my point! :) Woohooo.

deafknee said...

true that!

Anonymous said...

yep i've always thought that too!

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with your post. This country is not a melting pot.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we don't want it to be a melting pot just because we don't want to lose our history and our culture. As it is right now all our countries are being homogenous where eventually there will no white, black, etc.,