What is tossed salad theory on immigrant's role in American society?

Answer 1

For a long time America has been called "The Melting Pot." This metaphor was meant to suggest that as immigrants came into this country, they were assimilated into the whole society, "melted down" as it were, becoming part of the Great Amalgam and ceasing to be anything other than simply Americans. There is, I think, a great deal of merit to that line of thinking.

But the "Tossed Salad" metaphor, on the other hand, visualizes American culture as being a bowl full of lots of different kinds of things, each contributing its own flavor and identity to the whole. The Romaine lettuce remains Romaine lettuce even as it lies next to the iceberg lettuce, and the tomatoes may be three different kinds and they are in there with the cucumbers and the parsley and the croûtons. The whole thing together is called a salad, but it is the sum of its many diverse parts. There is, I think, a great deal of merit to that line of thinking as well.

American society and culture gets its rich color and flavor from its diversity. On the one hand, we are all Americans, but on the other hand we come from different ethnic, racial, religious (and so on and on) backgrounds. "Tossed Salad" theory basically calls for us to celebrate our diversity along with our oneness. I think the "Melting Pot" AND the "Tossed Salad" similes are both pretty good for describing American culture. When immigrants first arrive, they usually bring with them strong cultural traits and languages different from American English, but just look at what tends to happen to the first generation of children of such immigrants: They often have a foot in each culture, one looking back to the past and the other to the future. They are apt to be bilingual, speaking unaccented American English everywhere but at home. They are apt to celebrate the old cultural patterns while simultaneously adopting new ones. They do not, as it were, throw the baby out with the bath water. They retain at least some of their ancient cultural heritage while becoming part of a new one.

Going back for a moment to the melting pot symbolism, chemists know that alloyed metals -- metals made by melting two or more different metals together -- are usually harder and stronger than either metal alone. By the same token, a really great tossed salad may be greater than the sum of its parts. That is what I think America is certainly capable of being, even if we haven't quite arrived yet. We are, after all, still a very young nation.