IS the US a Melting Pot?

Answer 1

For countless years the USA was called a "melting pot" because despite the millions of immigrants entered the USA with a huge variety of people with ethnic & racial differences They melded into the culture and politics of the nation. This is not to say that new peoples to the shores of the USA were all treated with respect & dignity. With that in mind, by comparison the nations they came from offered little hope for new comers. And in fact, for the most part the new people to the USA left nations with poor economies and political systems that left very little room for advancement. So even today, for example our top political leaders ( they are no saints) come from varied backgrounds. The idea as example of a Black man becoming the Prime Minister of France is highly unlikely. An Irish person becoming the PM of the UK is also a slim chance. I mention these 2 modern nations as examples of how their establishments leave little room for "outsiders" to gain in these cases chances for minorities upward mobility in politics. I returned as I noticed that others have tackled this question in other ways. In my answer I used political examples of the ability of "minority people" to gain access to positions of power that in most other nations is quite impossible. There is a long list of Irish, Afro-Americans, Italian, Polish & Hispanic peoples who have advanced in the USA's melting pot. Even a John F. Kennedy a Catholic, was elected president. In economics, entertainment education, to mention a few areas, people with heritages very different then what is considered the norm have advanced. They "melted in" to the main stream of America yet have kept their heritage base.

Answer 2

The term is supposed to indicate that America is a place that can take all kinds of people and cultures, particularly during the era of mass Immigration from mid-1800s to 1920s, and blend them together without strife.

Others would use the term "salad bowl" rather than melting pot since immigrants coming to American almost always set up small segregated communities where their native language was understood, their native fool was sold, etc. To the extent to which we retain a separate awareness of the cultures from which our ancestors came, we are not really a melting pot.

On the other hand, most of these separate immigrant cultures have been assimilated by the second or third generation and could be said to have "melted" into general American society. There are exceptions, but if we are talking about the long term, America is a melting pot.

Answer 3

The US is much more like a melting pot because it seeks to homogenize the immigrants culturally into an American paradigm rather than being a place were different cultures have equal say in self-propagation. This style of assimilation has worked well for America in the past (and in the present) because it creates an American identity that can unite people of different origins.

Answer 4

unfortunately, yes