America slowly stopped sharing the melting pot
When we talk about the "melting pot", you would think of a pot probably boiling with a mix of ingredients. That was America's plan from the start: to create a "pot" of many different "ingredients". So, America decided to gather these ingredients, and soon enough, the pot was starting to overfill with them. This was beyond America's expectations, and quite pride grew. However, the pot seemed to later not have "enough space" and America, seeing this began to put restrictions within what could be added to it. If you haven't gotten what I'm talking about, then let me clarify: the "pot" is America's land, and the "ingredients" are the different kinds of people. These restrictions are basically the problems that arose from this over-population, and in efforts to prevent these people from coming, the pot started to lose its value.We have these restrictions because it was believed that America was a free country of opportunity and land. That promise was later broken because of the rejection to those today wishing to come here. Not only that, but it created a mass amount of problems among those living there because of the stereotypes made. Latinos being "lazy workers", African Americans portrayed as "ghetto", White Americans as "selfish pigs"; many of these discriminating stereotypes derived from cultural backgrounds which are usually negative.
Raquel Cepeda explained, for example, how the "N-word" is used in a Latino ethnicity and is usually considered a negative response to African Americans in her essay, "The N-Word is flourishing Among Generation Hip-Hop Latinos: Why Should We Care Now?" America even considers those white as the only "pure Americans" as shown in Hua Hsu's "The End of White America?" The only question to these problems is this: "How do you solve a melting pot problem and at the same time, keep the pot going?"
Hi Patricia, I think you have a very interesting perspective on the American "melting pot." I particularly enjoyed your statement where you described that because the pot is so focused on controlling overflow, the actually ingredients inside get pushed to the background and start to lose their value. With the 2016 presidential election coming up, we have definitely seen an increase in the amount of media time that the subject of immigration is getting. I worry that the media has highlighted this issue above its actual significance. The problem with this is that other, more important topics can be spoken about in their place.
ReplyDeleteHey Patricia,
ReplyDeleteI very much like how you approached this topic, America is a "melting pot" and really always has been. You discussed how different races are "Stereotyped" differently and all negatively. Why is that? I understand that they are all derived out of the cultural background in which whatever race we are talking about comes from. However is this becoming an even bigger thing that America is known as the "melting pot" in actuality would you not think that that would just bring us all closer and make us all more united??
I like your perspective of things, your writing clearly shows you way of thinking and that's awesome. I agree that before America tried to make all immigrants as White as possible and nowadays things have changed for the better because i believe we are more accepting than we used to be.
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