JULY 2010
Melting Pot
The Color of Words: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States defines the term melting as:Traditionally, the blending of ethnic groups to create culturally amalgamated America in which something new emerges. This ambiguous metaphor was popularized by Zionist writer and suffragist Israel Zangwill in his 1908 play The Melting-Pot, with its steelmaking imagery of "melting" and "reforming." As some scholars have observed, the metaphorical pot, in which a new America is born from Old World immigrants, suggests a womb.
In the first part of the twentieth century, the melting pot idea became popular in large part because of the belief that America had a divine mission: to create out of the coming together of diverse ethnic groups a transcendent, unified, new society. In the second half of this century, however, it came to be identified negatively with enforced cultural assimilation.
This broad term is used in a wide variety of ways. In some instances it may identify racial (as opposed to ethnic) blending. It may occasionally be synonymous with ethnic diversity or pluralism, though these terms, now generally more acceptable than melting pot, lack the idea of fusion, implying today's more politically correct idea of retention of separate ethnic identities. In addition, it has been used by conservatives to suggest the purging away of foreignness to preserve the original Anglo-Saxon flavor of the country.
Melting Pot is often used to evoke some of the best that is America, its legendary receptiveness to immigrants and their contribution to an evolving national culture. "In the melting pot of America...we have welcomed all richness that each has to contribute" (Richard M. Nixon, 18 October 1956). At the same time, it may describe trouble spots -- placed where the pot "boils over" -- in the multicultural society. "Unless action is taken soon, it may be only a matter of time before Miami's melting pot blows its lid again" (Time, 30 January 1989, 29). Creating his own melting pot as "an oratorical recipe for America, without mentioning that those at the bottom are most likely to get burned" (1992, 163). Black people have traditionally been excluded from the melting pot. "I hear that melting pot stuff a lot and all I can say is that we haven't melted" (Jesse Jackson, in Daniel B. Baker, Power of Quotes, 1992).
Similar metaphors or concepts abound in recent U.S. literature, including crucible ( another vessel used for melting), kaleidoscope, cultural rainbow, orchestra, and tapestry, which carry nuances of color, harmony, or beauty; terms and concepts that suggest the retention of individual ethnic identities within a whole, such as mosaic; and the often-heard culinary figures of speech such as stew, goulash, salad, and flower garden (with various blossoms). More pejorative are hodgepodge, mishmash, chop suey, and pressure cooker; especially pejorative are dumping grounds, village pound, and catch basin (Gleason 1992, 13-14). Boiling pot has been used in reference to race riots. Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of a "smelting pot" (Emerson in His Journals, ed. Joel Porte, 1982, 347), and before him French writer Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crévecoeur, in Letters from an American Farmer, said of America, "Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race..." (in Daniels 1990, 101-02).
Although the melting pot idea has taken on negative connotations associated with assimilation, some writers have managed to retain the notion of creativity and change implicit in it. "Japanese technology," said Harvard University professor Werner Sollors of the melting pot of New York City, "is sold by Hasidic Jews on 47th Street to imaginative artists who...living in Harlem or Brooklyn use this technology to create rap [music]" (Itabara Njeri, Los Angeles Times, 13 January 1991, E2).
Melting pot has been applied to the United States as a whole or to parts, for example, Hawaii. It has also been used for other countries, such as Israel.
Melting pot calls up, albeit less glamorously, the fabled American motto of E pluribus unum, or "from many, one." It connotes the addition of various "ingredients" to one large, central cauldron, resulting in a complex final product. Taken with the Latin motto, this concept explains how the combination of different races and cultures creates a unified American experience. However, as Joyce Millet points out, modern America is beginning to embrace a more "mosaic" or "salad bowl" approach to American identity, noting that "The old 'melting pot' metaphor is giving way to new metaphors such as...mixtures of various ingredients that keep their individual characteristics."
The feasibility of a melting pot is often called into question. Critics suggest that assimilation -- all cultures, races and creeds becoming one American identity -- is less likely than the splintering of groups due to divisions and disagreements. In particular, critics point to the current emphasis on personal ethnic heritage and pride as an indication that reaching a consensus on one American identity -- often pressed by "white, Protestant culture" (Booth) -- will become more difficult.
SOURCES:
Herbst, Philip H. 1997. The Color of Words: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.
Booth, William. "One Nation, Indivisible: Is It History?" February 22, 1998. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/meltingpot.htmMillet, Joyce. "Understanding American Culture: From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl." 2000. http://www.culturalsavvy.com/understanding_american_culture.htm
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