The American "Melting Pot"

First of all, I want to apologize for the video I posted--it's really, really, really awful (REALLY), but hopefully it's loose correlation to what I'm going to discuss helps you to look past the campiness/cheesiness (Schoolhouse Rock...enough said. It was the 70s, who knows what was going on)

As colonies are beginning to form and become more and more self-sufficient, it seems inevitable that there is going to a humongous blending of cultures and traditions (and I'm guessing tension is going to develop). But, along the lines of the theme we discussed in class, it's not going to be that simple. Although the term "melting pot" is sort of a cutesy way of labeling a diverse group of people, I'm really not comfortable with this term--first of all, it's constraining, and second of all, thinking of myself as an ingredient in fondue...not into that, either.

Many of the cultures that make up the primitive America didn't necessarily come here by choice--only the wealthy had this "choice." While some were simply forced onto slave ships and sold in the new land, others were forced out of their countries due to economic woes, and some came to America to escape the prominent religious institutions in their respective countries. Some are fervently religious (Quakers), some are relatively apathetic (English colonists), and some are bound to non-European beliefs and traditions. What brought these people together was the collective need for trade, whether for merely sustaining themselves or for profit. The "kinship economies" and trade networks made all sorts of goods and services widely available. Also, intermarrying creates new subsets of cultures with more than one tradition. Certainly, there are going to be your Bible thumpers and supremacists, but this mixture of cultures is going to become...dramatic pause..."the melting pot." More on why this term is stupid in a moment.

The label "melting pot" is a dangerous way of thinking of American culture. Think of cooking something, adding ingredients and so on. In the end, you usually get one homogenous mixture, a combination of the ingredients with the same texture, color, and density. So this "melting pot" would suggest that we should all view each other as the same, that we are all the same to a great degree. Maybe it's the Romantic in me, but I can't think of anything that violates our mixed heritages and individuality more than this. And this is why it is been so difficult to brand America with a general theme; our country embraces individuality like few others in the world (I'm being an optimist here, so sue me*)(*Don't sue me).

It has been suggested that America lacks its own distinctive culture--this is entirely untrue. Remember, in the grand scheme of things, we are a fairly young nation. The Brits are watching BBC and munching crumpets in buildings that are 600 years older than our own country. It's easy to label something, but labels are obfuscating--they can't really do justice to whatever they are trying to describe. The engrossing, comprehensive, grand revelation and marvelous reclassification of American culture is


I figured if I ended my entry like "the Sopranos" (for those not in the "know" on mind-blowingly awesome dramatic television, the Sopranos ended it's final season with a fairly regular scene cut to black, as if the cable went out or something), you guys would give me the benefit of the doubt like "the Sopranos" creators are getting--people are calling this a brilliant ending, because you have to use your imagination (funny how that works). I guess I'm trying to say is though it is easy to label or classify something like American culture as a "Melting Pot," it's more important to think what the labels we give something imply, and whether these labels should be reconsidered or rethought. Bottom line, thinking is good. I don't think anyone can argue with that.