Reply #134: I have a different take on the Meltingpot vs Tossed Salad analogy.

[ProgressiveConn]

You said: "Assimilation=melting pot=homogeneous society. Who will win out? The white dominant culture! "

Hence why I prefaced the argument with the requirement of actual equality being realized first. You must keep this in mind if you wish to analyze my comments on the theory of America being a melting pot. Then it is possible for us to truly combine the best parts of all cultures into a greater world culture where there is still room for differing opinions on what is best but where ethnocentric insistence that a person's own culture is best for everyone is eliminated.

I would agree with you that in today's world you don't maintain multiculturalism within a melting pot. However... Hmm the best way for me to explain this is probably to further the analogy of a melting pot. America has always been a melting pot IMO. It is just been a flawed and slow heating one. Best way to visualize it would be to think of the American melting pot as macaroni and cheese. Sure you might put several kinds of cheese into the pot with the macaroni and they might slowly melt together but in the end the "Core" is still the macaroni. In America our melting pot's "Core" has been WASPism. The macaroni does not melt only the cheese.

A society that is an exemplar of equality would be represented by fondue. Their is no "Core" all the cheeses melt together creating a beneficial society. You will taste all the different flavors but good luck separating them into their original cheeses again. Something that can not be said in regards to the Mac&Cheese, unequal society. Throw it under some water (representing a traumatic event say such as 9/11) and you're left with Macaroni.

I'm going to attack your analogy. When you refer to ethnic restaurants you make the assumption that one has to be a member of an ethnic community to see value in that community's culture. My favorite Italian place back home is owned by a Pakistani friend of mine. This is just my point. It is the melting pot that allows this. The salad analogy says "Chinese run Chinese styled restaurants, Indians run Indian styled restaurants, etc" The melting pot theory taken to its fully developed state says that it is not weird or even curious that my 2nd generation Pakistani friend owns an Italian restaurant.

Next I'm going to attack your closing remarks. I do not see the melting pot theory as equal to minority assimilation into WASP culture. I see it as a unique combination of flavors that produces a new, unique, and wonderful new taste. My favorite example is lets pretend the Puritan-English had a true acceptance of equality for all peoples. Then immigration to New England began where they met the various Algonquin tribes who also are assumed to be a truly tolerant society stressing equality of all peoples. Wouldn't it have been nice to see puritan work ethic combined with Algonquin hostility to greed and selfishness?

Importance of stressing:
Humanity > Multi-Culturalism > Ethnicity > Skin Color.

What is beneficial for humanity in the eyes of all humanity is best. If that is not possible (as in any unequal society) than a focus on multi-culturalism is better than focusing on the importance of a single ethnicity or mere skin pigment.