Fondue or Salad

Fondue or Salad?

American became known as the “Melting Pot” when people from different countries, having different cultures, languages and religions blend together into their new homeland. ("Credo", 2013) in the early 1900. Since that time the “melting pot” seems to have turned into a “salad bowl.” (“Cultural Savvy,” 2011) Now America is becoming a salad bowl culture. With the melting pot title, every culture immigrating to America blended into one culture. Since then, we have been receiving people from countries that have never been part of the melting pot before. We are now beginning to take on the flavor of a salad. When you have a salad, each ingredient maintains its own distinct flavor apart from each other ingredient. With this type of culture, we have become a nation that is no longer blended as one culture. The reason for this dramatic change in the culture of America is that people relocating to America are not as willing to adapt, and those already here are not as accepting as they once were. Even though out of many one, remains our country’s motto, multiculturalism does not work because one culture is not accepting of another and new cultures do not want to change and adapt.

For many years, people who immigrated to America were mostly of European heritage. These immigrants wanted to become part of the “melting pot” culture. When these immigrants came to America, one would have thought that the first thing they did was to begin to learn the English language although for the first generation of immigrants this was not true. Many of the first generation European immigrants did not want to lose their old way of life. Although, the future generations were not in agreement with this idea. Their desire was to come to America for a better life, and in their mind, in order to do that, they must become part of the culture and were very proud of themselves when they accomplished this. After a few generations, they all spoke English fluently, and had blended in so much so that you could not discern them from anyone else. This immigration took place at a time when our Statue of Liberty was a symbol to the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” ("U.S. History Pre-Columbian To The New Millennium," 2014).

However, with more recent immigrants coming to America many have no desire to learn to speak English or to become part of the “melting pot.” These new immigrants not only do not want to become part of the existing culture they expect America to adapt to them. We are seeing this now with the Pentagon changing its rules about uniforms. They are now allowing the wearing of turbans and beards for religious purposes. With this thinking instead of remaining a “melting pot”, we will instead become known as a “salad bowl” culture where each culture will retain its own flavor so to speak. As in a salad each ingredient