Who Are We?

“Melting Pot” or “Broken Shards”

If America retains its historic value of “the melting pot,” will it eventually become “a pot of a different colors,” or will the dominant Anglo-Saxon, Northern European culture of America, with its numbers shrinking, use political power to hold on to the values they esteem the highest?Since the events of 9/11/2001, coupled with the loss of factory jobs to Indonesia, Mexico, and China, Americans have been troubled by what is known as “the problem of illegal immigrants.” This is not the first time Americans have moved to stopped immigrants from coming to its shores. The first was decided by Congress in the form of a law in 1862 restricting American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants to the U.S. The Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885, 1887, 1888, and 1891 restricted the immigration to the U.S. of people entering the country to work under contracts made before their arrival.By 1900, an anti-immigrant feeling had mounted in the United States. In this era, H. H. Goddard, director of research at Vineland Training School in New Jersey, translated Binet’s work on intelligence testing into English and advocated a more general application of the Simon-Binet Scale. As a result of his views, Goddard lobbied for restrictive immigration laws. He erroneously believed that all immigrants, except those from Northern Europe, were of “surprisingly low intelligence” resulting in the tight immigration laws enacted in the 1920s. According to Harvard professor Steven Jay Gould in his acclaimed book The Mismeasure of Man, these tests were also influential in legitimizing forced sterilization of allegedly “defective” individuals in some states.

William Booth, writing in the Washington Post, noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, “as steamers poured into American ports, their steerages filled with European immigrants, a Jew from England named Israel Zangwill penned a play whose story line has long been forgotten, but whose central theme has not. His production was entitled ‘The Melting Pot’ and its message still holds a tremendous power on the national imagination – the promise that all immigrants can be transformed into Americans, a new alloy forged in a crucible of democracy, freedom and civic responsibility. In 1908, when the play opened in Washington, the United States was in the middle of absorbing the largest influx of immigrants in its history – Irish and Germans, followed by Italians and East Europeans, Catholics and Jews – some 18 million new citizens between 1890 and 1920.”

Joyce Millet agrees that “America has traditionally been referred to as a ‘melting pot,’ welcoming people from many different countries, races, and religions, all hoping to find freedom, new opportunities, and a better way of life. American history began with waves of immigrants, bringing their own cultures and traditions to a vast new country. No other place in the world has such a diverse population. It is this diversity that makes America what it is and, at the same time, creates the challenges it faces.”

Is the “melting pot” metaphor so much pie in the sky? We all are attracted to this concept because of our own immigration roots. But today, coming from Asia and Latin America, immigrants are driving a demographic shift which will surely test the premise of the fabled melting pot, “the idea,” says Booth, “so central to national identity that this country can transform people of every color and background into one America.” But will the “melting pot” fracture into so many cultural shards that politically, racially, religiously, and culturally the United States of tomorrow will be unrecognizable by people of today?

This point is made by the 2007 controversy that erupted in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina schools when a student of Hispanic origin recited the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and Spanish. This caused such a strong negative outpouring that the school superintendent issued an edict that henceforth, the Pledge will be recited in English only. Apparently, the idea of holding the “melting pot” together is important in Charlotte. But what will be the cost? Seemingly, the ideals important to democracy have been pushed aside by a dominant culture that is feeling the pressure of Asian and Latin American immigration.

This is not inevitable. American society can re-establish the value of dialogue, debate, and disagreement. Ignoring these values, those who abhor value relativity actually strengthened its tentacles. Reason, dialogue, tolerance, and even civil dissent are the moral prerequisites for a functioning democracy. Without these, freedom, liberty, diversity, and human rights have no chance of permeating our personal lives and political processes.