American Society

The metaphor about America being a melting pot, actually meant something else to me from my previous course. I thought of it as that we recognize that the United States is land of the many different cultures. Just like a melting pot, we're throwing everything many different ingredients or as in this case, cultures, into the pot, and recognizing them. I've learned to not strip them of their culture, but to embrace it. The metaphor I would suggest would be, to just leave it. From what I learned in my other class, I've learned that America is a free land that has numerous cultures living here. We are recognizing that we have different cultures living with us, and that we're trying to embrace everyone's different culture. What happens in a melting pot anyways, when everything mixes, we eat it and enjoy the different flavors that got blended together while still enjoying the original flavors that was in it. We aren't necessarily wiping out the cultures, we're just mixing it together. I guess some would see that we're wiping them out because we're trying to have them assimilate to our culture. In a way, it's true, but they still retain their own sense of beliefs while learning and recognizing our beliefs and views. I mean, we are living in America, they do need to learn the language and culture, it is almost impossible for them to come here and retain their lifestyle. They're going to need to learn English and some of the our customs in order for us to understand them. Going back to the question, the reason why I think that we don't need to change the metaphor is that we're still retaining our own customs. We're not all becoming "American", people choose to keep their traditions and cultures or they choose to change.