Let’s be clear, though, about what is and isn’t integral. When you have to press “English” instead of “Spanish” at an ATM, that’s not giving something up. If your loved one died in the 9/11 attacks, then you gave something up. Not getting a job because you’re not qualified (and happen to be less opulent than the employer) is not giving something up. Being pulled from your bed and hung from a tree limb because you’re different from those hanging you — that’s giving something up.
No better have we all come to define what makes America great but in our regard for sports and food. How we have come to regard athletes and restaurants is probably the way we should be regarding each other in all other ways: employment, housing, politics, and law. We love our sports, and more specifically we love our athletes without regard for heritage or skin color. Too, we love our food, and stand ready to come to the defense of a prized, neighborhood Italian or Chinese restaurant.
Shatter the mirror, America. Ours is not a melting pot. This is an ongoing potluck after the big game. Follow the rules of etiquette and you’ll be fine: Take what you’ll eat and eat what you take. Sit up straight, don’t reach across your neighbor, and for cryin' out loud, use your napkin.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
Wonderful, wonderful fucking article.
As someone living in a society that considers itself a mosaic, I've long wondered about the American melting pot and about what good it does people to melt into the same colourless goop. It's good to see somebody else struggling with that hollow philosophy.
2 - Joanne Huspek
I agree. What a great article.
I was just thinking of the Native American view of what happened in the last 400 years. The "Europeans" devised a divine reason to mow down the "savages" and force them to assimilate, instead of (as you say) being a good neighbor.
I'm pretty sure we as a culture are never going to learn from our mistakes.
3 - Teri Centner
That was great, Diana! Both of your analogies -- shattering the mirror and after-the-game potluck -- were ideas that I never would have come up with. Yet they both made good sense to me.
If you have never read "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I highly recommend it. She is a woman who, I think, did a great job of shattering mirrors. She first shattered the "submissive daughter/wife" image created for her by her Somalian father/family. After shattering that one, she had to start all over again and shatter the "immigrant" image assigned to her by Dutch social workders. This is one lady who's never going to give into "victimhood."
4 - Diana Hartman
Teri,
What we call victimhood is seen as a lifestyle choice by a lot of American women. This social curiosity will be the featured discussion on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on Friday, August 15th.
5 - Jason J. Campbell
Diana,
Loved your article. The discussion of the mirror is a very interesting concept because it is a reflection of the self rather than finding comfort in that image, some only see their failures to embody the expectations of their dominant society and their failure is embodied. The metaphor's cool because the person's physical body is a representation of this failure. I would have never thought of it in these terms, making the pressure to assimilate that much more dangerous. Loved the metaphor.