Is America a melting pot or a salad? This has been a topic of discussion for many years as
people from all over the world have come to America to experience her exceptionalism. Over the
course of American history to claim America as a melting pot would be more accurate theory or
statement. As immigrants come to our shores, they bring a piece of the cultural heritage with
them, the pieces that make them who they are whether it is their food, faith or family heritage to
name a few. They travel here because America is a “beacon to human being everywhere” and
founded on the “principle that each individual human being is precious in the sight of God”
(Miller 2010). This principle unites us as one people whether we are natural born citizens or
fresh to the shores. Being united around this we blend together in a melting pot and our cultures
melt together and becomes apart of our country’s culture and heritage. To me this speaks
towards Americas exceptionalism in that as a country we are diverse in culture, yet we are
connected in the founding principles of individual liberty and limited government.
Even in Americas dark history of racial tensions and slavery the claim that we are a
melting pot is still truer to what we are. That is not to say that the work I done or that the dream
of Dr Martin Luther King is complete reality because there surely is work that still can be done.
It is to say that the opportunity is there for each person regardless of cultural differences or color
and that we have a responsibility to each other to guide those toward opportunity who may not
see a path to it. When we are united body, we do our best work in fixing and repairing the
ailments of our society. Being focused on individual cultures and races we do the opposite and
create a divide between us and that is what being a salad is opposed to a melting pot. Blending
together and realizing we are precious in the eyes of God we become stronger as an American
culture. In the article “Then We'll See What Comes of His Dreams” the author speaks of Robert
Kennedy’s response the night MLK was assassinated that speaks to a melting pot society. The
author states that RFK believed that “the nation needed and wanted blacks and whites to come
together, and he implored the crowd to ‘dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many
years ago: to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world’” (MIller
2018). If we can do this still today we will go on being united and lay down our arms just as the
men and women did that night who heard those words.
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Bibliography
Miller, Ron. Ron's Reflections . July 3, 2010. http://www.ronsreflections.net/rons-
reflections/2010/07/04/this-is-my-country (accessed April 13, 2020).
MIller, Ron. Then We'll See What Comes of His Dreams. Apirl 22, 2018.
https://www.nowalls.us/blog/2018/4/22/then-well-see-what-comes-of-his-dreams (accessed April
13, 2020).
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