For The Child
February 07, 2005

From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl: An Exploration of Cultural Bias in America

Like many complex issues, we sometimes don't know how to begin and then we just continue on as before. Today we encourage you to begin looking how you can begin to prepare your children for the world they will inherit. You don't have to change the world by yourself, but together-one family and one child at a time, we can.

When you make an assumption or generalization about another culture (or about a person based on his or her cultural heritage), you are demonstrating cultural bias.

We all do this to a certain extent, but that doesn't make us bad people. It makes us human. There is no reason to pretend that we are free of prejudice; denial on top of prejudice just makes things more complicated.

So, first, let's admit that we all have biases, and that we all participate in cultural bias in one form or another. Such prejudices can even manifest in sub-cultural bias. That long-haired dirty skateboarding kid may be the victim, or the perpetrator, of prejudice.

What we can do is work to become more conscious of our own prejudices and explore how they affect our lives.

One form of cultural bias many of us tend to overlook is the expectation of assimilation. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, assimilation is the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society.

Not only does this happen. But, often, we Americans expect it and demand it.

This is America, and you need to be more American.

More American? What does that mean anyway? Well, therein lies the melting pot of old. When you come here, you should change to be like those who are already here, or you will suffer for it.

Today, we recognize the need to stay true to our respective roots as we also work to build a community together. It's hard to say it better than Celebrate Diversity. Our melting pot is thus a salad bowl, with many different colors and vegetables and wonderful tastes all coming together to make one grand salad.

Of course, all is not dandy. We, again, are not free from prejudice and bias, and we still, in many ways, demand assimilation.

One place we can look to begin to examine our biases is history, for many of the prejudices we experience today have deep roots, and while the branches of the tree of intolerance have been cut and reshaped, the tree still stands.

Starting after the Civil War, the Americanization of immigrants became a priority to those of Anglo-Saxon heritage who had been here for a few generations—Americans, if you will.

These Americans accepted foreigners who were willing to accept cultural change, and this Americanization process was not only a social expectation, it was an openly stated government agenda.

Programs were instituted in the school systems for, and other public programs were directed toward, changing the ways of foreigners. At this point, the melting pot enjoyed its own flavor and was not inclined to introduce new spices.

The notion of educating foreigners even became a type of patriotic duty, prompting volunteer groups to join the federal initiative. These volunteers, lacking guidelines, pressed their own agenda, and taught cooking, social amenities, and childcare—each promoted as essential to becoming an accepted member of the American culture.

When did your ancestors come here? How did they become American?

The involvement of the United States in World War I and World War II brought about suspicions and a new awareness of just how many "aliens" there were in America.

Of course, what made them "alien"? Was it the lack of proper identification?

No. Being alien meant being of a culture or ethnicity not traditionally American. If a person looked, worshipped, or acted differently than the majority of Americans, then that person was seen as alien—a foreigner, even if born in America.

These cultural experiences, definitions, and initiatives laid the ground work for much of the biases we experience today.

If a family speaks Spanish in the home and not English, are they American?

Adding to the tensions between native citizens and immigrants has been the continued practice of ethnic grouping, where various cultural groups tend to concentrate together in the same geographic area.

During the 40s, 50s, and 60s, formal assimilation initiatives were not pursued, but Americans did not lose the strong expectation for foreigners to be less foreign if they were to be trusted and accepted.

The 1970s brought about a revamping in immigration policy, opening a door that led to the addition of relatively new ingredients in the melting pot recipe.

Large numbers of people from Latin America, the West Indies, Asia, and the Middle East came to the now open-arms of America, as did smaller numbers of Canadians and Europeans.

Today, federal tracking sources report approximately 1 million legal and illegal immigrants enter the country annually, and roughly 50 million people entered the United States seeking citizenship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, marking the largest population movement ever recorded in world history.

This massive influx of immigrants brings cultural diversity, but traditionally Americans have rejected the diversity and demanded assimilation. With such a social system, our society does not gain from, but only supports, our new members.

If we learn to celebrate cultural diversity our lives and perspective would grow as our population does. So, we ask you now:

What does it mean to be an American?

I believe it means to be someone who can celebrate and respect cultures, races, and choices without losing their uniqueness—someone who is part of something larger than themselves, a whole with many varying parts to be celebrated and learned from.

We believe this.

We live this.

Do you?