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What do you understand by the term the melting pot and what criticisms
have been made of the concept?
America is a vast nation of ethnic diversity, from its roots as a nation of immigrants to
todays modern society where the President of the United States is a man of mixed
ethnicity. What this essay will do is to explore one of the many social concepts that have
arisen from this ethnically diverse nation, a social concept known as the melting pot and
my understanding of the concept. Furthermore this essay will explore the general focus of
the melting pot concept and the criticisms that surround it, such as the prominence of the
hyphenated-American and the rise of immigrants rejecting American culture to maintain
the cultural norms and values of their home nations. Finally the essay will look into an
alternative concept as a criticism of the melting pot, which is known as the salad bowl
theory.
The term melting pot was famously coined by immigrant playwright Israel Zangwill in his
four-act melodrama titled The Melting Pot that opened in in 1908
1
. The melting pot
focuses on the coming together and mixing of several varied cultures, resulting in the
creation of a singular collective identity, in this instance the American. This coming
together and mixing of culture that the melting pot relies upon is influenced by two main
catalysts. These catalysts are immigration and assimilation. Early American history was built
on the foundation of immigration with the Founding Fathers and the voyage of the
Mayflower in 1620 and with a total of 3,100 legal immigrants arriving in the US per day
2
. The
concept of the melting pot is directly influenced by immigration because without
immigration there would no variety of national identities and cultures entering into a nation
for the melting pot concept to even begin to take effect, which in turn renders the
concept meaningless and unnecessary. The additional catalyst that the melting pot concept
relies on to function effectively is the idea of assimilation. The process of assimilation is
where an individual absorbs themselves into the culture of the nation they are emigrating

1
The Daily Beast. America: Still a Melting Pot? (1993)[online] Available at
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1993/08/09/america-still-a-melting-pot.html
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
2
Population Reference Bureau: Population Bulletin Update: Immigration in America 2010 (2010) [online]
Available at http://www.prb.org/Publications/PopulationBulletins/2010/immigrationupdate1.aspx
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
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to by accepting the norms and values of the new home nation. A resulting issue with this
acceptance of new social norms and values is that the individual who is assimilating often
has to reject the norms and values of their home country in order to achieve this
assimilation into the American way of life and to become part of the melting pot in order
to become a proper American citizen. In essence the process of assimilation is the
melting or mixing function of the melting part concept, because assimilation is the process
that begins to mould these varied national identities with their own norms and values in this
collective singular known as the American. The melting pot concept relies on a very singular
path based process in order to function as a concept. It needs the influx of national
identities brought about through immigration as the raw material that is then shaped and
manipulated by the process of assimilation in order to become this end product that is the
typical American citizen.
The melting pot concept is why an America exists where a population of so many varied
national identities in their family histories can all be placed under a singular tagline as a
population when viewed by the rest of the world and each of these individuals from these
varied backgrounds move forward through society all with the same American dream.
However on closer inspection, there are some clearly evident flaws with using the concept
of the melting pot to define American society. The majority of criticism surrounding
particularly in the idea of the singular American identity emerging as the by-product of all of
these varied cultures being mixed together.
This issue surrounding the melting pot concept and the singular American identity that it
produces is highlighted by the presence of another form of American identity, the
hyphenated-American. Hyphenated-Americans such as the African-American and Italian-
Americans do not follow the assimilation stage of the melting pot concept instead they elect
to coexist amongst each other creating a society with complex interwoven identities. This
results in an America that does not have a simple one layer identity that the melting pot
concept would suggest. It instead suggests that the concept of American identity is deeply
complex with numerous layers and identities that coexist in their separate identities like
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the ingredients in a salad.
3
This gives rise to the salad bowl theory, which paints the
development of American society in a more diverse many as akin to its salad bowl
metaphor. The salad bowl theory is quickly becoming a more preferred view on how
American society is made up and this is evident as far back as 1993 where a Newsweek poll
showed that only 20% of Americans surveyed, believed that America was stilling a melting
pot
4
society. This brings into question how effectively can the melting pot be used as a
concept in modern America. Historically it appeared to be a very effective and logically
sound concept in dealing with the issue of how America can transform from being a nation
of immigrants to a nation of Americans, however in a more globally interdependent world
where global travel is boiled down to matters of hours instead matters of months, the need
for an immigrant to completely assimilate into a culture and reject the cultural beliefs and
values of their homeland to join the American consensus and take on a cookie-cutter mass
produced identity disguised as being a true American appears to be unnecessary. It
appears that the melting pot concept is unnecessary in modern society and in fact can be
seen to be oversimplifying a very complex system because of how interconnected the world
is, particularly surrounding how cultural media can be broadcast around the world not just
limited to a single nation.
A further criticism of the melting pot concept is that there are many minority groups
such as the Mexican immigrants, who shun the idea of assimilating into the American way of
life, instead choosing to live by their national values in an American space. A Washington
Post article made in 1998
5
begins to bring into question the effectiveness of the concept of
the melting pot when dealing with large minority groups such as the Mexican and Hispanic
populations. The main statement that is raised is that as the minority groups grow in size
the melting pot no longer transforms them into assimilating into American society,
instead it is these minority groups that transform American society as we know it. This lack
of power that the melting pot has in modern society is also influenced by increased

3
Thornton B. Melting Pots and Salad Bowls(2012), Hoover Digest no.4 [online] Available at
http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/132541 [Accessed 28/03/2013]
4
The Daily Beast. America: Still a Melting Pot? (1993)[online] Available at
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1993/08/09/america-still-a-melting-pot.html
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
5
Branigin W. Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation(1998), Washington Post [online] Available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0525a.htm
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
Mark Elson
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acceptance and social orientation towards a more ethnically diverse society, clearly evident
by events such as the St Patricks Day celebrations that take place in Chicago and many
other metropolitan areas every year. This reduction in assimilation brought about by the
melting pot has meant that these minority groups can exist in their own communities as
snapshots of the cultures of their native homelands with places such as Chinatown, Little
Italy, Little Havana and formerly Little Mexico, providing a homeland within American
society where many of the American values and ways of life are rejected in favour of their
more traditional values such as the emphasis on the family over material wealth.
In conclusion the concept of the melting pot is one of historical importance because of
how it shows the transitional development of American society from one of a nation of
immigrants into a unified nation of Americans ready to face the future. However the melting
pot is a concept that has been unable to translate into modern American society where a
paradigm shift has resulted in the concept of American society being E Pluribus Unum
(One from Many: One of the American National Mottos) being shifted towards a more
diverse society where the idea of difference amongst individuals such as ethnicity, race,
gender, sexuality is generally accepted and the general coexistence of these different
groups within the American society either coexisting together through hyphenated (hybrid)
identities showing a synthesis of American and foreign identity or where these minority
groups form their own communities with American society evidenced by places such as
Little Italy and Chinatown. In essence the concept of the melting pot is vitally important, as
it provides insight into the history of American society; however that is where the melting
pot remains because it is a concept that cannot adapt to the increasingly diverse nature of
not only America but the world its self. The melting pot is a symbolic concept of the notion
of uniformed solidarity the notion that from the many there is one and it is a concept that
does not fit with Modern American Society in the 21t Century.

Word Count: 1,464


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Reference List
Branigin W. Immigrants Shunning Idea of Assimilation(1998), Washington Post [online] Available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0525a.htm
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
Population Reference Bureau: Population Bulletin Update: Immigration in America 2010 (2010)
[online] Available at
http://www.prb.org/Publications/PopulationBulletins/2010/immigrationupdate1.aspx
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
The Daily Beast. America: Still a Melting Pot? (1993)[online] Available at
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1993/08/09/america-still-a-melting-pot.html
[Accessed 28/03/2013]
Thornton B. Melting Pots and Salad Bowls(2012), Hoover Digest no.4 [online] Available at
http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/132541 [Accessed 28/03/2013]