Just One Big Melting Pot?

These days whenever I turn the news on, all I see and hear are stories about COVID-19, President Trump failures, and race issues that continue to plague us. I mean it really gets to the point that I sometimes hate even turning the TV on to watch any news or even clicking the Fox News, CNN, The Young Turks, or MSNBC app on my phone. But, in today's world it's almost like you have to stay in touch with what's going on or risk not knowing what the hell is going on at all; say thanks to the 24-hour news cycle for that. If you watch the news or any media, to include online media news outlets as I do, you would be made to believe that everything is going down the drain, the world is in disarray, and there is nothing we can do about it except watch everything unfold as the news cameraman quickly darts, zoom their lens, and capture everything happening. To be honest, I literally question myself, and think, is there anything I can do? What's happing to our country? I thought we were just 'one big melting pot,' an experiment, in which, we come from all walks of life and live together, regardless of our backgrounds, race, or religion. But, the more I naively attempt to convince myself of the 'we are just one big melting pot' theory, I come to the realization that we may not truly be the melting pot we think we are.

Recently, I was speaking to my wife about the state of our country and the pros and cons of American life as a whole. In that conversation, we delved into the reality of whether the United States is truly a ‘melting pot.’ Now, being a former U.S. Army soldier, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Romania, and South Korea, I would say I have very much been indoctrinated into a living Patriotic being. With that being said, I can sometimes get pretty offended when or if I hear someone down-talking the United States. Although I would admit that I and others like me fought to ensure we as Americans have the right to criticize our government, but as a former service-member it still hurts.

With all that being said, I was telling my wife that America is a great country, America is a strong country, and America is the 'melting pot' of the world. My wife agreed with everything I said besides one statement, America is a 'melting pot.' To be honest, I was extremely shocked to hear her even say she didn't believe America to be a melting pot. (Background for those new to my blog, my wife is Korean-American, she was born in South Korea, and moved to the United States after I begged her to join me. She is a former South Korean English-school teacher, that left everything behind to join me in life here in America. She is now a U.S. Citizen and holds a Master's Degree in Social Work focused on Mental Health, and counseling from Columbia University. Lastly, she brings what I believe to be a unique perspective to many conversations, and she is one of the main reasons why I decided to pursue my Ph.D. in Policy). Now, getting back to the story, my wife brings as I previously mentioned a unique perspective being that she later moved/immigrated to the U.S. Additionally, she does come from a collectivist country, and with such, is able to present ideas associated with what 'ONE' (one people) can look like. To my surprise, my wife told me that the United States was not a melting pot, but rather its’ a pot of soup. I was like, ‘whattttt, what do you mean a pot of soup? I got a quick laugh out of her words too. I quickly shut my mouth as my wife shared her definition of what a melting pot vs. a pot of soup looked like. She said, “a 'melting pot' means everything in the pot has merged into one or is at the point when you can no longer tell what each ingredient is within the pot.” She continued, “a pot of soup is when everything in the pot is cooked together, but you can still easily identify the peas from the carrots, the potatoes from the onions, and the beans from celery.” I mean after she finished saying that, I literally sat there for about 2-minutes before opening my mouth. When I opened my mouth, all I could say was 'Damn, you're right,' America is a pot of soup.

I want all my readers to think about that for a second. How often does our media, the news cycle, the language we use reminds us how different we are from each other? Think about often we discuss how ‘we come from here’ or ‘they come from there.’ Think about how often this country reminds us of our race. YES, we are in one big pot, that pot is the United States of America, but are we truly a melting pot? Have we gotten to the point where we can look throughout this country/this nation, and say, these are my countrymen and women, we are ONE? I don't know if I can say that everyone thinks like that about each other, maybe, I’m not sure, but for one thing, I don’t feel like we do or think like this! I would say, go to church on any given Sunday (something Dr. Martin Luther King once said), and you can see how divided we are as a nation. With all of this being said, I'm optimistic though, I believe that we can become a true melting pot. I'm not sure how long it can or will take, but I believe that it is possible and doable. I mean, look at this country and where it had come from over 250 years, yes, there is still more work to do, but damn, we have come a long way as a nation. I end with one thing, how can we become a true melting pot?