In the history of the United States, we have called ourselves the “melting pot”. The idea of a melting pot is that people come from various nations and cultures, and all become American. This idea is codified into our national motto, “E Pluribus Unim”, “Out of Many, One”.
In recent decades the United States of America has been referred to as a salad bowl, instead of a melting pot. The idea of a salad bowl is that each ingredient of the salad maintains its separate identity, flavor, and color, instead of blending into the rest of the salad. Instead of calling a person an American, we call them an African American, or an Asian American, or something that identifies their culture prior to coming to America. They keep their original heritage, culture, and ethnic identity and remain separate from other Americans.
Respecting your distinct heritage, following your distinct religion, and celebrating special days that you hold dear is a good thing. This is a big part of who you are. I don’t advocate abandoning these pieces of your identity.
However, there is something that I believe we’ve lost by not embracing a single identity as Americans.
Let me explain.
Politicians gain an advantage by splitting us up into more distinct salad bowl ingredients. For instance, today, close to 90% of Black people vote for Democratic Party candidates. Democratic Party candidates know this and pander to gain this voting bloc. The way that they split us up is they convince Black voters that Republicans are racists, and they are anti-racists.
Republicans create the same dividing tactic among the small business owner voting bloc. They say that Democrats will raise taxes and put undue burden on small business owners. If you want low taxes for higher profits, you must vote Republican. This pandering creates another distinct division in our salad bowl.
This dividing continues until Democrats and Republicans have divided the salad bowl into its respective Democratic Party and Republican Party ingredients. Imagine a salad bowl with the tomatoes, green peppers, and olives off on one side; and the cucumbers, carrots, and cheese on the other side. This is what a polarized salad bowl looks like. No one wants to eat this salad… just like few people want to live in such a divided country.
What about lettuce?
Where is the lettuce ingredient in our salad bowl? Lettuce is the centrists. More and more people are becoming immune from the pandering of politicians. They see through the false promises and the tactics to divide us. And yet, they have no leader who dares to challenge the powerful political parties. There is no objective news media that will advocate for a middle ground. And yet, these centrists are the true Americans. They are the ones who decided not to give up on the idea of the “melting pot”.
A melting pot is not a place where everyone becomes an automaton and follows a European culture. Instead, it is where unique cultures blend. In a melting pot, Christians follow their faith and respect the faith of a Muslim. In a melting pot, people of Irish and German heritage celebrate Cinco de Mayo with their neighbors. In a melting pot, people are known by the content of their character rather than their ethnic heritage. We drop the hyphenated Americans, and all become Americans. In a melting pot, we drop the scientifically improper word “race”, and start using “ethnicity” to describe someone’s ethnic heritage. We stop treating our fellow-Americans as enemies or victims.
What is preventing us from melting?
It may sound great to paint this picture of a utopia of America where everyone gets along, and we drop all the identifying words that separate us. But we have been separating for generations. And, frankly, lettuce is boring. There is a reason that Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC cable news channels are making record profits from polarization. It is entertaining to root for our home team of conservatives or liberals. The story is much more engaging when there is an antagonist and a protagonist. Is it any wonder that we cannot elect a centrist candidate when lettuce is so boring?
What does it mean to be an American?
In my day job, I coach small business owners. My clients want to achieve something different that they know they are not achieving today. They know they must do something different, but they don’t know what that thing is. The first step is to visualize the goal. What is it that you are trying to achieve? Why do you want to get to this new place? In the case of re-creating our melting pot, we must identify what it means to be American. This is a list that we must create together.
Here is my list for a starting point:
An economy that rewards hard work, risk taking, ownership, and innovation.
Tax revenues that reserve a predictable amount to pay for public services.
An education system that prepares young people for a prosperous life.
An educated electorate who is deliberate about voting their conscience.
Love and respect for people, regardless of any unique trait.
A reasonable justice system that operates the same for all.
The right to due process with the presumption of innocence.
Ignoring others’ behaviors that have no effect on our lives.
Controlling our national borders.
Responsible use of natural resources.
Welcoming in immigrants who share our American values.
This list is my list, and it’s not extensive. Whatever the list is, if we can define what it means to be American, we will have a common objective that creates the fabric that unites us.
Whatever the list is, it needs to be the ideal that unites us all.
Good Conflict
As I drafted my makeshift list, it was apparent to me that Americans will have reasonable objections to items on my list. They will want to better define some items. Or, they may object to my list altogether. The way that we handle conflict among ourselves is also an American ideal. In today’s vernacular, we call this conflict “debate.” Congresspeople debate various topics and are supposed to come to some common ground. This rarely happens in a polarized environment. Instead, debate turns into demagoguery.
Disagreement is a normal thing. We won’t all agree on various ideals. This means that these ideals aren’t common to all Americans and shouldn’t be on the list. Or it means that these ideals need to be refined to build consensus.
Bad Conflict
Differences of opinion are natural. Where conflict goes wrong, is when we start creating us vs them ideals that create animosity and separation. Sadly, this is what most of our conflict is today. The division can be between rich and poor. The division can be between white and black. The division can be between conservatives and liberals. This is how the salad bowl ingredients get divided and stay divided.
What can you do?
It’s easy for me to complain about political polarization. It’s hard to do something to end political polarization. My part is my writing. I have recently published a book called Engineering Unity. This book describes sources of political polarization and outlines how we can come together on twelve controversial topics.
Here’s what we all can do.
We can stop consuming news that is merely an echo chamber of our opinion.
We can engage in respectful conversations with our antagonists.
Conflict is a good thing if we engage in conflict in the right way.
Hold true to our beliefs and respect the freedom and liberty of others to hold true to their beliefs.
It’s boring being the lettuce in the salad bowl. Trust me, I know. But it is worth it. We can recreate the American melting pot where we take the best of all of us. This is the idea of America. Let’s get back to this idea together.
About the Author
Jeff Schuster is an accomplished businessman, engineer, and writer. Three of Jeff's books are attempts at helping people understand and solve political problems that are being made worse by political partisanship. His first book, Trial & Error, is a collection of 14 short stories. ReEngineering Education is a story of innovative education reform in the midst of political corruption. Engineering Unity is Jeff's most recent book published in August 2023 addressing political polarization on wedge issues that politicians use to divide us. You are welcome to join our private Facebook group called Reengineering Politics where we discuss politically polarizing topics in a civil manner.
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