American Cultures

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American Cultures

TOPIC: #2

   “Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbow –red, yellow, brown, black, and white- … America is not a blanket – one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size, America is more like a quilt – many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.” (Jesse Jackson, Democratic Convention speech)

STUDENT: Baranov Pavel.

“We are often reminded that we live in a great nation - and we do. But it can be greater still”.

Jesse Jackson, "Address to the

Democratic Convention"

July 17, 1984

The United States were founded on the principles of progress, freedom, independence, human values, and equal opportunities by the immigrants from all over the world. The first settlers brought to their new Motherland their knowledge, experience, eagerness as well as various cultural backgrounds, which did not seem to co-exist very well together.

In the process of time they have merged and blended into each other and nowadays, when describing the United States, people commonly refer to it as the "melting pot".

Hector St. John de Crevecoeur said, “In America…individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men. The creation of the U.S.…was not to preserve old cultures but to forge a new, American culture."  

Is this still true or the United States has changed from a “melting pot” to a vast culture with varying racial backgrounds? How is it affecting the accomplishment of the American perfect mission, highlighted by J. Jackson: “our mission to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race” ("Address to the Democratic Convention", 17 July 1984)?

What is a melting pot, and does it apply to America?  

To answer that question we must first take a look at the early years of America and its first settlers, a time where the interrelation of cultures, this so-called melting pot, came about. Next, we must contrast it to the present day America and point out how the cultural values remained or changed throughout all these years.

The setting of America began with an idea. Back in 1620 the first colonists committed themselves to the following, “We whose names are underwritten … doe thy these presents solemnly mutually in the presence of God, and one of another covenant combine our selves together into a civil body politic, … for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.” (The Mayflower Compact).

The idea was that the citizens of society could join freely and agree to govern themselves by making laws for the common good.  

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The first settlers of the North American continent were immigrants from Europe; most of them crossed the Ocean looking for better life, opportunities, jobs and justice. In the effort of saving their lives, fugitives of many governments also chose America as a quest for new life.

People, who had come from different nations that shared different values, all of a sudden found themselves in this new place where their life would move on. This is how the term “melting pot” originated – it is a mixture of different people in one place.

However, as time passed by, a group of ...

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