Dear Editor,
I am a student at CSULB, and on Thursday the 15, 2011, you published an article titled “Turn up the heat: In time, the US could be a melting pot.” In this article you provide the idea that there is a unanimous view that the US is a nation full of multicultural inhabitants who cannot communicate because of language barriers. Another topic brought up in your article is that in trying to hold on to one culture while at the same time trying to assimilate to a new one, individuals will never be American. This article also touches on the beauty of diversity present in this nation, and suggests that becoming bilingual would be a benefit to society. Finally, the article touches on how this nation is a melting pot that is divided into the different ethnic identities that will never completely assimilate because of individuals constantly migrating to the US. In the article you stated that this population has the special need of translation and that this need arises because we are all classified into separate races that do not yet know how to live amongst each other. This is not only offensive, but also completely wrong.
In my opinion, the US is more of a salad bowl and less of a melting pot. The reason why we see so much diversity in the US and are able to “greet people with backgrounds from all over the world” is because individuals from different ethnicities have been able to hold on to their cultures and add their own unique “sauces/dressings” to the US. Instead of letting go of their ethnic background and cultures in order to learn a new culture and assimilate into the American “race.” Being bilingual would actually increase mental stimuli to younger children and actually helps with information retention. Studies conducted on information retention show that children who learn more than one language, perform better on retaining information than those who only learned one. The US is lucky to have people that are so unique and so different from one another living in one nation. So having individuals migrate to the US should not be seen as creating clumps in a melting pot based on their ethnicity, but instead adding to the diversity of the salad bowl. Also, this article suggests that the different ethnicities are all different races, which is completely incorrect. There is only one race, the human race.
The cartoon included in the article is also offensive to the minorities that are presented. The Caucasian piece of the pie has individuals dressed in professional attire. The Latino group depicted is drawn similar to the Mexican Candy, “Pelon, Pelo Rico.” While the African American section is dressed in attire similar to blue jailhouse uniforms. Not only are other ethnic groups not depicted but also it appears that only Caucasians are capable of being the professional individuals in society.
Robert Gama
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