Things often are not as they seem. I am often quite wary about people forming judgement or taking immutable positions based on what is visible on the surface. The US melting pot is one of the many examples where the surface may hide what is underneath.
America is famous for its “melting pot” narrative. The global population largely believes or chooses to believe in the possibilities where everyone is free to express and chase dreams.
Google search shows the population mix in the US that supports the melting pot narrative.
- 58% as non-Hispanic White (Caucasian),
- 18% Hispanic or Latino,
- 12% Black or African,
- 4% Asian (including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders)
A look at the past tells that the population mix changes over time. It is anybody’s guess how the population mix will become in another few decades or centuries.
The current population mix, in the American melting pot, can be seen as a bold social experiment on how people of different heritages and origins come together. If the wealth, influence and power of the country are indicators, the melting pot experiment in the US has been a success. The poverty experienced in the US is not the same as the poverty experienced in some war-torn countries. (It does not mean that it is better to be poor in the US than other places. Being poor among the rich can cause more suffering. There are just no places in the world where it feels great to be poor.)
Is the overall country population a good proxy of your own social mix?
I have lived in the US for a few decades. I work in large US corporations and diverse teams. Including my “international” connections at work, I take a quick assessment about my social connections and it comes across I have far more connections with people who have similar origin and heritage as me. My social circle and US population mix would look similar to the following charts. If I include other attributes like age, I believe there will be more connections with people of similar ages too.
The current state of the US melting pot gets many believing that people are integrated well into the American way of living. Yet, if we dwell into the individual social circle, the melting pot is more likely made up of social circles that are way more homogeneous. In simple terms, black Americans likely have more connections with other blacks, American Chinese likely have more connections with other American Chinese, American Indians likely have more connections with other American Indians. The intersections across different groups happen, but way less than what the overall population mix implies.
To add to the diversity, there are different shades within the same heritage. Almost anything that talks about heritage is a simplification of the myriad of complexity about how our ancestors end up where we are, and how I end up where I am.
For the sake of discussion, we would take some simplification. Let’s take people with Asian heritage who are living in the US. (You can replace Asian and US with the heritage and place of your choice). There are different shades of their identities and their sense of belongings. Are they American who happen to have Asian heritage (for convenience I call them Asian American)? Or are they Asians who happen to have an American passport? (American Asian). The answer makes a difference in terms of what identities they hold.
In one of the recent talks about Asian Americans, it was mentioned about sentences that the Asians, in America, feel absolutely offended by. Such as, when the Asian American gets praise for speaking good English; such as, when they are asked to go back to Asia; such as when they are asked where are they from. The first generations of Asians in America feel less offended, while their American born children would feel more offended. The spectrum of the reactions is an indicator of what they identify with and where they belong to. When others ask questions that imply that “you do not belong to the place you identify with”, you feel offended. I have friends who moved from Hong Kong to California years for decades. They could settle back to live in Hong Kong. Their identity still ties with Hong Kong where they were born and raised. Often, the first generation immigrants, away from their originating countries, are American Asians where their identities are more tied to their Asian heritage, especially for those who chose to immigrate. Their children tend to think of themselves as Asian Americans with the identity more tied to the melting pot America. The sense of identity, with America, increases with every subsequent generation of Asian Americans.
Why does it matter?
- As much as the US seems successful in the melting pot, people are not as integrated, and their social connections often do not reflect the population mix. Social connections include more people similar to each other in their origins, cultures and the list goes on to include age, look, and many more.
- The US melting pot concept is a relatively modern concept. With more advancements in technology and transportation, more people will move to other countries in their lifetime. Would there be more melting pots, where people of different heritages live in close proximities with each other?
- Even within similar heritage, there are different shades of their identity and belonging to the place they live in.
Things, like the melting pots, often are not as they seem. I am often quite wary about people forming judgement or taking immutable positions based on what is visible on the surface. Before your opinions and positions, I just hope more will look beneath the surface. Technology has made it so much easier to research about things.
oliviatamccue 
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