Transnational America 2/20

"No vereberatory effect of the great war has caused American public opinion more solicitude than the failure of the 'melting- pot.' The discovery of diverse nationalistic feelings among our great alien population has come to most people as an intense shock. It has brought out the unpleasant inconsistencies of our traditional beliefs We have had to watch hard- hearted old Brahmins virtuously indignant at the spectacle of the immigrant refusing to be melted, while they jeer at patriots like Mary Antin who write about 'our forefathers.' We have had to listen to publicists who express themselves as stunned by the evidence of vigorous nationalistic and cultural movements in this country among Germans, Scandinavians, Bohemians, and Poles, while in the same breath they insist that the mien shall be forcibly assimilated to that Anglo- Saxon tradition which they unquestioningly label 'American.'" Trans-national America by Randolph S. Bourne


I feel the Americans have more than enough reason to want to diminish the rights of and become biases towards the new comers. The immigrants that have spent little to no time within the United States  but would have the power to make changes the the US as they new it.They, the new Americans, were not like them, the Americans who had been there before. America as they knew it felt like it was in danger. What if they gained control? What if they were able to get laws passed? What if the world as they knew it changed for the worst? I could only imagine how weary they would have been letting their precious country become saturated with new immigrants. Though the imagrants had more than reason to be there and to have all their rights, the current Americans and the new American should have come to some sort of agreement to lesson the tension between them.

The concept of the melting bowl failed because the belief that immigrants who came into this country began to turn into the Anglo Saxon image of an american. They began to imitate what they know as American and disintegrate their culture. All the immigrants' culture did not simply disappear once they stepped within this country. While many immigrants did go through a process of Americanization, it is unique to the individual what this process will mean. While some many have left behind there roots, others whole heartily brought them along with them in various forms. I believe the the word 'kaleidoscope' fits the description of Americans more accurately than the melting pot. Americans are a mix of different nationalities, races, beliefs, pasts, morals and other factors that represent each color of an ever growing kaleidoscope.


I chose to write about this paragraph because I felt I could relate better and imagine my self in both situations. I know how it feels to have something incredibly important in fates hands. I also know how it feels to labeled in to a category that you do not fit with in.