Melting Pot?

Is American more of a melting pot or a compartmentalized plastic plate? According to the article The Nation: Mexican-Americans; Forging a New Vision of America’s Melting Pot written by Gregory Rodriguez, this country is far from a melting pot. Multiculturalism is “the ideology that promotes the coexistence of separate but equal cultures” (Rodriguez 9). The idea of a melting pot is combining cultures equally and blending them to make one delicious culture, not keeping them “separate but equal” (9). Even though Mexican- Americans are constantly trying to intertwine with the White-American culture, this country has kept them separate, and tried to make them (well the legal ones anyway) equal.

As much as some people hate to admit it, America is not a melting pot. Many cultures have come together in this nation, but for the most part, each different culture in the United States has remained separate while trying to be equal to the dominant White-American culture. The novel The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle is about the coexistence of Mexican-Americans and White-Americans near the Topanga Canyon in California. The book is written in an interesting style in which each chapter is solely about the Mexican-Americans or the White-Americans. The chapters alternate focus from the Mexican American life and the White-American life. The two stories are not intertwined into one, just like how America is not combining cultures into one melting pot. The Mexican-Americans, although they depend on the gringos, resent them while the White-Americans, although they employ the Mexicans, show hatred towards them. The two strong groups are too proud to combine their efforts into one melting pot to make for an even stronger recipe.

Who is preventing this country from becoming a true melting pot though? Is it the dominant White-Americans or the minority Mexican-Americans? America has made strides to integrate other cultures into the White-American culture, so why is it not happening with the Mexicans? The issue of illegal immigrants influences this dilemma. Illegals do not pay taxes, the white taxpayers get pissed off and so on. The issues trickle down to one final conclusion: America is a divided plate, not a melting pot.

Works Cited 

Rodriguez, Gregory. "The Nation: Mexican-Americans; Forging a New Vision of 
     America's Melting Pot." The New York Times [New York] 11 Feb. 2001: Section 
     4 Page 1. NYTimes.com. 11 Feb. 2001. The New York Times Company. 16 Mar. 
     2009 .

All That Glitters

The acceptance of homosexuality in the media has come a long way since the first television show aired in the 1920s. Homosexuality in some shows today has even pushed the limit by making it a subject of inoffensive comedy. As you can probably tell from my other previous post, Sex and the City is one of my favorite TV shows. The four main characters (Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Samantha Jones, and Miranda Hobbes) are all heterosexual (except for a few episodes in season 4 when Samantha tries out being a lesbian). Their friends (the minor characters) include a few homosexuals. There is Standford Blatch, one side of the stereotypical gay man, who dresses in flamboyant colors and says that everything is just “fabulous” in his homosexual voice. And then there is Anthony Marentino, the other side of the stereotypical gay man. He is hot and stuck up and full of himself… and works as a wedding planner.

Episode 14 of season 4 (All That Glitters) includes the most homosexuals of any of the SATC. (I would know, I have watched every episode. Great show.)  The girls display heterosexual privilege in this episode by going to a gay bar to go dancing without having to worry about taking men home (or vise versa). Although there is heterosexual privilege here, there is also and entire gateway giving people insight of the gay world. And everyone is cool with that. The girls are not bothered by the gay men, and the gay men are not bothered by the girls. In fact, even Carrie’s heterosexual fiancée Aidan is not bothered by the gay men. What does this show? Acceptance. Sex and the City promotes that homosexual people can live comfortably and happily alongside heterosexual people and everyone has the same privileges.

I mentioned homosexuality in SATC as inoffensive comedy. For example, in All That Glitters Carrie was walking towards the bar when a gay man wearing fairy wings almost bumped into her. Anthony screams “Watch out for the fairy!” Carrie looks back and asks, “Which one?” The two laugh. The homosexual man finds the homosexual joke Carrie (a heterosexual) made funny. 

Not every homosexual comment in the show is comical though. The best example of true homosexual struggles in this show is when Miranda bumps into the junior associate at her law firm (Max) in the bathroom of the gay bar. She, along with the rest of their co-workers, had no idea that Max was gay. Stunned Max said to Miranda, “I kind of prefer if we don't make an issue of this at work. I'm not in the closet, I just wouldn't want the older partners to start treating me differently”. Later that week at work Miranda confronted Max about him telling everyone at work she was pregnant. In her defense, Miranda said, “How would you like it if I told everyone in the office you were gay?” At that moment, the office ‘big mouth’ walked in. When she left Max sarcastically said, “Great. Maybe next you can tell my grandparents.” In the end, that Casual Friday at the office Max came out at work as a “stylish gay man”. “That was the end of Casual Friday.”

Miranda and Max’s story shows how SATC does not promote heterosexual privilege. It happens, but these four girls do not want to be a part of that flaw in society. Whatever someone’s sexual orientation may be, he should be able to live his life with rights equal to everyone else’s. Unfortunately, as SATC shows through Max’s ‘grandparent’ comment, society is not ready accept this idea, so right now, no matter how hard we try to avoid and change it, heterosexual privilege exists, but it is not right.