The Melting Pot is Upsetting

One of the biggest lies they tell you in the United States is that our nation is one giant “melting pot.” From the surface, the unknowing immigrant sees the United States as the land of opportunity, where people are welcome to commence their pursuit of happiness, where freedom is a right and individuality is the key to becoming a self-made man. But reach inside this Land of the Free, and those willful enough to accept the truth will discover that this land is not so free after all: it is divided and riddled with a multitude of social issues that prevent us from being truly free—problems that are undoubtedly caused by this one big lie. And what’s worse is that all of these problems within American society are considered normal.

People have never called me lucky for being who I am, and by who I am I’m referring to my race. I’m not Caucasian, but I’m a light-skinned and by-all-means average Asian male. By those standards, I should already be considered immune. I have not been a victim of overt racism or institutionalized racism where I was denied access to highly regarded resources or anything like that, but I have experienced and have heard plenty about subtle racism. The first assumptions people think about me is that I excel in science or in math, then I tell them my major and I see their ignorant smiles dampen into a slightly confused gaze. Whenever I first introduce myself to someone, I’ve already robotically assigned and readied my subconscious to answer my new acquaintance’s upcoming “what kind of Asian are you?” questionnaire. My Asian identity is the permanent label on the back of my shirt. It doesn’t say that I’m Californian or American, and that’s where normality becomes an issue.

Manners and habits are the by-products of the nurture factor.  Unfortunately, one of the most dominating nurturing agents in our lives is American media. This is where we get ideas that being white is normal, and being otherwise is not, and when we are in the “otherwise” category, we tend to ask and be asked in return for having differences. Another dominating factor in our upbringing is our parents who are more-often-than-not the people that familiarize you to your respective cultural background. Not that they’re wrong in doing that, but alongside dinners of your favorite non-American dish are the innocuous hints and winks from your mother and father that we’re different people from everybody else so we stick together. This is where the high school students in “Race: The Power of An Illusion” realize their faults in believing those hints and winks. The cohesion their parents were instilling in their children is the illusion that anybody who looks like they can come from their family is similar to us. Biology then tells us this is not so.

The results of the experiment the high school students had done in the film revealed that they are genetically different from who they thought would be most similar to them. The contrary was the case. This evidence supports Pilar Ossorio's comment that "there's as much or more diversity and genetic difference within any racial group as there is between people of different racial groups." Looking at Asian stereotypes and comparing them to myself, I'm pretty bad at math, and science bores me. My closest friends are of different races, and probably the reason why we're that close is because we have similar genetics traits. Saying that I'm not like most Asians isn't satisfying to other people, but really, I'm not like most Asians.

I’ve always identified myself as American, but for culture’s sake, I also identify as Asian-American. Ossorio’s comment in the film about the greater diversity within an ethnic group only reinforces my own belief of the same observation I’ve made a long time ago: that many similarities in ethnic cultures are the spawn of group-think and cohesion, and that only in individuality will people reveal that their own kind varies from themselves. Nevertheless, I’ve always faced race as inevitably the standardized test that Americans willingly put themselves through. Society has designated me as Asian, not American, and, therefore, different; furthermore, this designation has attached expectations and regulations that I didn’t ask for.

The "melting pot" of America isn't true because the idea of race persists. Humans have taken a liking to classifying everything around them because it makes them feel like they belong somewhere, and this basis of classification has also led to the rise of power of the dominating racial class which is the white people. Although there is no scientific evidence to prove the biological basis of race, the superior race decided to keep the concept around because it has served their best interests for generations and even today. Being able to subordinate every other race grants them the upper hand on authority, gives them dibs on access to the finest resources, and allows them to abuse their capabilities without repercussions--what other race is there more powerful to stop them? Not even God can stop them.