(CODE IV) ESSAYS OF WRITING. ARTICLE

Please attach an article relate to conflict ideas and beliefs in multicularism society wheter in America or Indonesia. Afterward give your comment.

The Melting Pot Versus The Salad Bowl

by DANNY SULLIVAN on MAY 3, 2006

in AMERICA

I was in Canada last week and had an interesting talk with my cab driver on the way back to the airport about immigration and integration of different cultures. His key misconception was over the idea that America is all about the “melting pot,” where all cultures are mixed together into one.

I got the impression this might be a common one for Canadians. Indeed, I started my keynote at the conference I was at with a pretty funny commercial that used to air in Canada, poking fun in part at American stereotypes of them. You can check it out here (and some background on it here), but this is the key part that goes with my post:

I believe in…diversity, not assimilation,

Now I’m an American, not a Canadian. But you know what? I believe in diversity as well. In fact, that’s what I was taught in school — ordinary public school in Southern California.

In particular, we learned that the melting pot (yep, there’s even a Wikipediaentry on the origins of it) was an outdated metaphor for what Americans were supposed to be. In a melting pot, everyone was mixed together to become one single thing, all Americans — and perhaps without retaining your origins.

Heck, there was even the Schoolhouse Rock video I watched as a kid, where all these various Americans of different origins jumped into a big pot to be mixed together as Americans. I’ll come back to that in a moment, but onto the “salad bowl.”

We were taught that the salad bowl was the better metaphor for us to learn about American and immigrants. In a salad bowl, different ingredients are all mixed together to make one thing, yet each ingredient also retains its own characteristics. They aren’t blended into some bland goo.

While these are two different concepts, I’d also argue that they are also synonyms for many Americans. People I know, if they talk about a melting pot, it’s understood that different cultures, races and ethnicities aren’t supposed to be giving up their identities while also becoming part of a unified America. In other words, people may often say melting pot but mean the salad bowl concept.

You can even see this in that old Schoolhouse Rock video. When the people jumped in, they didn’t get all blended into sameness. The song even ends:

Go on and ask your grandma,
Hear what she has to tell
How great to be American
And something else as well.

Not everyone believes that, of course. There are plenty of Americans who feel immigrants should learn English, become “normal” Americans (whatever that’s supposed to be) and so on. For them, the melting pot is that blending.

For me — melting pot/salad bowl — whatever you want to call it, it’s about a country of immigrants becoming stronger by both embracing the diversity of its cultures but also all feeling they do belong to one nation as well.

source: http://daggle.com/the-melting-pot-versus-the-salad-bowl-111

My opinion : This article about a Canadian native living in the U.S. and ask about the melting pot and the salad bowl to the taxi driver. The conversation above I found that it is a mixture melting pot culture that led to the loss of two of their original culture and there is only one culture she lived. While the salad bowl is a mixing of the two cultures that still maintain their original culture. However, in upholding American of decency values ​​and despite diverse cultures in America but still they belong to the nation as well.

(CODE IV) TASK. MELTING POT AND SALAD BOWL

1. What do you know about melting pot and salad bowl and please explain?

• Melting polt means there is a fusion of various cultures into a single form in the pot. From a variety of materials together, from heterogenous to homogenous. Here, the process of assimilation of each part.

• As we know, if the name of salads, be it western or salad models our own version, you will see each piece, but form a unity called salad without fusion of each piece. although we put on it salad dressing, nonetheless each piece still stands alone and has its own role, but still form a unity. So looks very the beautiful colors. like a rainbow.

2. Does American people see melting pot as a model to  follow. explain ?

           America is called the melting pot because there are people from everywhere around the world, they have different cultures, different customs, but when they come to America, they are one, one nation.

Contrary to common belief, America is actually not a 'melting pot'. America is a 'salad bowl'. A melting pot implies that people who come into the society assimilate and adopt the standard of their new adopted society, contributing something along the way. A salad bowl implies that you hold onto your culture even after you arrive, and don't take on the characteristics of the new society, so that you have a mixture of a lot of different things, but you can still tell them apart like in a salad. Cheese fondue is made up of lots of different ingredients but you can't point and say "there's the white wine" the way you can say "there's the tomatoes and there's the celery" in a salad.

           Historically, the melting pot notion has not progressed in its entirety within U.S. society, due in part to the presence of structural barriers, including prejudice and discrimination, that have limited some immigrant and native-born minority persons from significant access to the resources and privileges of the dominant social group. Moreover, within the United States some ethnic people have actively chosen not to "give up" their native heritage and identity, despite their desires to participate successfully within the American economy.

(CODE II) PART 2. Assimilation in United States (article)

New US Immigrants Creating Different Assimilation Patterns

Each new group of immigrants to the United States has faced its own challenges as it has assimilated into American society. And each group has added its own customs and traditions to the ethnic mosaic of American culture: from Italian pizza to Latin American salsa music to Gaelic tap dancing.

VOA correspondent Barbara Schoetzau recently spoke with experts and immigrants about how new Americans assimilate into U.S. culture and change the United States.

Demographers and sociologists say it is difficult to analyze recent assimilation patterns in the United States because of immigration laws that took effect in 1968.

Anthony Orum, a specialist in immigration issues and trends at the University of Illinois, says the laws created a much more diverse immigrant population than in the past.

"Rather than getting large numbers of immigrants from Eastern and Western Europe, now we get many immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Mexico," he says. "Their stories tend to be different from the stories of earlier generations."

Their stories are as different as those of Tony Hanna, Oscar Carreno and Osmond Aznan. Tony came from Belfast, Northern Ireland for a two week vacation in 1975.

"I met up with a couple of Irish fellows and I got a job washing dishes in a restaurant in Times Square. I took my breaks at night and I walked around 42nd Street and I fell in love with New York," he says. "I decided to stay, not to go back."

Oscar was 19 years old when he and his brother left Colombia in 1980. "We came here because of necessity," he says. "We had to help our families there. There were no opportunities there. I always sent back money. Since the first time I started working here, never a month went by that I did not send money to my mother."

Osmond Aznan, a Kurd from Turkey, came to the United States in 1989. Three years ago, he and a Turkish friend opened the Istanbul Grill, a 24-hour-a-day restaurant they have recently expanded. Osmond says it is a struggle, but business is good.

"It is really tough. I didn't know it until I got into the business. It is very tough," he says. "We are okay. We are good. Every year we are almost double. Everything is fresh and made daily because we have no storage to keep it."

Professor Orum, says studies show some noticeable differences in recent patterns of assimilation. Most strikingly, unlike earlier groups, many recent immigrants are abandoning inner cites and resettling in ethnic enclaves in the suburbs, where they can survive without learning English well.

According to Oscar Carreno, learning English is not easy. But listening to radio and television helps. "In Colombia, I used to listen to a lot of rock music when I was a teenager, a lot of these heavy metal groups," he says. "I liked the music so much that at the same time you want to understand what they are saying so you kind of educate your ear and then you want to know what his word means and everything."

Sociologist Anthony Orum says many of his colleagues believe the current generation of immigrants are assimilating in the same way as previous generations. But he is not convinced.

"My own opinion from close observation over the past several years is that the ethnic community, whether you are Mexican, Indian, Nigerian, Polish, Bosnian, that the ethnic community remains very important to the groups of new immigrants," he says. "So that some may come in here and go ahead and move through the educational system, get great jobs, but they do not completely abandon the idea of their ethnicity or nationality."

Oscar has pursued the so-called American dream ever since he arrived in the United States, working two full-time jobs as a doorman to buy his own home and put his two daughters through school. But he also feels a deep attachment to his roots.

"It is within you. It is a blessing," he says. "It makes you a richer person a better person knowing that you can understand the American culture and at the same time you keep your culture. I have not lost my culture at all."

Professor Orum says studies show that many current immigrants, especially those from Latin America, move back and forth between the two cultures with ease.

"One of my arguments about the assimilation of previous generations, Irish and Italians, Polish, is that many of them were forced to abandon their national culture, their ethnicity by virtue of world wars and by virtue of the fact that many could not return," he says. "So they were here more or less permanently. Nowadays people can move back and forth easily between their home cultures and between the United States."

That ability is very important to Oscar Carreno who visits his family in Colombia and his wife's family in the Dominican Republic with his daughters every few years.

"You have to make them aware of where they come from and they are very proud of their cultures, Dominican and Columbian," he says. "At the same time, they are American citizens."

But Tony Hanna, a maintenance technician, did not go home for 22 years after arriving in the United States. "Nothing was changed in the neighborhood in Belfast that I am from," he says. "They had built new houses, but the people and everything else was pretty much the same. I was home three days when I called my sister and told her to change my ticket. I wanted to come back. I felt out of place. I felt like a tourist."

Still, Tony has made sure his children are aware of Irish traditions. "I think it is important for the kids," he says. "The kids went to Irish step dancing classes. My daughter took Gaelic-Irish language classes. Stuff like that. I think it is important to remember where you came from, but I also think it is very important that they are Americans first."

Despite concern about immigrants triggered by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, sociologists say there is little real tension between today's immigrants and the rest of American society.

source : http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2005-05-02-voa47-67528367/387080.html

• This article is talking about the immigrant who sad of the assimilation that hapenned to the other immigrants that forget who they are, where they come from, they were complacent by the pleasure that they get in USA and they forget their culture in their motherland. They shouldn't forget their culture even though they are living in the other country. The conclusion is the assimilation raises the good and the bad effects.

3. Kontak sosial (Mrs. Mila)

• Apakah didalam interaksi sosial harus selalu ada kontak sosial ?

interaksi sosial adalah suatu hubungan antar sesama manusia yang saling mempengaruhi satu sama lain baik itu dalam hubungan antar individu, antar kelompok maupun antar individu dan kelompok. Didalam interaksi sosial yang terjadi pada saat sekarang ini tidak hanya melalui kontak sosial langsung tetapi bisa melalui sosial media dan jejaring sosial yang saat ini dengan mudah di akses. Misalnya saja seseorang di wilayah jakarta bisa berkomunikasi dengan saudaranya yang berada di aceh, karena jarak yang begitu jauh akhirnya seseorang tersebut menggunakan internet sebagai akses media yang digunakan untuk berkomunikasi, dengan kemudahan seperti itu saya yakin interaksi antara individu yang satu dengan individu yang lain juga bisa berjalan dengan lancar walau tanpa kontak sosial secara langsung.

• Komunikasi adalah berhubungan atau bergaul dengan orang lain. Komunikasi mana yang bisa menjadikan  budaya?

komunikasi merupakan salah satu interaki sosial yang sering kita lakukan, misalnya setiap hari kita berangkat ke kampus berpamitan terlebih dahulu dengan orang tua, dan di kelas bertegur sapa dengan teman-teman, dosen, maupun individu-individu lainnya yang merupakan kebiasaan kita setiap harinya, suatu kebiasaan akan menjadikan suatu budaya tertentu di tengah-tengah masyarakat itu berada.

2. Bentuk budaya yang merupakan hasil dari kerjasama, akomodasi, asimilasi, dan akulturasi (Mrs. Mila)

Interaksi sosial adalah hubungan yang dinamis. Hubungan yang dimaksud adalah dapat berupa hubungan antar individu dengan individu, individu dengan kelompok atau kelompok dengan klompok. Tanpa interaksi sosial tidak akan ada kehidupan bersama dan kehidupan sosial dapat terwujud dalam berbagai bentuk pergaulan seseorang dengan orang lain. Bertemunya orang perorangan secara badaniah tidak akan menghasilkan pergaulan hidup dalam suatu kelompok sosial. Pergaulan hidup semacam itu akan terjadi apabila orang-orang atau kelompok bekerjasama dan saling berkomunikasi untuk mencapai tujuan bersama.

Bentuk-bentuk interaksi sosial

Berdasarkan pendapat menurut tim sosiologi (2002), interaksi sosial dikategorikan menjadi 4 yaitu kerjasama, akomodasi, asimilasi dan akulturasi yang semuanya merupakan bentuk interaksi sosial yang bersifat asosiatif.

1. Kerjasama

Kerja sama adalah suatu usaha bersama antarindividu atau kelompok untuk mencapai tujuan bersama. Kerja sama timbul apabila orang menyadari memiliki kepentingan dan tujuan yang sama, serta menyadari bahwa hal tersebut bermanfaat bagi dirinya atau orang lain. Kerja sama timbul karena orientasi individu terhadap kelompoknya (in group) dan orientasi individu terhadap kelompok lainnya (out group).

gambar di atas merupakan contoh kerjasama dalam bentuk menanam pohon secara bersama-sama agar bumi ini kembali hijau lagi. kerjasama sangat penting dalam kehidupan kita, karena tanpa adanya kerjasama kita tidak akan menjadi makhluk sosial. Dengan menanam pohon otomatis kita akan berkomunikasi dengan individu lain dan berinteraksi dengan baik.

     2.  Akomodasi

Akomodasi memiliki dua makna, yaitu sebagai keadaan dan proses. Akomodasi sebagai keadaan mengacu pada keseimbangan interaksi antar individu atau antar kelompok yang berkaitan dengan nilai dan norma sosial yang berlaku. Akomodasi sebagai sebuah proses mengacu pada usaha-usaha manusia untuk meredakan suatu pertentangan agar tercipta keseimbangan.
Akomodasi sebenarnya merupakan suatu cara untuk menyelesaikan pertentangan tanpa menghancurkan lawan. Tujuan Akomodasi berbeda-beda, tergantung pada situasi yang dihadapi.

Didalam hidup bermasyarakat sudah pasti kita mengalami konflik, baik itu antar individu maupun kelompok. gambar di atas merupakan contoh dari akomodasi yang terjadi didalam rapat yang mencoba memberi putusan yang baik dalam menyelesaikan konflik yang ada didalam rapat tersebut, salah satunya melalui musyawarah bersama untuk mencapai kesepakatan bersama.

    3.   Asimilasi

Asimilasi merupakan usaha-usaha untuk mengurangi perbedaan antar individu atau antar kelompok guna mencapai satu kesepakatan berdasarkan kepentingan dan tujuan-tujuan bersama. Dalam asimilasi terjadi proses identifikasi diri dengan kepentingan-kepentingan dan tujuan kelompok. Apabila dua kelompok atau dua orang melakukan asimilasi, maka batas-batas antar kelompok akan hilang dan keduanya melebur menjadi satu kelompok yang baru.

   4.  Akulturasi

Akulturasi adalah berpadunya dua kebudayaan yang berbeda dan membentuk suatu kebudayaan baru dengan tidak menghilangkan ciri kepribadian masing-masing. akulturasi sama dengan kontak budaya yaitu bertemunya dua kebudayaan yang berbeda melebur menjadi satu menghasilkan kebudayaan baru tetapi tidak menghilangkan kepribadian/sifat kebudayaan aslinya.  

Contoh akulturasi adalah Candi Borobudur yang merupakan perpaduan antara kebudayaan India dan kebudayaan Indonesia. Demikian juga musik keroncong yang merupakan perpaduan antara musik Portugis dan musik Indonesia.