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Multiculturalism and melting pot are different views on cultural diversity. Melting pot suggests blending into a dominant culture, while multiculturalism encourages separate cultural groups. The effects of a country’s chosen model depend on legislation. The US shifted from melting pot to multiculturalism in the 1980s due to tensions and questions about equality.
Both multiculturalism and melting pot are terms that refer to the topic of diversity in society. They are two different points of view on cultural diversity. The main difference between multiculturalism and melting pot theories is whether separate cultural groups should be encouraged or whether a country should have a basic cultural norm.
The concept of diversity as a melting pot with people more or less adhering to a cultural norm is said to have preceded the idea of multiple cultures within societies. The main idea of a melting pot is that all people in a society would blend together to form a basic cultural norm based on the dominant culture. Critics of this view often suggest that this thinking creates intolerance for cultural differences and only favors the status quo, or dominant culture. Italian political scientist Giovanni Sartori disagrees with this criticism. Sartori points out that many different cultural identities in a country lead to separations and ghettos.
American historian Francis Fukuyama disagrees with Sartori. According to Fukuyama, society should consist of many different kinds of social and cultural lifestyles. He sees this multiculturalism as positive for society while Sartoris sees it as negative. Neither multiculturalism nor the melting pot model of diversity is perfect and the effects of a country’s chosen model also depend on legislation or the lack thereof.
For example, can a person wear traditional clothing rather than a uniform in a job that requires its workers to wear a standard uniform? If traditional dress were allowed in the spirit of multiculturalism, those who agree with Sartori would probably say that this would create friction and further distinguish the person from his peers. Those who agree with Fukuyama, on the other hand, are likely to say that if the cultural habit is not permitted, the person would feel compelled to assimilate into, or indulge in, the beliefs and traditions of the dominant culture and would not feel fully se itself. or herself.
Some Western countries such as the United States had a melting pot mentality on diversity before shifting to a more multicultural policy in the 1980s. Many factors lead to changes in decisions whether to support the melting pot approach or the multicultural aspect. Tensions between dominant cultures and others and questions about what constitutes equality are common motivations for rethinking a society’s stance on cultural diversity.
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