Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire

The United States is unlikely to devolve into another Bosnia or Rwanda overnight. However, the history of other multiethnic countries is instructive: ethnic tension can degenerate into ethnic strife, violence, or outright genocide with ferocious speed. At the end of World War II, Sri Lanka was celebrated as a land of ethnic harmony and rosy prospects. A few years later, divisive affirmative action policies sparked a violent conflict that lasted over forty years, killing hundreds of thousands and condemning a once-prosperous island to poverty. Although the United States might not be on quite the same trajectory, that is no cause for insouciance. Group conflict and ethnically-motivated attacks have mounted precipitously in recent years. While most Americans conceive of ethnic conflict in white-black terms, it has become increasingly multilateral, involving other groups. The negative consequences of ethnic division also go beyond overt hate crimes and violence. As the social statistics in this book show, ethnically divided societies that simmer in communal tension suffer dire social and economic costs even when that tension is nonviolent.

While the number of immigrants has soared and ethnic tensions have risen, the philosophy for integrating diverse groups into American society has shifted. For most of US history, the “melting pot” was the prevailing ideal, even if it was imperfectly followed much of the time. Beginning in the 1970s, some mainstream leaders suggested abandoning the melting pot and the goal of a shared national identity. This thinking gained popularity while its focus evolved from tolerating or appreciating the cultural differences and distinctions of diverse ethnic groups to actively fostering and promoting them. The underlying philosophy, known as multiculturalism, also promoted programs and institutions that distinguish individuals based on inherited characteristics, such as race and ethnic origins, and grant preferences to them on that basis.

Although America’s swing from a melting pot to a multicultural model has been vigorously debated, uninformed American exceptionalism has prevailed in this debate. Like my Bosniak van driver, many Americans think their country’s challenges are unique. They are oblivious to the fact that countless other societies in history and around the world have grappled with managing diverse ethnicities. For example, Time magazine’s special issue on American multiculturalism was subtitled: “How Immigrants Are Shaping the World’s First Multicultural Society.” Apparently, Time’s writers were unaware of the existence of the Roman, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as a long succession of other multicultural societies that punctuate fifty centuries of history all the way back to pre-dynastic Egypt. This myopia is ironic in the case of multiculturalism’s proponents: while they emphasize celebrating other cultures from around the world, they manifest stunning ignorance of these cultures’ histories.

Thus, as the United States has veered from melting pot to multiculturalism, there has been little serious discussion about how similar course changes have worked out in other countries. The reality is that both the melting pot and multiculturalist models have been tried many times in history. In some cases, societies have shifted from one to the other. It’s worth examining how it has worked out for them; perhaps we can distill some useful lessons from their experiences. That is what this book endeavors to accomplish.

We will begin with a brief introduction to the melting pot concept. Then we will survey examples of societies that have adopted the melting pot or multicultural models. Finally, we will analyze cross-national statistical data to evaluate the social and economic consequences of multiculturalism.