"It doesn’t matter what your skin, where you’re from, or your religion. You jump right into the great American melting pot"—these are the lyrics of a song from a classical educational children's TV show, Schoolhouse Rock!. From a young age, many grow up being taught that America is a "melting pot", the opportune place for a newcomer to rebuild their life for the better and be part of a unified nation ( “Melting Pot” a Derogatory and Incorrect Phrase ). America has long been referred to as a melting pot to allude to the diverse nature of the American population and how immigrants assimilate into a common American culture. This metaphor suggests that the various cultures each person brings to America blend together to form a harmonious society. "The Great Melting Pot" by Schoolhouse Rock! Yet, throughout history, this oversimplified ideal has been tested and proven insufficient to characterize the attitudes of the general American public toward specific ...
The mainstream media has recently blown up a phenomenon called cancel culture, the practice of "canceling" or ostracizing individuals who spoke or acted in a manner deemed unacceptable by societal standards. Like most current social media-related happenings, cancel culture is a term that holds a great deal of controversy. While some claim it “remove[s] celebrity status or esteem from a person, place, or thing based on offensive behavior or transgression”, others claim that it “silence[s] someone that does not have the same belief as you … taking their First Amendment rights away … [violating] people’s civil rights.” ( Pew Research Center ). However, the large majority agree upon the idea that it calls out others for offensive posts or content, whether the content creator should be held accountable or not. A similar trend can be found within the Red Scare in the 1950s, a period when hysteria surrounding the fear of communism and Soviet influence spread and permeated throughou...