... people commonly refer to it as the "melting pot". Hector St. John de Crevecoeur said, "In America...individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men. The creation of the U.S....was not to preserve old cultures but to forge a new, American culture." Is this still true or the United States has changed from a "melting pot" to a vast culture with varying racial backgrounds? How is it affecting the accomplishment of the American perfect mission, highlighted by J. Jackson: "our mission to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race" ("Address to the Democratic Convention", 17 July 1984)? What is a melting pot, and does it apply to America? To answer that question we must first take a look at the early years ...

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