I never cared for the “melting pot” metaphor, in part because it treats a nation of immigrants like a stew with all the cultures cooked out of it. Nor was I a fan of “gorgeous mosaic,” which sounds fine coming from a kindergarten teacher but is flat as a political rallying cry.
I prefer “the American experiment.” It’s just as inartful, yet closer to the truth. The audacious idea that people from all races, ideologies and religious sects would check their hatreds at the door after becoming citizens is our sustaining narrative.
Within our borders, Protestants don’t fight Catholics, Sunnis don’t go after Shiites, Armenians share neighborhoods with Turks, and a family that can trace much of its ancestry to slavery occupied a White House built in part by slaves.
But that tenuous construct is breaking apart. We are retreating to our tribal, ethnic and primitively prejudicial quarters. Everything is about race and identity. We come from privilege, or oppression. We choose politicians based on whether they help our tribe or hurt People Like Us.
This is President Trump’s legacy. He has shattered the idea, eloquently expressed by President Barack Obama, that we are not “irrevocably bound to a tragic past.” In the Trump era, we are neck-deep in that tragic past.
