We need to eradicate the idea of assimilation from our thought in this country

[RB TexLa]

Think about what it really means. Number 5 sounds a little better but really isn't and is just as sick and disgusting.

Assimilate
VERB:
as·sim·i·lat·ed, as·sim·i·lat·ing, as·sim·i·lates

3. To make similar; cause to resemble.

5. To absorb (immigrants or a culturally distinct group) into the prevailing culture.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/assimilate

[Political_Junkie]

1. Figures

unrecd. I agree. We're supposed to be a melting pot. That's no place for a Borg mentality.

[nebenaube]

2. melting pot = borg mentality!

I prefer salad thanks...

[Toucano]

3. More like a tapestry

The color of each distinct thread is still visible, but integrated with the other threads, something new emerges.

The melting-pot implies a weakening of each ingredient. Melting

I think assimilation is largely unavoidable, however.

We each influence and affect one another culturally.

[Political_Junkie]

7. I like that.

Fits much better than melting pot, which is the term that I learned in school to describe the fact that all cultures were welcome here. That's what my teachers taught, anyway.

[Toucano]

9. Just a different metaphor.

The melting pot was what I was taught too, but it's out of fashion now.

We're all trying to express something positive, just subtly different.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I'd say a 'melting pot' is what assimilation is

You end up with one amorphous liquid. Contrast it to Canada's prefered approach and metaphor, a mosaic: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/etoimm/canada.cfm

[H2O Man]

11. I prefer

a tossed salad.

[Odin2005]

4. No.

Spare me the Cultural Relativist lecture.

[mix]

8. This is a false equivalency and caricature of a very serious problem facing nation-states:

How do societies develop common bonds and an identity without denying the importance of cultural and other differences.

This has nothing to do with cultural relativism and everything to do with modern democracy and civic identity.

[Edweird]

6. Nope.

[LanternWaste]

10. Acculturation is a tool used by history

Acculturation is a tool used by history. One may be narrow-minded and choose to look only on the negative aspects of acculturation though-- but through it and because of it, many astounding scientific, artistic and philosophical leaps have been made.