According to the old metaphor used to describe the American
society--“a melting pot,” I could see why many people years ago would consider
this metaphor as having a positive connotation; but after sitting back and
thinking about it, I do agree with society’s opinion today in that it creates
no individuality and blends us all into one. Yet, we are all unique and although we are
considered united as a nation and have many of the same incentives like wanting
the best for our country, we need to take a step back and realize that maybe
the old term we once used need to be refined. According to Reverend Jesse
Jackson, and the use of his two metaphors, I would say it was hard to come to a
decision and mine may be overturned in many ways, but I thought about it like
this. We are all united and at the end of the day come together as a nation—therefore,
I feel like the quilt as well as the rainbow can both be accurate depictions of
the two terms used. The quilt because all sides of a quilt are connected to
make a whole blanket just as our country; and a rainbow is a great representative
as well knowing all the colors are also connected side by side in some way.
However, the difference in determining which was the better metaphor came from
the idea that a quilt typically has the same size quilt pieces that connect
each side, which in turn give no individuality, versus the rainbow which has
all different colors that are still somewhat connected; this is why I feel like a rainbow portrays our American society
as a whole much better than a quilt.
Amanda :)
I sort of feel like you were wading around the question trying to reach the 150 word requirement. Very verbose and just overall dry and boring blog post. Sorry if I am being too direct. I would like to question as to on difference you see in the quilt sizes versus the colors of the rainbow. If you looked at traditional quilts, especially the ones made way back in the day, they are all misshaped. The idea of perfect squares was fairly recent. And even if that was case, why not same size quilts? What do the quilts represent in your opinion? Nationalities? Races? Gender? What are each of those "squares" meant to you? If I read your blog correction, you muddled around so much I don't see any description to this. Yes, indeed, you could use the rainbow metaphor in a way it is better...but I just don't quite see it in your blog post. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI was by no means trying to simply reach the 150 word requirement; however, I do agree and appreciate you questioning my rational. I did jump the gun on my opinion, but still agree a rainbow could be a valid description. After reading your comment, as well as Jaskirat Singh's, I do find the quilt metaphor more explanatory as compared to the rainbow metaphor. My whole intent was relating the quilt metaphor to a blanket that was made for me in the past; and this blanket had the same size squares as compared to different ones, but then again it did have different color quilts. Initially, the quilt metaphor just did not stand out to me as much as the colors of the rainbow did in terms of uniqueness; for I saw the colors (just as you saw the individual squares) as symbols of unique nationalities, genders, and different races. The squares did not jump out to me as being different at first, but having seen both of your comments, I can now appreciate that quilts are another descriptive way of representing the American society. Yet, I am not disregarding my own opinion at all. Although, I should have been more descriptive in my blog, which is why I value your opinion and will work on being a better blogger for next week! Thanks.
DeleteI agree with you saying that the term melting pot could be negative when comparing it to the American society. I agree that we are all individuals and by calling us a melting pot it lumps us all together as a group and doesn’t look at our unique individual characteristics and cultures. I agree with the term from Jesse Jackson that the American society is like a rainbow and an American quilt. I like both of these metaphors because a rainbow is made up of different colors but comes together to form a rainbow and a quilt is made up of all different pieces which comes together in a quilt.
ReplyDeleteI think quilt is better option because quilt considers if many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes and all of them are together with a common thread. In that same manner all of the cultures and communities count to make America a great country. A quilt got different colors and different patterns and different types of cloth, still they all go together to keep us warm. That's just like America. It's made up of lots of different people. We're all different colors, different ages, we do different kind of jobs, but it takes all of us black people, white people, brown people, men and women, young and old, working in factories, working in fields, and working in stores. Rainbow is good too but I think quilt explains it better.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your analogy of a quilt to describe American society. We are so diverse here and it is something we should be proud of. With such a great diversity, we blend together to form one cohesive unit. This is the same for making a quilt. A quilt is made of pieces of different fabric sewn together to create one blanket. In turn, we come together to create the quilt that you have described. I especially liked your metaphor because a quilt is something that a lot of people have and something that relatively something that anyone can do. I really enjoyed reading your post this week!
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