Melting pot and mosaics

For years, it was thought that the United States was and should be a "melting pot" - in other words, that people from all over the world would come and adopt the American culture as their own. More recently, some people have compared the United States to a mosaic - a picture made of many different pieces. America´s strength, they argue, lies in its diversity and in the contributions made by people of many different cultures. America needs to preserve and encourage this diversity, while making sure that everyone has equal opportunity to succeed.

Randee Falk: Spotlight on the USA, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 3