Parish
America Best Described as a Salad Bowl
RECEIVED Thu., Dec. 16, 2004
Dear Editor,
Although I remain optimistic that we will one day resemble a melting pot, current conditions reveal the difficulty America has in blending multiple cultures like the metaphor suggests. At present America may be best described as a salad bowl, where each ingredient, or culture, maintains its original shape even as they are mixed together.
One of the newest examples of our salad bowl culture is the megabar. Built like big-box stores in suburbs across the country, megabars boast six or more thematic rooms under one roof. For a single cover charge patrons can venture into the honky-tonk, rave, retro lounge, hip-hop club, karaoke bar, live music venue, or Top 40s dance hall.
For anyone who favors the organic growth of bar districts in urban enclaves, megabars are merely an extension of shopping-mall capitalism, homogenizing and packaging consumption in a conspicuous and digressive fashion. However, critics could also view this phenomenon as a positive cultural transformation.
Demographics that find suburban settings comfortable alternatives to urban areas would likely find megabars viable options for their weekend entertainment. Surrounded by other cultures due to the various venues, megabar patrons would be forced to mix with individuals they would otherwise avoid.
Optimally, megabars could be the cultural melting pot suburban America needs in order to remove the cultural isolation, misunderstanding, and bigotry that prevents us from being a truly multicultural society. Of course, this is the optimal scenario. If nothing else, megabars will act like a nice raspberry and walnut vinaigrette, accentuating our salad bowl culture without completely blending its various ingredients.
You don’t like vinaigrettes? Fine. Blue cheese. Megabars are blue cheese.
Although I remain optimistic that we will one day resemble a melting pot, current conditions reveal the difficulty America has in blending multiple cultures like the metaphor suggests. At present America may be best described as a salad bowl, where each ingredient, or culture, maintains its original shape even as they are mixed together.
One of the newest examples of our salad bowl culture is the megabar. Built like big-box stores in suburbs across the country, megabars boast six or more thematic rooms under one roof. For a single cover charge patrons can venture into the honky-tonk, rave, retro lounge, hip-hop club, karaoke bar, live music venue, or Top 40s dance hall.
For anyone who favors the organic growth of bar districts in urban enclaves, megabars are merely an extension of shopping-mall capitalism, homogenizing and packaging consumption in a conspicuous and digressive fashion. However, critics could also view this phenomenon as a positive cultural transformation.
Demographics that find suburban settings comfortable alternatives to urban areas would likely find megabars viable options for their weekend entertainment. Surrounded by other cultures due to the various venues, megabar patrons would be forced to mix with individuals they would otherwise avoid.
Optimally, megabars could be the cultural melting pot suburban America needs in order to remove the cultural isolation, misunderstanding, and bigotry that prevents us from being a truly multicultural society. Of course, this is the optimal scenario. If nothing else, megabars will act like a nice raspberry and walnut vinaigrette, accentuating our salad bowl culture without completely blending its various ingredients.
You don’t like vinaigrettes? Fine. Blue cheese. Megabars are blue cheese.
Rad Tollett
