Answer to Question 1
An ideal response will:
1. Describe the melting pot concept of diversity as the process of immigrant assimilation into U.S. culture and the sharing of common political values such as individualism and majority rule.
2. Contrast the melting pot with the idea of the salad bowl where differences are encouraged and are seen as enhancing the whole.
3. Apply one of the metaphors to the student's community, explaining how it emphasizes either assimilation or diversity.
Answer to Question 2
An ideal response will:
1. Explain how economic inequality affects political equality by marginalizing the voices of the poor in American politics, thus creating an uneven playing field.
2. Explain whether or not the student believes that the high levels of inequality are problematic for democracy, drawing upon either the argument noted above, for example, or the idea that economic inequality is a natural outcome of the capitalist system and has no real effect on political equality.
Cultural Coherence and Diversity
Cultural Diversity
Nutrient bowl
Spinach and Apple Salad
Seamounts, undersea islands of diversity
Computer reconstructions of the diversity in neurons that exist across species