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America prides itself on being a culturally, socially, and economically diverse nation. The name the melting pot didn't just come from anywhere. However, even with all the diverse cultures and races in America, many Americans felt and still feel some kind of racism and prejudice towards certain races. Even more importantly many races have trouble discovering their racial identity in a culture completely different from their own. As Kingston, Rodriguez, and Morrison all portray in their books, being a minority in America creates a struggle between accepting your heritage or trying to change yourself to "fit in." America has trouble accepting the different and so as Kingston describes many immigrants will try to "Americanize" themselves. Morrison portrays a question of beauty in her book. She shows what it is like to be an individual through the eyes of a little girl who is struggling to determine whether her skin and her features are just as pretty, even though they are different. This idea is portrayed in Rockwell's //The Problem we all Live With//. The little girl in the picture is Ruby Bridges, one of the first African-American students to attempt to integrate the school system. Americans are so opposed to the idea of the individual when it comes to race that the American society attempts to categorize people by the color of their skin or where they come from. He states there is no such thing as "Hispanic" or "Asian." These terms are simply America's lack of interest in someone's true heritage. The final painting is another one by Rockwell that hangs in the United Nations building in New York. It is supposed to be a symbol of unity of all different races and cultures. Back