Dearborn Mayor Disavows the Use of the Term 'Melting Pot'

Before I started writing for Twitchy, I had an office gig at a very large employer — you'd recognize it. This was from 2000 to 2011. I consider myself very fortunate to have never had to attend a DEI event. My job was to edit training materials, and they made an attempt at outsourcing that to India. We also had a team working in Mexico. A woman whose job I still don't really understand did attempt to give a very quick DEI lecture as they were bringing over someone from Bangalore as an exchange student deal or something.

That's where I first heard the shtick that America isn't a melting pot — it's a salad. In a melting pot, everyone assimilates into one dominant culture, or does their best to. That's bad. The better analogy is that America is like a salad; it's made up of tasty ingredients that each remain distinct, but they all work together to make up a delicious meal. Personally, if someone gives me a salad with black olives in it, I pick them out. Am I allowed to do that? Can I have bacon bits? I'm not sure what salad dressing is in that analogy. Maybe a respect for our founding documents and our legal system? If you hate Western Civilization, maybe you toss yourself in the salad.

That's why I found it so funny to hear the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, giving the exact same speech, verbatim. Here's Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud:

Dearborn Mayor Hammoud: The entire point of America is not assimilating to culture and the language pic.twitter.com/DWGbDhoXPe
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 17, 2025

It's like all of those rioters in Los Angeles who were standing on top of burning cars waving the Mexican flag. If you love Mexico so much, why did you sneak across the border into America?

It's endearing for all of these immigrants from failed states coming here and telling us what America is and is not.
— hil111 (@hil111c) November 17, 2025

I’ve been hearing this speech since I was in elementary school and both the soup and the salad can get ducked. I’m so sick of it.
— Marie of Vulcan 🇺🇸 (@MarieofVulcan) November 17, 2025

I remember when the idea of the "tossed salad" instead of the "melting pot" was considered a bad thing for society and culture.
— Shaun Marksbury (@marksbury) November 17, 2025

Most Americans do not have English ancestry. We speak English because we want to be understood.

And also that most other languages are nightmares of excessive complication.
— AmishDude (@TheAmishDude) November 17, 2025

Wasn’t there just a viral video of him telling the lettuce to get out of his salad?
— The Fissure King (@TheFissureKing) November 18, 2025

Yeah, here it is:

Why are these people so warped to think that America does not have a culture? We’ve been around and evolved for nearly 250 years. My “assimilated” great grandparents who came in legally thru Ellis island in the early 1900s would disagree loudly and sternly with this clown.
— Don’s Daughter (@GenXamerica) November 17, 2025

No. Come here to become American. It’s a thing. If you want to remain something else, stay where that thing is dominant.
— Evin Adjacent (@adjacent_q) November 18, 2025