Preserving identity or shattering unity?
by Scott McNutt
An excerpt from a 1915 speech by Theodore Roosevelt sums up modern conservative thought on hyphenated America. “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.... [A] hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts ‘native’ before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen.”
The point’s not untenable. If I claim I’m a Celtic-Scots-Irish-English-Latvian-Norwegian-Icelandic-American, reasonable folks might wonder about my loyalty. They’d probably wonder about my sanity, too. But is the American body politic so frail that it can’t withstand some bumps and jolts from Cuban-Americans or Mexican-Americans? No, it isn’t. In the jostling Saloon of American Cultural Consciousness, a couple of folks trying to get a little Ethnic Identity Elbowroom should be accommodated.
Honoring one’s heritage is a positive action. For instance, ethnic festivals contribute to the economy. Where would beer retailers and whiskey brewers be without St. Patrick’s day? For that matter, where would funnel cake-makers and other traffickers in Appalachian crafts go without the Dogwood Arts Festival? Like sharing a Coke and teaching the world to sing, acknowledging and understanding the unique origins of the individuals and groups within it can unite a community.
Or it can divide one, as illustrated by the following excerpt from a story by Joe Kovaks in the Jan. 25 edition of WorldNetDaily.com:
“Trevor Richards, a junior at Westside High School, moved from Johannesburg [South Africa] to Nebraska six years ago. Richards and his classmates, 16-year-old twins Paul and Scott Rambo, were booted from classes last week after distributing posters touting Trevor [who is white] as a candidate for Westside High’s ‘Distinguished African-American Student’ award on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.”
Richards is from Africa. He is now in America. He’s an African American. The contest is for the “Distinguished African-American Student” award. As one of the Rambo brothers told the Omaha World-Herald, “The posters were intended to be satire on the term African-American.” These kids saw a loophole in a popularity contest, and they exploited it. They were being Smartass-Americans, as high school students will be.
Even if the Westside High administrators argue that these kids understand that the term “African-American” is intended solely to designate race (a questionable argument), and therefore they were just causing trouble, silencing and punishing them was wrong. Actually, it wasn’t just wrong. It was I-have-the-IQ-of-a-turnip dumb.
This is only one instance of PCism for PCism’s sake. Many more could be cited. The point is, one can be misguided and overzealous and plain dumb in emphasizing the importance of cultural, ethnic, or racial identity.
One can go too far in the other direction too. One can go too far in arguing that minorities are too powerful in American society. Indeed, the reasonable person of middling political persuasion can only sigh and shake his head at some of the loony claims one can make. And when I say “one” I mean one Paul Craig Roberts, the former Wall Street Journal associate editor, Reagan staffer, and all-around conservative icon.
On Jan. 27, Roberts published a column for Vdare.com, from which the following excerpts are taken:
“The ‘Civil Rights revolution’ destroyed equality before the law. Today rights are race- and gender-based. We have resurrected the status-based rights of feudalism. The new privileges belong to ‘preferred minorities’ rather than noble families.”
Minorities are today’s nobility? I must have missed the coronation. I could swear that minorities still lag behind white males in every meaningful measurement economists can dream up. But that’s Roberts’ least offense. In the same column, he writes:
“Compare an American taxpayer’s situation today with that of a 19th century American slave.... Some with marketable skills were leased to businesses or released to labor markets, where they worked for money wages.... Slaves in that situation were as free as today’s American taxpayer....”
Slaves were as free as today’s taxpayers? If you leave out the parts about being owned by somebody else, about living with the fear of being sold away from your family, about living with the terror of being starved, beaten, tortured, raped or executed, well yes, maybe slaves were as free as modern taxpayers. The sad part of his jeremiad is that Roberts probably has no idea how egregiously offensive his statements are. And he’ll probably never learn either.
So remember, there’s stupidity on both sides of the hyphen in hyphenated America. May recognizing this shared trait bind us together and make us stronger as a people.
February 26, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 9
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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