The big complaint right now across the anti-immigrant right is that the US has lost its "common culture."
So let me ask: when did the US have a common culture?
During the Indian Wars, or the Trail of Tears? Indians used to make up a much larger share of the people in the US than they do now, speaking a vast array of languages and practicing many different religions.
During the mass Catholic immigration of the 1800s, which spawned the Know-Nothings and other anti-Catholic movements, with millions of Protestants saying Catholics had no place in America?
When Mormons were driven out of Missouri and Illinois?
During the Civil War? We lost at least 600,000 men in a fight over whether or not slavery was part of our common culture.
During Reconstruction, when white terrorists fought against Federal troops to seize power in one southern state after another?
In the 1890s, when sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta shared the nation with the first New York City millionaires?
During the coal field wars, when miners took up arms against the bosses, who responded with machine gun fire?
During the fights over votes for women, or birth control?
During the 1960s, when hippie values swept the country and thousands of families broke up over fights about haircuts and torn jeans? When millions marched against the Vietnam War?
When white policemen let their dogs loose on peaceful marchers for Civil Rights?
Moving on to recent decades, what is our common culture's position on abortion? Gay rights? Marijuana? Are Italian food, Chinese food, and tacos parts of our common culture, or not? What about Indian food, which we have for a majority of family birthdays in this house?
The "common culture" discourse is racist nonsense.
To me, recently arrived immigrants are the most American people. Instead of whining about unfair competition and a world rigged against them, they roll up their sleeves and get to work. They believe in working hard and saving money and getting ahead, an old American faith that has been lost by millions of the native born. They send their kids to public schools. They love democracy. They believe in the future.
To the extent that Americans have any common culture, immigrants embody it.
3 comments:
Thank you. You nailed it.
We had a common culture when... if a random person mentioned anything at all, most people (let's make it, at least, about 70%) would have a sense of what's being mentioned.
We have never had that beyond the most basic level, and I would be willing to bet that the percentage has never been higher than it is now.
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