Discussing diversity is dicey! Rep. Steve King of Iowa found that out when
he tweeted that America’s diversity isn’t our national strength, but rather that
assimilation is our strength.[i] Social media lanced him with comments not
repeated in polite company. Thankfully,
he didn’t call America a “melting-pot.”
The intelligentsia would have stoned him. They consider assimilation and melting pot racists
terms, so why suffer twice the slings and arrows.[ii]
The meaning of words can mutate over
time. Diversity and melting pot are two
of them. Progressives and conservatives
emphasize different meanings, college professors preach their own brand of
egalitarianism, and soon an ideal becomes an onus. Context has a significant role in how we look
at diversity.
I came of age in a small town in
northeast Vermont, nearly one third of its inhabitants of French Canadian
descent. They spoke French at home, they
attended Notre Dame de Victoire Catholic Church, and sent their kids to French
speaking schools. The Irish Catholics
attended St. Aloysius. Descendents from
other European countries spoke English, having assimilated generations earlier. At the end of the day, however, these diverse
groups tried hard to be part of a fondue they called America. The melting pot was devoutly to be wished
back then.
My mother’s side of the family
immigrated from French-Canada. My
father’s mother emigrated from the Irish section of Montreal. In the 18th and 19th
centuries, where you came from identified you. After
a generation or two everyone seemed to assimilate; they came to find work, got
good jobs when they could, opened shops, learned trades, bought houses and
cars, learned enough history to pass the citizenship tests, and then they
voted.
Today’s immigration paints a
different picture. Immigrants, legal or
not, come from many more parts of the world with many more cultural
backgrounds, many more languages, and many beliefs. Some sneak through the border fences, others
over stay their visas, and others, well ….
In spite of our President’s wishes, we are not all blue-eyed blonde-haired
Scandinavians. We never were.
Census Bureau[iii]
data shows wide variations of foreign-born population, nationally and by state;
Alabama has 03.6% and California 27%, New York 22.6% and Mississippi 2.3%. Diversity has different meaning state by
state. We have a large Hispanic
population that varies by state: California 38.9% and West Virginia 1.5%, or
New Mexico 48.5% and Missouri 4.1%... To
“blend in” in West Virginia, where 90+percent of the population are of one
group means something different when compared to an area where nearly 40% of the
population is recent immigrants?
As far back as the 80’s I was
told that the idea of the “melting pot”[iv]
is racist and demeaning to ethnic sensitivities. I was taken aback. For generations it was the metaphor that defined
what America was and should be; our various cultures coming together to build a
new common culture. People said they
came here for opportunity for themselves and their families. They told us that they had heard stories that
if you worked hard you could accomplish whatever you wanted. They went to school, they learned the Lingua
Franca, and they learned to live in a new culture without giving up too much of
their own.
Today college faculties and
students are told that it is racist to say that America is a melting pot, that
it is racist to say that you believe the most qualified person should get the
job, or it’s racist when you say that everyone can succeed if they work hard
enough.[v]
An article in Fiscal Policy
Studies Institute said that it is a myth that we are a melting pot.[vi] It suggests that if we ever were a melting
pot, we aren’t today. We may share a
form of American identity but we have separate cultural identities that
coexist, each vitally alive and unmelted.
Maisha Johnson suggests a
different metaphor, the potluck dinner.
We’ve all been to one; someone brings a composed salad they learned to
make in France, someone of Indian heritage brings wonderful Naan bread, there
is a bowl of Texas chili, some curried chicken, spring rolls, and apple
pie. A smorgasbord of wonderful food lay
before us. How will we react when the
host pours it all into the blender and purees it?[vii] The potluck dinner seems a good description
of modern America.
The US Citizen and Immigration
Services data tells us that nearly 700,000 people become citizens each
year. Ten States account for 75% of the
new citizens: most of them on the coasts, and in or near big cities. Most come from China, India, the Philippines,
the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Think
of what we would be missing if we didn’t include the cultural heritage of these
new citizens into their newfound country.
Historically, we welcome
immigrants when we need them and send them home when we don’t. In 1915 when WWI ended, men returned to their
homes and jobs, and Mexican laborers were deported. In 1943, The Bracero Program encouraged
Mexicans to move to the U.S. to provide labor for American manufacturing until
the soldiers returned. After the Korean War,
we deported nearly four million Mexicans during Operation Wetback. Ten years later the Border Industrialization
Program established the Maquiladoras Program to encourage American companies to
open factories on the Mexican side of our southern border. Today, our President wants to punish companies
that do that. It’s easy to detect racism
in the current protest about immigration.
Interestingly much of the concern comes from areas with very low
immigrant populations.
Many, it seems, are concerned
about the “American culture” changing too rapidly, even though it’s hard to define. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that
he couldn’t define pornography, “but I know it when I see it.”[viii] Culture is like that. You know it when you see it. Maybe you know it when you see it, but try
this experiment. Ask any ten people to
define “American culture.” You should
get twenty different descriptions...
Why?
The answer is hiding in plain
sight. We are a country of diverse
races, cultures, ethnicities, and religions from all over the world who strive
to be part of the stew called America. What
really unites us is an idea. It starts
with “We the People …” Think of how radical that idea was when first proclaimed
in 1787. Too many in the world today
can’t say that about their country. The
ideal is one for which people are willing to cross oceans, or cross dangerous deserts
to be a part of it. It is a place where
personal industry can flourish, where who you are is more important than what
you are. Some came for the adventure,
others forced to come, indentured, some refugees from oppression, some for wealth,
but most for opportunity. In many cases,
E Pluribus Unum[ix]
evaded us. Self-interest, self-preservation,
and racism make us unwelcoming at times.
Can we make a major national mental
shift? Can we begin concentrating on
what unites us, not what separates us or makes us different? Can we start in the first grade of school and
carry that message to the graduate school level? Can we have laws that ensure equal treatment,
justice administered with a blind eye? Can
we ask companies to actually hire diverse groups of people, not just say they try?
Can we ask cable news shows and
talk-radio to be more even handed in their discussions? Can we embrace change rather than fight
it? Can we accommodate the new
immigrant?
The Census Bureau counted 84
people in my hometown who still speak some French at home, down from nearly 2,000
a hundred years ago. We can lament the
loss of a unique culture, or we can rejoice in the strong sense of unity that
exists in a commonality where, over time, the people become one while being
many, celebrating their own culture.
Diversity is, I’m convinced, our strength when we share it with others. I can give up the melting pot metaphor. I think the potluck dinner is more
accurate. What do you think?
[i]Jacqueline
Thomsan – The Hill – 12/08/2017
[ii]Shakespeare
-Hamlet – Act III, Scene I
[iii]https://www.census.gov/quickfacts
[iv]Israel
Zangwill – The Melting Pot – Play Staged in 1908
[v]National
Review – July 1, 2015 –Examples of Racial Microaggressions
[vi]The
End of the Melting Pot – Mark Friedman – April 5, 2006 – Fiscal Policy Studies
Institute
[vii]Maisha
Z. Johnson – 4 lies you’ve fallen for if you think the US is a melting pot –
Everyday Feminism Magazine – 8/29/2016
[viii]Jacobellis
v. Ohio 1964 – Justice Potter Stewart - Concurrence
[ix][ix]Motto
of the United States – Original
