Monday, August 24, 2009
Wanting America Back
One of the signs I see flashed at protests in the last month or so is one reading "I want my America back!" Bill Maher and others I have noted saying "America never went anywhere, what the f*** are they talking about?" (Bill Maher talks like that, unlike myself, who would never use a blue word out loud. And I sell bridges.) The thing is, Bill's America never went anywhere. For that matter, my America never went anywhere. But, in truth, a lot of people's idea of America has been blasted badly in recent years, and it isn't likely to return, ever. Rather than scorn them, I think it would be a good idea to help those poor folks through a difficult time.
This is the flip side of a post I put up last November about why the Sarah Palin conservatives lost the election. Read it here. They really are a minority, which of course they never have been before. That can't be easy. And I'd be an idiot if I didn't think there were some racist overtones to it. Some people can't be anything but upset by having a "picaninny mau mau coon nigger" (their words) in the White House. And, they can't even say those things out loud any more. Oh, the agony. Mostly, though, there is a huge complex set of unspoken assumptions about America that people took for granted for a very long time that no longer hold true.
California is an all-minority state. No ethnic or racial group constitutes a majority of Californians. Here in Southern Nevada we good old white folks have until 2020, roughly, to enjoy our majority status. After that, we join California. To me, that's just the way it is. I upgraded my Spanish skills, learned not to prejudge anybody by appearances, and I'm getting on with life. I'm a smart guy, or so the tests tell me. I'm good at languages. Not everybody is smart. In fact, the average American is simply average. Half of Americans are below Average in intelligence, and we're all below average in something. My point is that, for me, a guy who does that sort of thing relatively easily, it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done to shift my world view to include all these strange people as being "my" people. For an average person, it must seem just about impossible. Why, if you haven't had the experience dealing with lots of different people, you could think that somebody has stolen your country! Yeah, like that.
Well, the truth is that our founding fathers set up a country that, sooner or later, will include absolutely everybody as worthy of respect. You could argue that that's a bad thing, but it's the thing we've got. The fruits of our founding fathers' labors are becoming obvious as California leads the nation in feeling the effects of an actually multi-cultural society. It isn't easy, but there's no real alternative but to get on with it. And of course, it's bad enough that the children of children of slaves can now aspire to high office, but there are all these other people, who don't even speak English sometimes, with their Spanish TV, and their Spanish newspapers, and their odd foods and all the rest. How do you cope with all that?
Well, once you get over the hump, it's easy. They're just trying to get by, like the rest of us. Previous waves of immigrants have met with the same sort of attitude from the people already here. The Italians, for example, brought all sorts of strangeness with them. The food was especially foreign to most Americans. Now, spaghetti isn't even considered an ethnic food: it's mainstream America. The Irish were roundly condemned when they first arrived. Irish? Yeah, green beer notwithstanding, people hated the damned Irish. Well, consider the taco. I remember when you couldn't buy Mexican food anywhere. Now, you ever been to Taco Bell? Del Taco? A neighborhood Mexican place? See? Already they're blending into society. Someday being Mexican will mean about what being Italian does now: good food, great times.
Well, it's easy for me to write that, but my real point is that instead of just laughing off the demonstrators as nut cases or ignorant fools (although probably some of them are) it would be better to be sympathetic and helpful. Nobody who isn't a nut case really expects things to go back to how they used to be, but everybody wants to think that they've been taken seriously. So, the best way for those who don't like the demonstrators to get them to stop and go home is by simply listening to them. You don't necessarily have to do a thing other than that, but just really take them seriously.
That's not too much to ask.
Steve
This is the flip side of a post I put up last November about why the Sarah Palin conservatives lost the election. Read it here. They really are a minority, which of course they never have been before. That can't be easy. And I'd be an idiot if I didn't think there were some racist overtones to it. Some people can't be anything but upset by having a "picaninny mau mau coon nigger" (their words) in the White House. And, they can't even say those things out loud any more. Oh, the agony. Mostly, though, there is a huge complex set of unspoken assumptions about America that people took for granted for a very long time that no longer hold true.
California is an all-minority state. No ethnic or racial group constitutes a majority of Californians. Here in Southern Nevada we good old white folks have until 2020, roughly, to enjoy our majority status. After that, we join California. To me, that's just the way it is. I upgraded my Spanish skills, learned not to prejudge anybody by appearances, and I'm getting on with life. I'm a smart guy, or so the tests tell me. I'm good at languages. Not everybody is smart. In fact, the average American is simply average. Half of Americans are below Average in intelligence, and we're all below average in something. My point is that, for me, a guy who does that sort of thing relatively easily, it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done to shift my world view to include all these strange people as being "my" people. For an average person, it must seem just about impossible. Why, if you haven't had the experience dealing with lots of different people, you could think that somebody has stolen your country! Yeah, like that.
Well, the truth is that our founding fathers set up a country that, sooner or later, will include absolutely everybody as worthy of respect. You could argue that that's a bad thing, but it's the thing we've got. The fruits of our founding fathers' labors are becoming obvious as California leads the nation in feeling the effects of an actually multi-cultural society. It isn't easy, but there's no real alternative but to get on with it. And of course, it's bad enough that the children of children of slaves can now aspire to high office, but there are all these other people, who don't even speak English sometimes, with their Spanish TV, and their Spanish newspapers, and their odd foods and all the rest. How do you cope with all that?
Well, once you get over the hump, it's easy. They're just trying to get by, like the rest of us. Previous waves of immigrants have met with the same sort of attitude from the people already here. The Italians, for example, brought all sorts of strangeness with them. The food was especially foreign to most Americans. Now, spaghetti isn't even considered an ethnic food: it's mainstream America. The Irish were roundly condemned when they first arrived. Irish? Yeah, green beer notwithstanding, people hated the damned Irish. Well, consider the taco. I remember when you couldn't buy Mexican food anywhere. Now, you ever been to Taco Bell? Del Taco? A neighborhood Mexican place? See? Already they're blending into society. Someday being Mexican will mean about what being Italian does now: good food, great times.
Well, it's easy for me to write that, but my real point is that instead of just laughing off the demonstrators as nut cases or ignorant fools (although probably some of them are) it would be better to be sympathetic and helpful. Nobody who isn't a nut case really expects things to go back to how they used to be, but everybody wants to think that they've been taken seriously. So, the best way for those who don't like the demonstrators to get them to stop and go home is by simply listening to them. You don't necessarily have to do a thing other than that, but just really take them seriously.
That's not too much to ask.
Steve
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
