Is Ethnicity Irrelevant in the USA?
by Baron Bodissey
The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna.
For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. There is also a multi-index listing here.
I know many people on the outside are puzzled by this fight with LGF and believe it is about personal egos alone. I disagree. There are very real issues involved here. Perhaps one of the most important ones is whether ethnicity matters or whether it is not just wrong but evil to talk about it.
Many Americans seem to believe it’s all about the Constitution, and that everybody who sets foot on US soil is equally an American.. Put in the extreme, this view would mean that you could exchange the present US population with 300 million Zulus, yet the USA would still remain as American as apple pie if the Constitution remained in place. I’m not so sure that is true.
I see no indication that ethnicity is irrelevant in the USA. On the contrary, I see indications that the importance of ethnic rivalries is growing within the US along with mass immigration from non-Western countries. The reason why this haven’t had serious repercussions yet is because the white majority clings to the idea that ethnicity doesn’t matter. But as the white majority grows smaller and eventually disappears, these ethnic rivalries could potentially grow a lot worse as there would no longer be a stable majority group in the country.
The USA, and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, were founded as modern states by people of European origins. European Americans made up almost 90% of the population in the USA until a few decades ago. I don’t know about a single example where a country has totally changed its majority population, and where the people who originally shaped the country’s institutions have been rendered a minority, and where this hasn’t resulted in a huge change in that country’s culture.
If the present immigration to the USA continues, the culture will change profoundly, and a few decades from now the USA will no longer be a Western country. Alternatively, the United States as a unified country could collapse. I’ve mentioned that option before. It’s perhaps not the most likely scenario, but it is one that Americans should take seriously. If the USA should, for some reason, not survive this century in its present shape, it will be because ethnicity does matter after all:
US minorities don’t trust each other- - - - - - - - -
The three main minorities in the United States — blacks, Hispanics and Asians — have little trust for each other and hold prejudiced views about Americans of different ethnic origins to their own, a poll showed Wednesday.
“This extraordinary poll reveals some unflattering realities that exist in America today,” said Sandy Close, head of new America Media (NAM) which sponsored the poll together with ethnic media groups.
Forty-four percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians are “afraid of African-Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime,” the survey of 1,105 adults drawn from the three ethnic groups showed.
More than half of black Americans polled and 46 percent of Hispanics said Asian business owners do not treat them with respect.
And half of African-Americans said Latin American immigrants “are taking jobs, housing and political power away from the black community.”
Hispanics and Asians, whose populations are made up mainly of immigrants, were positive about the American dream, saying that those who work hard in the United States reap the rewards of their toil.
In contrast, more than 60 percent of African-Americans dismissed the American dream as not working for them.
All three ethnic groups viewed white Americans in a more favorable light than they did members of another minority.
Sixty-one percent of Hispanics, 54 percent of Asians and 47 percent of African-Americans said they would rather do business with whites than members of the other two groups.
“The poll reaffirms that while race relations between ethnic groups and whites grab the headlines, there are also serious racial problems between minority groups in America,” said Sergio Bendixen, an expert on Hispanic and multilingual polling.
“Blacks feel they are left out of the American Dream and are being displaced by newcomers, and each group buys into the negative stereotypes about the other two,” he said.
The three minority groups did agree that the United States would be a better place if blacks, Asians and Hispanics held more authoritative positions at universities, in business, media and government.
They also said they believe racial tensions in the United States will ease over the next 10 years.
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Baron Bodissey | 12/12/2007 10:12:00 PM
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There was a study published fairly recently, that the forced multiculturalism we have today actually leads to distrust, and social isolation. People are not happy forced to live in socially engineered multicultural societies.
Somebody reading this might recall that report.
Very good article, Fjordman. It certainly should be noted that such severe shifts in historically "minority" groups have only occurred over the last 60 years or so. Which of course begs the question, "Are these Zulus really equal?"
So many otherwise intelligent individuals misread the American Declaration of Independence, specifically the phrase "all men are created equal" to provide support for a colorblind society. It really is shocking to see just how deeply this politically correct brainwashing has taken hold. I can only compare it to the premise of "The Matrix."
So the minority activists at Al Sharpton's National Action Network and Charles Johnson's LGF would have us believe that the landed slave-owning white founding fathers of the United States were proto-human rights activists. They would have welcomed the third world in with open arms.
Never, of course, is that phrase put into context of opposition to the monarchy as a system of government. I personally believe the phrase "all men are created equal" was designed specifically as a provocation to King George, not an appeal to the "teeming starving masses yearning to breath free."
At any rate, my opinion is that the "politically correct" brainwashing inherent in American culture is far too widespread to salvage the nation as a whole. There are indeed dark days ahead. But splitting the country, which I would've considered unthinkable just 4 years ago, is no longer necessarily something I hold in natural revulsion.
Sadly, modern America is unworthy of her ancestors. And they were white.
- Sodra
Fjordman - have you been reading my obscure blog?
March: http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/2007/03/history-multiculturalism-and-end-of.html
June: http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/2007/06/post-america-america.html
Great minds...
These people who think it's only about the Constitution probably don't have two sets of African neighbors, as I do. Sure, they're middle class and don't bother anyone, but they don't have the slightest idea about what it means to be a neighbor in America. Both families: televisions blaring most of the time, don't say good morning or make eye contact, etc. How many generations will it take for them to understand how to share space? Why should natives (me) have to live with Africans? My neighbors aren't bad people, but they're bad neighbors, because their culture is incompatible with mine. My once charming little beach community has been overrun with people from everywhere in the world, who don't know what this little town is about. They only squat here, they're not Americans, and only some of their children will become Americans in a cultural sense.
Well... in this instance, I disagree with you all.
or let me put it another way, I can see why you would think this way - unassimilated immigrants cause what is often euphemistically described as "tension" and akrge numbers of immigrants in a short time will overwhelm the host culture - but I can't subscribe to this idea that minorities will inevitably overwhelm the host culture by their sheer presence. The problem is assimilation, as I just mentioned. In the 50s, the UK brought in a large number of afro-carribbean workers to bolster the population lost during the second world war. They assimilated, by and large, and their children are as English as any other native of these isles. The thing is, they were brought in, already quite immersed in English - as opposed to British - culture and generally willing to work. They assimilated. Of course they kept hold of their parent culture and that slowly blended into the host culture over time but, importantly, they didn't cling to it in defiance of th culture they were joining.
There will be similar stories in most of Europe. Of course their culture is different. There is more tribalism on the continent, that can't be denied, but that's born out of living in a land where national borders used to regularly shift a hundred miles in a week, where you were loyal to your city and your king and outsiders were shunned. Historically those outsiders were white or, at a pinch, moorish; the defence against outsiders was not based on race, it was based on them being from somewhere else.
Anyway that was a bit of a tangent. Even in that environment minorities can successfully assimilate. There's a sizeable African minority in France, for example, that is as French as any other frenchman. They assimilated into French culture is the point I'm making. The problem in France, as with all other places, is a very large, rapidly growing, unassimilated migrant population that is threatening to overwhelm the host culture and refusing to adapt to that culture in any way.
That is the problem. Where immigrants adopt the host culture there is no problem, or at least there are only problems that can be solved by a little bit of talking. Where, for example, migrants to the US adopt the culture - the flag, the constitution, rule of law, apple pie, baseball and a bunch of other things I don't have space to list - they will fit in. They will be American. Their race is unimportant.
Now, again, in Europe the barrier is considerably higher because of the "outsider! BAAAD!" mentality but that can be overcome by simply making yourself an insider. That means consciously adopting the ways of the people you're trying to join. It means being French or Flemish, or Bavarian, or a bunch of other things. There will of course be people who judge solely on skin colour, but that's just the outsider mentality expressing on the most obvious indicator, not racism per se. Seen in that light, comments like DeWinters take on a new caste (fhnar fhnar). They aren't nice, I don't necessarily agree with them (I would have said something along the lines of "I want a return to the values of the enlightenment... but it's hard to define "european" values without making reference to the superficial racial component really), but I can at least understand where they come from. If you were to, say, replace "white" with "French" and "Europe" with "France" the comment would be considered innocuous. "I want a French France!" is no less discriminatory - in fact it is even more arbitrary, but it doesn't have the keywords we've been sensitised to by multiculturalism. Without clarification, the phrase "a white europe" or "a french france" are almost meaningless in and off themselves. We will all ascribe a meaning to them based on our own cultural understandings but that meaning may well be nothing like the intended meaning. Clarification is the key. DeWinter strikes me as not the best public speaker at times.
Incidentally, latte conservative, have you ever tried talking to your neighbour about things like the television blaring? Just curious.
Archonix, yes, I've made several complaints to building management, and my neighbors have complied to the extent that I no longer feel compelled to break my lease, although I won't renew next year. I only gave my neighbors as an example of the general principal, that although African and other immigrants who are "making it" here and seem to be complying with cultural norms, like my neighbors are, cause they work and drive nice cars, they're completely beside the point and disruptive in an aesthetic sense of what my little town has always been about until recently. I see a charming, quaint, specific community being transformed for no particular reason, except to accommodate people who have no connection to this place.
I don't want to be a hater, in fact I like some foreigners personally, obligatory liberal disclaimer which happens to be true...But why is this happening, why do we have to allow and even subsidize these squatters? If large numbers of white people took over an African community it would be called colonialism and everyone would condemn it. Bonus question for pro-immigration folks: how is the non-white invasion of California different from the Zionist revolution in Israel or the white colonies of South Africa and Rhodesia? Discuss.
This post has been removed by the author.
...principle...
Speaking of everyday life as opposed to polls, I'd like to share something that happened recently in my formerly charming small town, Alameda, CA. On Halloween night, a gang of Vietnamese immigrant teenagers shot and killed a 16 year old girl, a Mongolian immigrant who was hanging out in a nice park in my neighborhood with 10 friends, also Mongolian immigrants. The entire community was outraged, and the punks were caught almost immediately. It was the first murder of the year. Alameda averages one murder per year, and it's almost always solved, because of the good relationship between the community and the police.
Right after the murder, the murdered girl's parents said something about how they were surprised America was so violent. No one protested this statement publicly, but I thought to myself, right, a Vietnamese shoots a Mongolian, and America gets blamed. Wait, it gets better! After the punks were caught, an Asian youth group from the notorious basket-case next town of Oakland, actually demonstrated in front of the Alameda Police Department, accusing the cops of profiling the killers because they were Asian. I'm not making this up. Do you immigration enthusiasts understand what I'm saying here? All of these people are American citizens. I'm sorry, but they aren't Americans, and I don't want them here.
Charlemagne,
When you post a link, you need to follow the instructions given at the beginning of the comments portion of the blog post. If you don't put in the HTML for an "anchor," the link will not be "clickable."
I think the important aspect of how immigrants impact the host country is the mindset of the immigrant when they come to the US. If they come here buying into the American Dream they will assimilate pretty quickly, and their children will be fully assimilated. I have to say, though, that USED to be the case. Immigrants were encouraged and expected to assimilate. Now, they are given every reason in the world not to assimilate, so they don't And if you're an illegal alien you really are coddled. The immigrants coming to the U.S. with the correst mindset have been overwhelmed by those who do not. Prognosis - not pleasant.
As far as the survey of minorities, every result of the survey appears valid to me in comparison to what I see in my every day life. The negativity of the black population can be directly attributed to the wonderful "Great Society" which destroyed the black family and created the culture of dependency.
latte conservative..
I can understand your frustration with what you see with your own eyes, but I do not think it is the immigrants themselves that are at the root of the problem. I believe it's a larger societal issue and that is the failure to set expectations and expect results. It is liberal/progressive world view that is producing these miscreants by viewing them as members of a victim group and therefore not responsible for their own behavior. It goes back to the issues that Fjordman so ably addresses in many of his writings. The breakdown on our culture enables bad behavior. Theodore Darymple also has written excellently on cultural breakdown in the British experience.
America is dysfunctional on matters of race. Look at the Duke University Lacrosse team rape case and the 'Duke 88' professors. How the case against the white males got as far as it did is truly frightening and entirely racial. That's only one of many examples. Another might be the support for Obama as president. He is not getting support because of his wisdom, intellect, experience, or ability. Actually I think Obama is a fine example of how many Americans go utterly stupid when race becomes a factor. He is different, therefore he must be good. Nothing else really matters. Well, that's insane.
So again, the root problem is the identity group group politics and the victim mentality it promotes. We have universities full of 'Duke 88' type professors seeped in bias and prejudice.
The real racists in America end to be the ones who yell 'Racism!' the loudest. They are the ones who hold people to different standards based on skin color. They are the ones who hold groups of people to lower standards based upon their ethnicity. They are the ones who try to use race to excuse bad behavior. They are the ones who see race in everything. They are mentally ill.
I do believe that America is superior to Europe in some ways. But ALL those ways are attributable
to the 'dead white men' who produced the American Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Contemporary American culture on the other hand is quite an embarrassment. I cite the lack of condemnation of the rap/hip-hop culture and the bankrupt narcissistic value system promoted by MTV and a relentless bombardment of commerical advertising as prime examples of what is wrong with America. It's inconsistent to be outraged by Islamic dysfunction and go completely silent on black hip-hop misogyny and a 70% out-of-wedlock birth rate and the crime that results from children raised in fatherless homes with the message that they cannot unless they get some sort of special consideration bestowed upon them by the white leftists.
Diana West is quite right in her book 'The Death of the Grown-up' subtitles 'How America's arrested Development is Bringing down Western Civilization".
You can see this adolescence at manifested in the LFG comments. The depth of their objections to Islamic radicals seems to be 'Hey, these guys want to mess up my fun and stand in the way of my narcisism!' Granted that is a huge improvement over those who label LFG lizards as racists and fascists (the DailyKos and DemocraticUnderground tribes) . At least LGF is generally on the right side of the fence regarding Islam, but they are still a long way from honest debate on other matters. You can see evidence of 'Duke 88' influence in the comment threads at LGF with out having to look for it. Arguments there tend rely more on other tribe members rallying to achieve 'We are right by consensus' result than being correct though logic, reason, and by way of evidence.
American culture has become a one of permanent adolescence. It does seem to be largely a generational phenomenon - and yes, there are exceptions to that. But overall, the trend does not bode well for future generations. We cannot cruise on the wisdom of 'Dead White Men' forever. Honestly, when I read the news today, I am astonished that they were able to produce a model that could withstand the relentless assault for this long.
We are in trouble.
Americans of African ancestry do commit violent crimes at wildlt disproportinate rates. I think if Jim Crow segregation laws had ended sooner, or the Johnson 'Great Society' welfare state, which rewarded irresponsible behavior, had started later, Black folks would be far better off.
That said, the leader of our neighborhood association is Black, nice older gentleman, has the bearing of retired police or military, and you couldn't ask for a better neighbor.
And my legally in the US Salvadoran next door neighbor is a fine person.
March: History, Multiculturalism, end of the West
June: Post America, America
Somebody reading this might recall that report.
The study you are talking about was done by Robert Putnam, the Harvard sociologist. He found that "diversity" far from being a strength, actually destroys community cohesion and what he calls "social capital" and what we would probably call "the ties that bind." The study took something like seven years and surveyed hundreds of communities in the US and thousands of people. Of course, It is not rocket science that cramming people from all over the world, many from incompatible cultures, will seriously disrupt an established community -- but then Putnam is a liberal Harvard sociologist, so he had to have a study to "prove" what has been obvious throughout history for thousands of years.
Queen- the evidence isn't going to stop them from their agenda- the overall reaction has been 'okay so how can we make it work' and the answer of course, is more centralized power, more authority more forced diversity training.
until immigration and "race" issues all lead to one thing; assimilation into one "american" culture, immigration and race will continue to be a problem here in the US.
My ancestors (Irish Catholics) and my wife's ancestors (Italian/Portuguese Catholics) came here to BECOME americans, not some disgruntled sub-group. That is the key issue, IMO.
Queen,
Here is more on 'that' Putnam report
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x
here is the abstract found at the above link:
"Ethnic diversity is increasing in most advanced countries, driven mostly by sharp increases in immigration. In the long run immigration and diversity are likely to have important cultural, economic, fiscal, and developmental benefits. In the short run, however, immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. New evidence from the US suggests that in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods residents of all races tend to ‘hunker down’. Trust (even of one's own race) is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friends fewer. In the long run, however, successful immigrant societies have overcome such fragmentation by creating new, cross-cutting forms of social solidarity and more encompassing identities. Illustrations of becoming comfortable with diversity are drawn from the US military, religious institutions, and earlier waves of American immigration"
Fjordman, don't you think you are being more than slightly hypocritical?
On the one hand, you rightly condemn Charles Johnson and the ignorant Americans of Little Green Footballs for calling Europeans racists because their cultures built upon an ethnic and religious identity, which Americans are ignorant of.
On the other hand, you impose the same concepts of ethnic and religious identity upon a nation (the United States) that is built upon an entirely different cultural model.
The model of the United States, despite the periodic eruptions of ignorant nativist "know-nothing"-ism here (which, you notice, never lasts and never becomes the majority opinion), is one of assimilation. It doesn't matter what nation, race, or religion you have when you come to the U.S. - if you are willing to assimilate, assume American cultural values, and (very importantly) learn the English language, you will be welcome.
And if the immigrant himself has trouble fully assimilating, his children and grandchildren will not.
In the early 20th century major American cities had foreign language newspapers, notably German and Yiddish ones, with large circulations. Those papers are gone - the children of their readers didn't read German or Yiddish.
Recent studies show that 75% of all third-generation Mexican-Americans (the grandchildren of the immigrants) don't even speak Spanish.
Fjordman, next time you try to impose your views of culture and identity on the U.S., remember how Charles Johnson has imposed HIS views of culture and identity upon Europe.
Gordon wrote:
"The model of the United States, despite the periodic eruptions of ignorant nativist "know-nothing"-ism here (which, you notice, never lasts and never becomes the majority opinion), is one of assimilation. It doesn't matter what nation, race, or religion you have when you come to the U.S. - if you are willing to assimilate, assume American cultural values, and (very importantly) learn the English language, you will be welcome."
With all due respect Gordon, this is nothing more than Leftist dogma trotted out as fact. If the American model really was as you suggest, you would never have seen Benjamin Franklin writing extensively over his concerns of unchecked Germanic immigration. If your views on the "model of the United States" were true, we would not have seen Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, deriding those of African heritage with such fury as is evident in his writings.
Face it. If the Founding Fathers of the U.S. were alive today, you would call them racists.
Repeating the Leftist mantra that the U.S. was founded on an idea over and over with your eyes closed and your fingers stuck in your ears does not make it true.
- Sodra
Recent studies show that 75% of all third-generation Mexican-Americans (the grandchildren of the immigrants) don't even speak Spanish.
Fjordman, next time you try to impose your views of culture and identity on the U.S., remember how Charles Johnson has imposed HIS views of culture and identity upon Europe.
Speaking from Los Angeles, boy are you way off.
Sodra - instead of looking at the mistaken writings of American founding fathers, why don't you look at FACTS.
FACT - despite Franklin's concerns, German-Americans are entirely assimilated in the U.S. The last outbreak of any significant anti-German feelings (toward German-Americans, not Germany!) was during World War I.
FACT - African-Americans remain marginalized in American culture - but since African-Americans can trace their American lineage back much longer than most White Americans into the 18th and early 19th centuries, the "unassimilable recent immigrant" theory doesn't quite wash, now does it? There's obviously something else going on here that has nothing to do with immigration. As, obviously, with an even more marginalized group of Americans, "Native"-Americans (formerly known as Indians)!
FACT - the ethnic/racial group in the U.S. that is scoring highest on standardized tests and is recording higher earning levels, levels of education, etc. are Asian-Americans, all of whom are 20th Century immigrants, and racially unassimilable according to some. They are supplanting the last century's stars, Jewish-Americans, religiously unassimilable according to the conventional logic of the early 20th Century.
FACT - the most "backward" parts of the U.S., in terms of income, education, violence, other social indicators, are those parts of the nation (the non-booming parts of the South, Appalachia) that have had the least immigration over the past two centuries. Most American Appalachian residents are the descendants of 17th and 18th century English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants. This is America's future if immigration is stopped.
And, Prcaldude, I am not way off. The Spanish you hear in Los Angeles is spoken by the actual immigrants, and perhaps their children. 75% of their grandchildren will not speak Spanish, if current trends continue.
Immigrants to the U.S. want to succeed - that's why they come here, not to collect welfare benefits. And, to really succeed in the U.S., you must speak English.
And, Prcaldude, I am not way off. The Spanish you hear in Los Angeles is spoken by the actual immigrants, and perhaps their children. 75% of their grandchildren will not speak Spanish, if current trends continue.
Immigrants to the U.S. want to succeed - that's why they come here, not to collect welfare benefits. And, to really succeed in the U.S., you must speak English.
How is speaking English any indication of whether or not they've assimilated? Their kids still fly Mexican flags and cling to their racism and Mexican heritage as if their parents had never left Mexico in the first place. Their crime rates are disproportionally high and their educational achievement is low. I'm not sure which hispanics you've been paying attention to, but in Los Angeles, San Diego, and every other place in California, there's white neighborhoods and hispanic neighborhoods. I call that balkanization, not assimilation. In Los Angeles, almost all of the whites live north of the 10 and west of the 405 fwys, but definitely west of the 405 as you head south until you hit Carson, where it becomes entirely Mexican or black. In San Diego, all the whites live north of the 8 fwy. There's a racial division that's so obvious, I guess assimilation to you means only that their kids are learning English (somewhat). Mostly, it's a form of poor English spoken with a Mexican accent combined with some half Spanish.
Assimilation is not primarily a matter of whether one can speak the native tongue. By that definition we'd have millions of Indians and Chinese who've "assimilated." It's a matter of the degree to which immigrants conform to cultural norms and cling to the ethnic heritage of their home countries. If places like Los Angeles are any indication, then there is no assimilation going on, only dispossession of Americans.
Gordon,
1)German-Americans are entirely assimilated into America because the America they immigrated into frowned on speaking German, as the original inhabitants viewed Germanic peoples barbaric. These "racist," or as I call them, "cultural preservative," tendencies of which you speak actually assisted German immigrants in their assimilation. But it did not happen overnight, and common ground could be found through religion and race.
2)How anyone in their right mind can think that African Americans remain marginalized in this society when they dominate sports, pop music, and entertainment is beyond me. They are given preferential treatment in educational opportunities. They are given preferential treatment in employment opportunities. The fact they remain addicted to crime and the lower economic echelons cannot be assigned to anyone but themselves. Again, what you are repeating is Leftist dogma, not fact.
3) Asian civilization has always been technologically advanced, even in ancient times. In fact, I am of the firm belief that Asians are inherently more technologically adept than Europeans. So to believe that they would succeed in an open political and economic environment, in stark contrast to their own home countries, where there still exists institutionalized repression is quite logical. How this buttresses your argument, however, is unclear to me. Am I better off because the immigrant next to me is making more money? How so? Not that I resent Asians of their accomplishments. But how is that relevant?
4) Non-booming parts of the country, which you reference as Appalachia and the South, were always economically depressed zones. Not because of their racial makeup, as you suggest, but due to their remoteness. Any student of marketing understands that transportation is the primary cost driver of most goods and services. Lack of access to effective transportation means less competitive ability. It's a geographical issue, and your assertion that it is based on their "whiteness" is, again, Leftist mantra, not fact.
So do you have any real, actual facts in