Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Who is American?
Not long ago, a friend was telling me about a fascinating new fast-food place, which offered only sushi and smoothies. It's a weird combination; hopefully there is no cross-over between the product lines. The people at the counter were Asian, and the workers making the food and the smoothies were Latino. The customers were a mix of people from a typical mixed-income urban American neighborhood. The joint was jammed, with a line out the door.
That scene is profoundly American, all of it. The jarring mash-up of cuisines and people, the innovation, the lively success. It's the kind of thing that comes from one of our greatest strengths: the ability to meld cultures into something new, prosperous, and meaningful.
So, who is American?
There seems to be a movement in this country to define "American" as white, conservative, and Christian. That movement will fail.
It will fail because it is wrong legally; the Constitution itself makes that clear.
It will fail because it is weak. Those who fear those who are unlike them are limpid, infirm.
It will fail because it is moral wrong-- even (or especially) within the morality of Christianity.
And it will fail because it will lose out to the genuine heart of America, that is alive in that place where they are (apparently) making pretty good sushi and smoothies.
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This nationalism stance Trump is hell-bent on promoting terrifies me. Every day, I think he has gone farther than I can imagine; yet, the next day, he comes up with something worse.
Aside from voting, which I have no confidence will make any impact on the situation in the short-term, what can we do?
PDH
Aside from voting, which I have no confidence will make any impact on the situation in the short-term, what can we do?
PDH
# posted by 
: 1:27 AM
: 1:27 AM
Who is an American?
George Washington. Ben Franklin. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. John Marshall. And, yes, even Thomas Jefferson.
Abigail Adams. Harriet Beecher Stowe. William Lloyd Garrison. The Grimke Sisters. Frederick Douglass. Robert E. Lee. Mary Chesnut. And, yes, even John C. Calhoun.
Abraham Lincoln. U. S. Grant. Mark Twain. And, yes, even William Tecumseh Sherman (even his brother, John Sherman).
W. E. B. Du Bois. Booker T. Washington. Ida B. Wells. Teddy Roosevelt, his most famous cousin, and his niece. William Howard Taft. And, yes, even Woodrow Wilson.
Frank Capra. Jimmy Stewart. Jackie Robinson. Frank Sinatra. MLK. Ike. JFK. LBJ. Ronald Reagan. All the Bushes. And, yes, even Bill Clinton.
Mitt Romney. Clarence Thomas. Antonin Scalia. RBG. John Wooden. Jerry Seinfeld. LeBron James. Oprah. And, yes, even Kanye.
I hate that we are tearing ourselves apart over this word, nationalism. I am an American nationalist. When I studied history a few decades ago at two respected mainstream institutions with highly esteemed scholars, my primary interest was "Early National America" (the period from the 1780s up through the Age of Jackson; basically the moment we started thinking as a nation, the united states of America, one nation ((under God)), rather than a collection of states united for a few specific purposes and idiosyncratic mutual conveniences).
Who were the nationalists back then? See many of the names above: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and (most of the time) James Madison. Who pushed nationalism forward? John Marshall, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln. Who carried on the nationalist banner? Teddy Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt. Dwight Eisenhower. Martin Luther King. Ronald Reagan.
We are in a very destructive conversation because some dumbass white supremacist was smart enough to re-brand his asinine and inconsequential movement "white nationalism"--and then the world went crazy.
I believe in American nationalism, American exceptionalism, and America as a distinctive place with a distinctive tradition. I believe there is absolutely such a thing as truth, justice, and the American way. I believe we are a people bound by our history and our ideals. E pluribus unum. God bless the pluribus--but let's don't get confused and throw out the unum in a frenzy of good intentions and wokeness.
George Washington. Ben Franklin. John Adams. Alexander Hamilton. James Madison. John Marshall. And, yes, even Thomas Jefferson.
Abigail Adams. Harriet Beecher Stowe. William Lloyd Garrison. The Grimke Sisters. Frederick Douglass. Robert E. Lee. Mary Chesnut. And, yes, even John C. Calhoun.
Abraham Lincoln. U. S. Grant. Mark Twain. And, yes, even William Tecumseh Sherman (even his brother, John Sherman).
W. E. B. Du Bois. Booker T. Washington. Ida B. Wells. Teddy Roosevelt, his most famous cousin, and his niece. William Howard Taft. And, yes, even Woodrow Wilson.
Frank Capra. Jimmy Stewart. Jackie Robinson. Frank Sinatra. MLK. Ike. JFK. LBJ. Ronald Reagan. All the Bushes. And, yes, even Bill Clinton.
Mitt Romney. Clarence Thomas. Antonin Scalia. RBG. John Wooden. Jerry Seinfeld. LeBron James. Oprah. And, yes, even Kanye.
I hate that we are tearing ourselves apart over this word, nationalism. I am an American nationalist. When I studied history a few decades ago at two respected mainstream institutions with highly esteemed scholars, my primary interest was "Early National America" (the period from the 1780s up through the Age of Jackson; basically the moment we started thinking as a nation, the united states of America, one nation ((under God)), rather than a collection of states united for a few specific purposes and idiosyncratic mutual conveniences).
Who were the nationalists back then? See many of the names above: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and (most of the time) James Madison. Who pushed nationalism forward? John Marshall, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln. Who carried on the nationalist banner? Teddy Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt. Dwight Eisenhower. Martin Luther King. Ronald Reagan.
We are in a very destructive conversation because some dumbass white supremacist was smart enough to re-brand his asinine and inconsequential movement "white nationalism"--and then the world went crazy.
I believe in American nationalism, American exceptionalism, and America as a distinctive place with a distinctive tradition. I believe there is absolutely such a thing as truth, justice, and the American way. I believe we are a people bound by our history and our ideals. E pluribus unum. God bless the pluribus--but let's don't get confused and throw out the unum in a frenzy of good intentions and wokeness.
An American is a person who believes in the ideals laid out in the Constitution. Americans are one because of what we believe in -- freedom of speech, religion, etc. Our individual backgrounds simply enrich our country. I'll often hear students, including minority students, using the terms "American" and "white" interchangeably. Whenever that happens in class, my students will say, "uh oh, you just triggered her" and I'm up on my soapbox explaining that being American has nothing to do with color or heritage and everything to do with ideals. Then I remind them to vote.....
Oh, and I think we need a jushi in northern VA.
Oh, and I think we need a jushi in northern VA.
Desiree-- I agree. And Farmer, I remember a post you made once here about how the immigrants you see here embody American ideals-- working, saving, helping your family-- in a way that should be a model for all of us. (Not that this prior post conflicts with what you wrote here-- I don't think it does).
Hi Mark. Yes! That's right. I firmly believe whatever it is that makes Americans so different in a good way gets reinvigorated by people who want to come here for a better life for themselves and their families. It really helps a lot if they come here with an almost naively sanguine idea of what makes America great and have the capacity to contribute to the economy as well as "American greatness." My main worry is that our infrastructure for instilling a positive pride in America is not functioning well these days. So, we are a lot worse at socializing and integrating and shaping the second generation immigrants than we once were...
This has absolutely nothing to do with the substance of this topic -- but when I saw "smoothies" and "sushi" I immediately thought of the Bass-O-Matic '76.
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/bassomatic/n8631
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https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/bassomatic/n8631
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