The Hicks File: Multiculturalism Reaches Its Dead End
Okay boys and girls, time for the third example on the corrosive nature of “diversity”: the ethnic studies classes and departments that exist at nearly every American college and university.
In reality, these classes are nothing more than centers of leftist activism and indoctrination.
But for all the points, here’s my essay question: do race and ethnic-specific studies help create healthy self-esteems and pride in minority students, or do these programs instill a belief in students that group identity is more substantial and powerful than either our individuality or our common humanity?
While you ponder that, let’s make a final stop back in Arizona.
After passing the recent immigration law, Arizona has taken another bold step. Governor Brewer signed a bill aimed at banning courses that encourage “ethnic chauvinism.” Specifically, the bill prevents schools from offering classes that “are designed for students of a particular ethnic group, promote resentment or advocate ethnic solidarity over treating students as individuals.”
Damn … Arizona’s on a roll!
What happens when people of different ethnic origins, speaking different languages and believing in different religions, settle in the same place under the same political sovereignty? Well, unless a common purpose binds them together, tribal antagonisms will drive them apart.
And what exactly is it that keeps a nation together? Conservatives like me argue that it is shared history, values, and language – the things multiculturalists resent and oppose.
No matter, I think we’ve turned an important corner.
Americans were outraged when they recently saw thousands of leftists, anarchists, and supporters of illegal immigrants marching to demand unconditional citizenship for those who’ve broken the law in Arizona and other places.
And all across the country, folks carefully watched events unfold in California, where five high school students were sent home on Cinco de Mayo for wearing “incendiary” red, white, and blue T-shirts.
Americans may be confused about a lot of things — but they’re clear on one thing. Damn it, if you make the journey to America there’s one thing you’d better be prepared to accept … the notion of E pluribus unum: out of many, one.
If not, don’t let the door hit ‘cha on the way out.
Joe, if I may address you so familiarly, as someone who drank the Kool Aid on Bush hysteria before my return to political sanity, I want to say how much I absolutely love your work.
I agree here. With the Marxists in the white house calling at least half of America ‘racists’ for supporting the new law, it seems that the president, his cabinet, czarist politburo, and career government public servants all have something, obviously, they want done that is out of harmony with state and public opinion, the constitution and federal laws. I’m not accustomed to my president and or his minions calling me racist. Especially when it HE that is ignoring his duties and responsibilities.
Since it’s the “new” law that he is referring to, and it ‘mirrors’ the federal law, it would appear that his statement is that “the federal law is racist” and he intends to abolish it.
We are a land of immigrants and most of our forefathers came here for a better life. When they did come, they embraced our common language of English, embraced the customs of America and they kept many of their own holidays, but they worked very hard at being Americans first. I don’t see this happening in many of our new immigrants. Now in the Border states of the US, you must speak Spanish to get a job as a teacher. Some of the schools have complained about the teachers speaking with such bad accents that it is hard for the students to understand them. Now, we have La Raza making speeches at UCLA advocating the overthrow of the government and celebrating Castro and Che Guevarra. We have MEChA advocating the return of the Southwest to the Hispanics for it is “theirs”. From what we see on TV, a certain group of these illegal immigrants do not want to be Americans. They want to be Mexicans living on the American entitlements. Not all of them, no. But many of the ones you see on TV represent this and it sends a certain message to the young Mexican-Americans. Luis Guteriuz (Congressman from Illinois) needs to address this problem if he wants amnesty. I did not notice one member of the Hispanic Caucaus saying anything about the “ethnic studies” that were advocating the overthrow of the US. I did not notice one of them commenting on the fact that the students in Ca (where they threw out the 5 boys wearing the US flag T shirts) seemed to feel that Cinco de Mayo was a Mexican holiday. Why do they not correct these young people rather than letting them look like fools?
I’ll consider giving the Southwest back to the Hispanics only after the Hispanics give Mexico back to the Aztecs.
My ancestors weren’t immigrants. They were pioneers and settlers who came over in the middle of the 1600′s from Britian to Virginia and North Carolina.
There is one thing that seems to be lost in all of this: What does “Cinco de Mayo” celebrate?
Answer: It celebrates the last battle fought that secured the withdrawal of the Emporer Maximillian from the western hemisphere. The thing that is really missing, though, is that the battle was all but lost when the American Expeditionary Force charged the French Flank, and, rolled over them.
This is never mentioned in talks on “Cinco de Mayo,” that, in fact, it was a great battle won by United States Military forces, subsequently claimed by Mexico.
I’ve read several accounts of the Battle of Puebla, and I can’t find any mention of American forces there. The closest I’ve been able to find is that Lincoln hoped the Mexican’s could hold out until after the north defeated the South, so that the US could divert troops to come to Mexico’s aid.
You must be thinking of some other battle. (Which one, I don’t know). The battle of Puebla was at the beginning of the French invasion, not the end. There were no Americans there.
Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_puebla
Two weeks ago I visited Pella, Iowa, where they were celebrating their annual Tulip days festival. Pella was settled largely by people from Holland. Many of the locals dressed in costumes that were common in Holland at the time their ancestors immigrated. They served dishes that were common in Holland. They had displays explaining various Dutch customs.
But each and everyone of them would tell you that they are Americans first. (They also had a memorial to all of town members who had served in the various US wars since the town was founded. Veterans groups were displayed prominently in the parade.)
There’s nothing wrong with remembering and celebrating your cultural heritage, as long as you don’t try to use that heritage to seperate yourself from the rest of us. As a non-Dutch (and it’s pretty obvious), I was welcomed warmly, by people everyone there.
The Irish get a kick out of celebrating St. Patrick’s day, and other groups have their special days and their special traditions as well.
Our heritage is a mish-mash of cultures and traditions from all over the world. And it makes us stronger. The idea that someone who either came here voluntarily, or who’s recent ancestors did so, should then turn around and tell everyone else about how we have to respect their traditions, or else, PO’s me off to no end. If that’s how you feel, as the author so eloquently put it, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
I have hated the word “diversity” ever since I first heard it. Even the most basic understanding of the word means it is wrong for the US. Without unity and a common language, culture and values, we will become a very big Bosnia.
Multiculturalism by its very nature pits each of us against the other. It has brought down the US culture to that of some sub-sarahan african state. And the left has used PC as the enforcer of this denigration of America. But that is the point: The progressive marxists want that tension and even war so that they can install martial law and eventually a totalitarian government.
It has been a long road for the marxists but they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“And what exactly is it that keeps a nation together? Conservatives like me argue that it is shared history, values, and language – the things multiculturalists resent and oppose.”
Brits, Canadians and Australians might not even make that cut. It seems to me that what you’re saying here would be literally impossible for even many legal immigrants who want to assimilate. Do you mean the acceptance and affirmation of the host country’s history, values and language or are you opposing all immigration from non English speaking countries?
Thomas, those who purposely ask such ignorant questions make me wonder if they are really that ignorant or are they simply stupid. Because ignorance can be cured, stupidity not so much.
The majority of Americans really care little about where someone comes from or what color they are, what the majority cares about is the embracing of American ideals. Religious freedom instead of attacking and shouting down those who disagree with you, shouting you have no right to offend them. Actually in this country you have the right to be as offensive as you wish to be. No one has the pay attention to you, or on the other hand we can tell you what an ass you are, but no one has the right to attack the person who is offensive. That is a single example. And it is why people don’t set each other on fire in the street over religion here like has happened more than once in India. It is inappropriate to encourage behavior that leads to the opposite of the religious tolerance that is a hallmark of this country. We may not have done it perfectly but we have managed way better than other countries.
It is also inappropriate to encourage the breaking of our laws. It is also inappropriate to encourage people in this country to divide up among themselves by color. It is a misnomer to believe that this country started out as a monolithic culture to begin with, it never was. It is why New York was so different from Pennsylvania from Virginia. Perhaps the only thing in common the Dutch had with the Scots-Irish was Calvinism. It was the very essence of tolerance that allowed these diverse cultures to live together as well as fight together in order to secure those ideals that were and ARE uniquely American.
Those that don’t want to buy into that should take their hinny back to wherever they came from. And those who are Americans that don’t buy into it should remove themselves to one of those countries that have the ideals of dividing by tribe or perhaps like France where if one group can’t have their beliefs in the open than nobody can.
I descend in part by Germans who came here in the 1880′s along with millions of other Germans, no one can deny that those millions of Germans had a very definite impact on American culture, particularly Christmas, but they did not do so by refusing to become Americans. When I was 10 and asked my great grandfather to teach me how to speak German I got a lecture instead. We were AMERICANS, not Germans and I had no need to learn that language.
Early Progressives divided people by race and embraced eugenics. Modern day Progressives do the same thing, the means are different, but the outcomes are the same.
Thomas,
You just got told!
Thomas, I believe Grace answered your “question” quite thoroughly.
Grace: Great response to a silly question.
A recently published study on student attitudes focused on three measures of student tolerance (1) interpretation of the motivation behind diverse views (questionnaire tested), ability to tolerate opposing statements from other students (questionnaire tested), and ability to “share” the discussion space in small discussion groups (direct observation). Students in medicine, engineering and hard science programs such as chemistry and physics were less likely to claim opposing views were racist, homophobic, intolerant, gender-driven,etc than their age and race matched peers in ethnic and gender studies programs. They were far more able to tolerate opposing views without feeling anger or engaging ininterruptive behaviors in direct observations. Make of this what you will. Sorry I did not store the reference.
A professor of mine long ago told me, “arts undergrads and their ilk no longer study Latin, Jonathan, having learned the only Latin they need in their second week of study… AD HOMINEM.”
Rest in peace Prof Crawford, you were horribly horribly correct.
Whoever came up with multi-culturalism for America and its education system (and I bet it was a socialist Red) did not do so out of concern for the oppressed minorities of our country. They knew they could not defeat this country if we remained united and culturally cohesive. But divided against ourself, how could we not be defeated — eventually. The hundred year plot to bring this country down seems clear enough to me, the way its playing out. We’ve been weakened but I don’t see our enemies as united even now as we are. Hell, they’re reduced to using Islam fascists as surrogates!!
Mr. Burke: Thread winner. I also enjoyed your reflectios on the French revolution.
Thank you for putting this together. Add to that the meeting with Obama and the Mexican president you’ve added gas to the Patriot/Tea Party movement. I think he committed political suicide today. I am an independant who voted for Obama and right now I’m embarrassed that I supported him.
LOVE your writing style.
Denise Kline said:
Welcome, welcome, thrice welcome!
As more and more former drinkers of the O-Kool-Aid reach the same conclusion you did, I become more and more optimistic that we may save the country yet.
You are far from alone, by the way. Have you checked out http://www.iamsorryivotedforobama.com?
Welcome back, Denise, and may your eyes never be so clouded again. I must admit that even as a conservative Republican I found Obama to be a polished and charismatic speaker. I’m old enough, however, to have made a similar mistake as you in 1976. The Keynsian economics practiced by Carter and the left leaning Congress resulted in the 2nd worst recession since the Depression. I learned then to look behind the facade and calls for undefined “change”. Change is rarely neutral – it is usually either really good or horrible.
The first thing I noticed about President Obama, when he first started to run for President, was how much he reminded me of President Carter.
GOTTA AGREE WITH JOHN(THE DUKE)WAYNE…IT IS THE HYPHEN WHICH DIVIDES US…GOOGLE A COPY IT IS SO VERY TRUE…FROM ARIZONA,SEE YA……..
Teddy Roosevelt gave a famous speech too back when he was president or shortly after, that he was sick of hyphenated Americans. There was only one brand of American, and it had no hyphen. And he said rule extended to those who called themselves “native-Americans.” Born here or not, Americans are such based on their beliefs, not their ancestors. Check it out here and a thousand other places:
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2010/05/teddy-roosevelt-no-room-in-this-country.html (The date was 1915).
Somehow I don’t think all this “Diversity” is our strength – http://www.BorderInvasionPics.com
Great piece Joe!
Fact: PC and M/C were dreamt up after the 1968 DemParty debacle in Chicago by their back room boys as a propaganda tool to use through the schools and media to harness future generations vote-bots.
It worked. Three generations later the teachers of it are in the schools to stay.
Political Correctness was a product of the Soviet Union’s purges and show trials, and has a specific definition, reflecting the the official party “line,” endorsing self-criticism, and condemning deviationism.
Said specificity is now lost, or more accurately, “disappeared.”
PC was exported to Red China and honed in the fires of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.”
PC’s early purveyors here were dedicated fifth columnists, their followers are useful idiots (q.v.)
PC was not dreamt up here but was given a nice new coat of shiny white-wash for the rubes. And you are absolutely right about the teachers.
what are you?…some kind of hick?
16: what are you?…some kind of hick?
Yes. An American one.
I have marked May 5, 2011 on my Outlook calendar to remind myself to wear Red, White & Blue on that day. Flag Day is June 14th, but I think we can make May 5th American Flag T-shirt Day! Please join me!!!
Su casa es mi casa.
Straight to the point. Heh.
You work for the IRS?
The one place where ethnic studies courses still thrive is the university. No self-respecting Mexican American student would boast about taking such classes, the object of which is to emphasize that a person IS his ethnicity, separate and apart from other people. What such courses do is to create resentment and sometimes hate for the United States, dredging up instances where white people acted less than gently toward the darker-skinned Mexican. Curiously many of the “minority” teachers of such courses marry across ethnic “barriers” to whites. The text book used in Arizona is called Occupied America and its purpose is to instill in the student the idea that the US Southwest belonged and belongs to Mexico. Black studies are much worse. In ethnic studies courses the past is never gone. Students are brainwashed into believing that they are and always will be victims of whitey. It won’t be long before Muslim Studies become part of the university curriculum.
The trouble with liberals and “progressives” is the tolerance that they demand is always from “the other guy”; tolerance is never required of them.
Liberals have the greatest job in the world: they get make rules for everyone else.
“Celebrate diversity” is the most poisonous phrase ever introduced into this country.
I’m from Morgan Hill and live close to Live Oak HS. I just want to let you and everyone know that all is not lost in Morgan Hill. We are about ready to throw our Nancy Pelosi clone, Jerry McNerney, out of Congress after 1 lousy term and replace him with a conservative Republican, David Harmer, I pray. The stupidity of the Live Oak administration caused a huge backlash in town as well as the entire nation. We didn’t want to become known for such a leftist action, but at least the light shining in will show that the town is patriotic and proud of our American heritage. You can see why I didn’t put my kids in the government mind control camps, err I mean, public schools, here though. I put them in private, Christian schools, where it’s still ok to pray, say the Pledge of Allegiance and be proud Americans.
“Whoever came up with multi-culturalism for America and its education system (and I bet it was a socialist Red) did not do so out of concern for the oppressed minorities of our country. They knew they could not defeat this country if we remained united and culturally cohesive. But divided against ourself, how could we not be defeated — eventually.”
Indeed, the cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt School (Institute for Social Research), beginning in the 1920s, sought the means to deconstruct western civilization. They were Marxists but with a twist – they diverged from classical Marxism in that they viewed culture as critical to eventually enacting the communist worldview. This influential school of leftist thought, which included such eventual counter-cultural heavyweights as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, invented ‘critical theory,’ whose basis was to deconstruct via relentless criticism, the religious, moral, legal and cultural bases of western civilization. Fatefully for the U.S.A., the members of the Institute fled Nazi Germany, ending up at Colombia University in NYC, where they continued their work. Married to the views of moral relativists such as Michel Foucault, the decontructionist theories of the Frankfurt School provided much of the basis for what we now call multiculturalism.
“Diversity”: White people suck and should pay, power brother/sister (and if you don’t agree, you’re a racist)!
We should celebrate San Jacinto Day, April 21. Remember Goliad!
Over time, I’ve been suggesting on this website that we divide the country in order to save the last bit of Western thought (objectivity, the scientific method, the Enlightenment) left in the world.
However, I must confess that in reality I just as much savor the idea of seeing the wreck the wing-nut Left would make of their society if only given a chance. Think of it: crime out of control, the economy a basket case, and–once the trough had been licked clean–confusion, fantasy and anger ruling their new Crystal Love-State. I give it about a year.
Mr. Hicks, wonderful article, very well written!
And to Denise Kline – Thank you for your openness, you have given me the courage to admit that I, too, voted for President Obama. I, like many Americans, were fed up with the whole SSDD and SNAFU that is government. And I, like many other naive Americans, thought that regardless of party affiliation, a change was needed. At first I observed some pretty severe ugliness on the part of the Tea Party, never realizing that the liberals that were throwing stones at these people and their ugliness, simply just had not had an issue or opposing view point come to forefront for them to show their true “ugly” colors. Thanks to my state, AZ for showing us all the true colors of those that would pretend to take the high road! That and the fact that also seem to have not sense of logic, no common sense, and very little respect for our Bill of Rights.
It’s been a while since I have chimed in. Quite frankly, I only say something here to offer a different perspective. I took Black history in college. The professor was a bi- racial man who identified himself as black. On the first day of class he said if kids were in his class expecting to see history debunked, they had come to the wrong class. He made it clear that his class filled inthe gaps that the more general history classes could not cover due the emincity of historical studies. He argued that his class gave a better understanding of black people roll, good and bad, in the development of this country. I left that class with a broader understanding of history and the roll people who look like me played in it. As a result, I feel a deeper connection to this country and proudly call myslef a patriot. “ethnic” studies done right can be a good thing. I and many of my classmates thougt being American was a code word for being white. When we looked in the mirror, we do did not see white. The history class we took showed many of us to that we too are America. Furthermore, the white kids had a chance to see it too.
For the euphamism “diversity” we must ALL start using the correct word – BALKANIZATION