All the noise from the left that Arizona’s new immigration law is racist may have started a healthy backlash.
Many Americans have had it up to here with being called racists or being told that they’ve gotta bend a knee to any and every crazed leftist claim.
Feeding this growing backlash were three recent jaw-dropping events showing the corrosive nature of “multiculturalism” and “diversity.”
(Feel free to take notes. There will be an exam at the end of today’s Hicks File.)
The first example comes from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Mike Madison, an elementary school principal, took only his black students on a field trip to hear a black rocket scientist speak. He left his white students behind.
Why’d he do this? Well, the principal — who is black — said that “it gave the kids an opportunity to see that this type of achievement is possible even for them.” Come again — “even for them”??? Damn, talk about the bigotry of low expectations!
He obviously felt the “diversity” needs of his black students took precedent over his white students. He didn’t seem to think he was being a bigot and apparently couldn’t have cared less that the white kids might have benefited equally from hearing an inspirational talk by a successful scientist.
Now let’s swing over to Morgan Hill in California, where five white students at Live Oak High School were sent home because they wore American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. The school’s assistant principal, Miguel Rodriguez, said he thought the shirts were “incendiary.”
Since when was seeing an American flag in an American high school incendiary? Okay, the school district’s bean counters have since apologized. They say the school’s administrators acted “prematurely.” No matter, the message has been sent, and received, that Cinco de Mayo was a day exclusively for and about Mexico and Mexican students. How dare a student wear a T-shirt that contradicts this message!
But since the five “offending” white students weren’t suspended or punished, Latino students said they’d been “dissed” and stormed violently out of school chanting “Mexico, Mexico” and waving Mexican flags.
One Latino student said, “Cinco de Mayo is the only day Mexican-American students can show their national pride.” Okay, I’m confused: do these students consider themselves American … or Mexican?
Let’s get real: Cinco de Mayo is hardly an important holiday in Mexico. Hell, it’s actually only celebrated in one Mexican state, Puebla, and here in the United States the day is just one more excuse for some to get drunk — hardly an event of high cultural meaning.
But since the left’s concept of “multiculturalism” trashes the long-held belief in an American melting pot, these Latino kids, drunk on the politics of racial identity, have little intention of melting into the mainstream.
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.
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