[The Framework Institute, United States]

America’s ‘Unamerican’ Ethnic Neurosis (El Diario Exterior, Spain)

“There is nothing more contrary to the nature of the United States than the classification of people by race, culture or gender. Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, nor in the 85 essays of The Federalist Papers (where Madison, Hamilton and Jay explain the reach and meaning of the document), is there the slightest allusion to anything but the rules and institutions by which the new republic would be governed.”

By Carlos Alberto Montaner

Translated By Douglas Myles Rasmussen

May 20, 2012

Spain - El Diario Exterior – Original Article (Spanish)

The New York Times front page has announced that in the previous year, more than half the children born in the United States (50.4%) were non-White. Of that percentage, 26 percent were Hispanic (mostly Mexican), 15 percent were Black and 4 percent were Asian.

Why was it on the front page? Pure ethnic neurosis. Fear of the other. The same thing happened a few years ago when Samuel Huntington caused such a stir with the publication of his The Hispanic Challenge. This type of information causes a certain anxiety among “Whites.” They think they are losing control over and the direction of America. They fear becoming a minority.

The first bit of nonsense is classification. Hispanics are defined by the language they speak, or by what language they are supposed to speak, regardless of skin color. A Chilean of Basque origin or a Cachiquel Guatemalan are Hispanics, even if the language of the latter isn’t Spanish. Blacks, evidently, are classified by race. Asians, by geography, be they Chinese or Indian.

I have no idea, for example, if an Israeli-American of Sephardic origin is Asian, White or Hispanic. Nor do I know if that brilliant engineer called Rafael Reif, a Venezuelan son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who was recently named President of MIT, is Hispanic, White, or if by chance the census allows it, simply Maracucho. [Maracucho is the Zulian dialect in northwest Venezuela].

The second absurdity is moral and ideological. There is nothing more contrary to the nature of the United States than the classification of people by race, culture or gender. Nowhere in the United States Constitution, nor in the 85 essays of The Federalist Papers (where Madison, Hamilton and Jay explain the reach and meaning of the document), is there the slightest allusion to anything but the rules and institutions by which the new republic would be governed.

The originality and greatness of the United States was precisely in this: the Founding Fathers invented constitutional patriotism. A good American was a person who was equal under the law. It was not necessary to be of British or Dutch blood. At first, even though they proclaimed the equality of all people, they only included White male property owners. But little by little, the right to participate in the nation was extended to women and African Americans.

Nevertheless, it is legitimate to examine, as Huntington did, the relationship that can exist between ethnicity and development. If the performance of a society is the product of the work and the mainstream worldview that gives it meaning, isn’t it pertinent to think that an ethnic group with different cultural values might substantially modify the general outcome of that society? In other words, if the United States were to fill up with Turks or Chinese, the nation would end up behaving like Turkey or China.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
FTD, Germany: 'Cult of Founding Fathers' Obscures America's Worldview
Beijing Youth Daily, China: Making Sense of America's Right to Bear Arms
Berliner Zeitung, Germany: Assault on Assange Betrays U.S. Founding Principles
Al Madina, Saudi Arabia: With Obama, a 'New Beginning'  

It depends. More important than race or culture are the prevailing rules. Hindus, who in India seem unable to prosper, are the most successful and well-educated minority group in the United States. They function stupendously under American rules. The same can be said of Jews from the Slavic world. In Europe they were very poor and backward; in the United States they had extraordinary success. There are many examples: Greeks, Lebanese, Barbadians, Iranians and the list goes on and on. Those hypothetical Turks and Chinese, educated in the United States, should end up behaving differently from what they would have done in their countries of origin.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

What is happening in the United States is a planet-wide phenomenon, although far more visible in open democracies than in totalitarian states: we are slowly headed toward a healthy mixing of all races. But the important thing is not to try to maintain an impossible ethnic purity; rather, it is to preserve the cultural traits that allow societies to be reasonably prosperous and happy.

The United States became the foremost power on the planet because of its institutions, its structure of values, which include meritocracy, its ability to innovate and its system of education. All of those combined created a formidable machine of production. What is needed is to encourage the integration of immigrants into the American way of doing things. Eventually, ethnic neurosis will disappear. It will be confirmed that, as the Founding Fathers supposed, all men are equal. The key is the rules that govern their behavior.