On assimilation by force

[winter]

A few people on my f-list have already linked to Elizabeth Moon's diatribe on why immigrants should shut up and change to be just like everyone else. I didn't comment on it, because I literally couldn't find the words.

Shweta Narayan says it more eloquently than I ever could.

I have the luck of spending most of my childhood in a country where others are like me, and of a multi-cultural education from the cradle. But I was also a Slav travelling in Western Europe just after communism ended. I was nine years old, in a supermarket in Paris, and I talked to my mother in halting, broken French, because I knew that if I spoke Polish, everyone in the shop would stare and follow us to make sure we didn't steal anything.

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

That's right, Elizabeth Moon, feel free to show the rest of the world what assholes we Americans can be!

Okay, a couple of things you need to understand about her: 1)She's from south Texas, where there has been and continues to be a lot of strain between European-Americans and Hispanics. 2)She was a Marine and they are not known for embracing liberal ideals.

Her viewpoint is not uncommon here in the States. My parents share the same feelings, in spite of the fact that my father is only 2nd generation. Growing up, he spoke English at school and Hungarian at home. And at the time, anyone with eastern European roots was scrutinized (Commies, don't you know?) His attitude is that "We adjusted, why can't they?" By "adjusting" he means "gave up our culture, language and unique ethnic identity."

There is no denying that every new wave of immigrants here to the US gets hazed in some fashion. You'd think we'd have learned by now how valuable our immigrants can be, but few seem to heed the lessons of history.

Time was (not so long ago, actually) when Catholics in this country were treated the way Muslims are now.

[winter]

It's changing, but exceedingly slowly :( The thing is, isn't it more interesting with a multitude of cultures? Less predictable, less safe, but so much more fascinating. This is something so obvious to me that I can barely fathom how someone can be this self-righteous.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

If your father ever brings it up again...tell him that my grandmother was born in the U.S., and that I speak fluent English, and dress like a "mainstream American", but I still don't count as "American" to some bigots. Because my face says "didn't come from Europe".

It's not only recent immigrants that get hazed. Some of us really can't assimilate enough.