Leek Joyowza
Food and music and religion and
history sure. But denying food and music as being trivilizing will not win you any friends among many of those cultures lol. Do not underestimate how important the trivial is to ethnic identity.
You missed my point. The question reduced the two "given" benefits to food and music, and put everything else up to doubt. This is trivializing.
Leek Joyowza
It's as important as the respect for differences. Something needs to bind peoples within borders together. This is basic functionality. As long as it stays on a matter of function that is fine. People who do not meld in any way are ripe for division.
This, again, doesn't address my point. The argument was for integration and homogeneity of culture. There are plenty of things that bind people together in a diverse set of cultures. America, as it stands, is hardly homogeneous.
Leek Joyowza
I take it you do not nor have ever lived near any larger American (or Canadian) metro areas?
You'd be wrong.
Leek Joyowza
I invite you to visit Queens in particular.
Been there. It's nice. Has plenty of ethnic enclaves. Whites are actually a minority. A shining example of a culturally diverse area. But, everyone is still a New Yorker.
Well, as much as anyone not living in Manhattan is a New Yorker
Leek Joyowza
Sins of the past don't negate the facts of the matter.
What facts?
Leek Joyowza
Though it must be added that slaves and native groups are kind of a different issue than immigration for obvious reasons.
Well, lack of choice, but it just emphasizes the hypocrisy of that myth.
Leek Joyowza
If anything America's troubles and experiences with all this has made it actually far better and more used to the strife related to being a diverse society. When you talk about and confront problems, you make progress. Many European nations lack any of this experience with non-European groups, and it shows.
Well, Europe is an interesting beast because they have been together for so long. Not like the culture started out as "European." You had Vikings and Romans and pagan Gauls and invading Mongol tribes and so on and so forth. Even with 1500 years of them ******** and killing each other there's still cultural division.
Leek Joyowza
Every culture and nation on earth has their form of that verb, Anglization, Sinization. If you are a country or ethnic group, you have a version of that word. Of course its real. It's a basic building block of geo-sociology.
So it's also a co-opted concept for a useless field of academics who need to justify their grant money.
Is there a vague concept of being American? Sure. But to confuse that for some common culture is dumb. We've never had a common culture. We've been fighting each other since this country was founded. Whether Patriot or Loyalist, Federalist or Anti-Federalist, North or South, Black or White or Brown, Rich or Poor, we've been fighting each other. Maybe not always with guns and war, but with words, politics, money, power, whatever we can get our hands on. People complain about a culture war, but the fact is that cultural warfare is the only real thing Americans have in common. We pick values and we try and impose them on others.
Leek Joyowza
I see you buy into the lie that says the "undesirable" newer white ethnic groups were always given some light treatment. No, they were seen much like Hispanics are today, if not worse. Than that changed. As today non-white groups like Hispanics are rapidly changing this.
You fail very badly at History when you discuss it like a thing that has no time and space.
I never said they were given light treatment. Well, at least not southern and eastern European whites. Nativists generally preferred people of English, Scandinavian, German or French descent, and despised the numerous immigrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia and Mexico, which led in turn to the quotas.
But, the Nativists hardly believed that assimilation was possible. They didn't really popularize the idea, and insofar as they co-opted it, it was mostly to argue for restricted access.
Leek Joyowza
Exactly what nation on earth does not have such problems in their history? Feel free to name one.
None to my knowledge. We just happened to let it go on for later than most. I mean, we're one of the big modern examples of institutionalized racism in modern history that, well, didn't involve apartheid or ethnic cleansing. So, y'know, good company.