American Buffet

American Buffet

Anyone who thinks I’m going to talk about Warren Buffet can stop reading now. Just a little disclaimer.

Remember in middle school social studies when we talked about immigration and how America was the great “melting pot” of the world? A place where cultures could come together in one place and all become “American” by virtue of the fact that we live close to each other. Anyone else realize that’s not really true?

We’ve gone from a melting pot to a buffet (or as my East Asian studies inclined brother says, a hot pot). That is to say, that maybe we taste good in combination but we are separated by very real gaps, both literal and figurative. We at once live in one nation while we are separated in myriad others.

I love living here. I’ve spent half my life on both coasts, have plenty of friends who live in the middle and I wouldn’t want to call anywhere else my home. That being said, the divide between cultures has never been so fierce. I don’t know if it stems from xenophobic suspicion in our constant post-9/11 “us against them” mentality or if it’s simply that those who come to this country feel a stronger ethnocentric connection than those who came before them.

I am by no means an isolationist. Living in California gives me a pretty good view of all that immigration has done for this country, and by that I mean it has done basically everything. And by living internationally I saw how important cultural identity is to those who fear ideological imperialism. The vast majority of Hispanic immigrants in California (and I’m sure elsewhere as well) are valiantly attempting to learn English, and to be quite honest not enough has been done about Americans learning to speak Spanish. It should be a source of national embarrassment that as a country with literally hundreds of languages we do not have a mandatory 2nd language program for public schools, nor do we have a robust ESL program for immigrant children. Anger directed at immigrants who cannot speak English, like that of the owner of Gino’s in Philadelphia (the most famous Philly Cheesesteak joint in Philly) put up signs reading “This is American, Order in English,” is misattributed. The anger should be directed at a government that doesn’t offer anything more than “Welcome to America” pamphlet when it should really be offering language classes par gratis.

However, there are pockets of ethnocentric immigrants in New York, California, and Florida (among other places) who refuse to assimilate in any way to the country they inhabit. This is by no means limited to minority immigrants, often times whites from Western Europe can be the most viciously anti-adaptation. However it is discouraging to see an already self-segregated nation become fearfully segmented.

The specifics of the anti-assimilation sentiment are obvious to anyone who lives in a state where the immigration population is large. Young Mexican-Americans who slap giant “Hecho en Mexico” decals on their cars, Asian-Americans who often have no desire to speak English, and Europeans who abhor America for its “cowboy culture” are all, as controversial as it is to say, problems. Have we, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation immigrants ourselves, created an America that is no longer friendly to outside cultures? And so much so that others cling to their identities so tightly that the American identity has no chance? We are, as has been repeated over and over again, a nation of immigrants. No where else in the world are Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, Yom Kippur, and Arbor Day celebrated by people in the same nation.

Now, it’s easy for me to say these things because, well, I’m white. My mother is 2nd generation Japanese-American and my father a 7th generation Scot. My immigrant identity was lost a long time ago, and while there are certainly slight Asian variations in my life, I am completely American culturally. Giving up cultural identity, especially in a nation that has lost its place on the top of the hill in terms of ideological respect, is not something easily done. I think, perhaps, that where people like Lou Dobbs are wrong is that the immigrants are not the problem with language barriers and the working class, it is the fact that over the last couple decades America has lost its place as the cultural meeting point of the world. Sure, people still flock to the states for economic opportunity, but there is something missing from what used to be the “Land of Opportunity” in all facets.

It is frustrating to see so many people who come to America because they view it as the premiere locale but have no desire to become actually American. I am sure though, that the idea of dropping ones cultural identity is equally as consternating, and we, as Americans, should understand that rather than lament it.