Toward the American Ethnic
by Richard Engle, President NFRA (3/3/07): On Friday Rudy Giuliani told the Conservative Political Action Conference that America is a nation not made of a single ethnic group. He said a lot of other things, many of them good, but this one stuck out.
The upcoming election presents an unprecedented number of non-WASP candidates for President. The statement by the Mayor appears to be indisputably true, on the surface. I would challenge the premise. Not so much because it is in error but because it ought to be errant. An ethnic group is something very specific. The word “ethnic” comes from the Greek word (roughly transliterated, as Greek uses a distinct alphabet) “ethnos” which means “nation." Is America a single ethnic? A single nation?
My intent is not to take issue with the former Mayor of New York. If it were then I would certainly go after him on a far less trivial matter. In fact, I merely utilize his comment as an opportunity to discuss the premise that America should become one ethnic group, one nation in every way. So many discuss the idea that America is a nation of immigrants, but it isn’t. It is a nation of descendents of immigrants. Eventually those descendents must abandon their hyphens and look at themselves as Americans first, foremost and only as Americans. Without casting aside our individuality and the heritage of our own ancestors we can become one “ethnos.” We can, and we should.
How do we do so? Abandon all remnants of racism, all official and institutional recognitions of race. We must insist that black, white, Hispanic, aboriginal, oriental and any other generalized reference to some apparent percentage of a person’s ancestry be unimportant. No government or institutional form should ever even ask people to identify themselves by race. We also should promote in every societal mechanism the premise that citizens of the United States are Americans.
Tags: American Ethnic, National Federation of Republican Assemblies, NFRA, Richard Engle To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The upcoming election presents an unprecedented number of non-WASP candidates for President. The statement by the Mayor appears to be indisputably true, on the surface. I would challenge the premise. Not so much because it is in error but because it ought to be errant. An ethnic group is something very specific. The word “ethnic” comes from the Greek word (roughly transliterated, as Greek uses a distinct alphabet) “ethnos” which means “nation." Is America a single ethnic? A single nation?
My intent is not to take issue with the former Mayor of New York. If it were then I would certainly go after him on a far less trivial matter. In fact, I merely utilize his comment as an opportunity to discuss the premise that America should become one ethnic group, one nation in every way. So many discuss the idea that America is a nation of immigrants, but it isn’t. It is a nation of descendents of immigrants. Eventually those descendents must abandon their hyphens and look at themselves as Americans first, foremost and only as Americans. Without casting aside our individuality and the heritage of our own ancestors we can become one “ethnos.” We can, and we should.
How do we do so? Abandon all remnants of racism, all official and institutional recognitions of race. We must insist that black, white, Hispanic, aboriginal, oriental and any other generalized reference to some apparent percentage of a person’s ancestry be unimportant. No government or institutional form should ever even ask people to identify themselves by race. We also should promote in every societal mechanism the premise that citizens of the United States are Americans.
Tags: American Ethnic, National Federation of Republican Assemblies, NFRA, Richard Engle To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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