Posted on 12/01/2008 9:49:35 AM PST by lewisglad
A Lesson for Sarah Palin: Being a Real American
First I bristled and then I was horrified as I watched Sarah Palin draw a distinction between “real Americans and those that are not” during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Notice the absence of any mention of Native Americans in her call.
An immigrant from India, I am a Sikh-American, and wear the markers of my faith – long unshorn hair covered by a turban. Sarah Palin had just sundered the nation into “us and them,” and relegated people like me to the category of incomplete Americans.
I wondered what makes one a real American!
Sikhs have been in this country for over a century; Sikh workers participated in building the Panama Canal in 1903-04.
I have lived, worked and paid my taxes in this country since 1960 -- for almost half a century. That is more than two thirds of life. I protested against the Vietnam War, though somewhat gingerly since I was not a citizen then. I actively participated in rallies for equal rights during the years of Martin Luther King, and cheerfully marched in a parade led by Gloria Steinem and others down Fifth Avenue in New York City in support of women’s rights.
And during my academic career, I must have taught several thousand “real Americans” who have gone on to become physicians and dentists, and academicians who have served this nation admirably.
What does Sarah Palin and her ilk think I should do to become a “real American?” Do you think a crew cut would finally outweigh all the other things I have done in America and give me the good-housekeeping seal of approval? Or, is Sarah Palin and her ilk looking to racial and cultural purity?
I think the widely touted concept of America as a melting pot has, in part, contributed to our ambivalent thinking.
We forget that in a melting pot, the ingredients lose their individuality entirely, as if they were processed in a homogenizer. Some observers, instead, posited a tossed salad of many cultural, religious and ethnic peoples as the model for America. But we forget that salads may get tossed a tad too vigorously, and then some ingredients suffer needlessly; examples are the incarceration of the Japanese during the Second Word War, as also the long history of slavery and the Blacks. Also, the ingredients in a salad may interact with each other only minimally.
Perhaps a better analogy would be that of a mosaic, in which even the smallest piece has a place and enriches the whole pattern by its presence. But a mosaic, one could argue, may present what is not a dynamic but static reality.
So I offer you instead the analogy of a large multi-instrument orchestra. In a far corner of the ensemble sits someone with a triangle or cymbals – very minor components of the ensemble. But, nevertheless, each remains a critical piece that contributes vitally to the organically evolving performance. When the lowly triangle or the cymbals speak, even the mighty strings and the pianos listen, and no one can then deny that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Citizenship in this great society, to me, is a social contract with the nation in which each individual carries the same inherent rights and obligations as everyone else. The strength and vitality of this nation stems from the variety of immigrants and their endless stream from around the globe that constitute this society. It is their interaction that makes this country what it is – a beacon of hope and innovative energy to the world.
This is the America that becomes our ideal, even though reality may at times be at odds with it.
America is not just a place; it is an idea and an ideal that this nation has pursued for over 200 years with singular determination. My faith – Sikhism – too, holds for an egalitarian society. The two ideas come together in me to make me a Sikh-American
Sure there have been many Sarah Palins along the way, and there will surely be many more. But as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. said, “”The greatest virtue of a functioning democracy is its capacity for self-correction.”
Note: The author, Inder Jit Singh, is a professor of anatomy at New York University.
bfl
This is an interesting analogy because not all noises belong in an orchestra and all of the instruments need to play to the same sheet of music. If they don't, the results are dissonant, unpleasant, and unconstructive. The same thing happens to a society when people don't play to the same broad culture. That doesn't mean that there is no place for Sikhs or other people but it does mean that they shouldn't be trying to tear the country down.
“Belated congratulations on your tenth anniversary”
Thank you very much.
By my experience, no. Blacks in general are Christian, and thus have the benefit of the Holy Spirit's guidance. I've known very few blacks that have the violent and antisocial traits that are so dominating with the Sikhs.
By my experience, no. Blacks in general are Christian, and thus have the benefit of the Holy Spirit's guidance. I've known very few blacks that have the violent and antisocial traits that are so dominating with the Sikhs.
Another unassimilated cosmopolitan bigot
That's rather misleading as written. You make it sound as though Ernst was arrested and released, only to have the French change their minds and arrest him again.
The truth is that there was a great outcry over the arrest of Ernst and he was justly released as there was no cause for arrest save that he was of German descent.
He was arrested again in France, true. However it was the Gestapo that picked him up the second time, not the French. Luckily he escaped from the Germans and made it successfully to our shores.
Beneath a FReeper. You should be ashamed.
You jumped on the bandwagon rather late, I already got spanked by fellow FReepers, pay attention.
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