The multiculturalists among us are often dissatisfied with America, and want us to be like other countries. Have you noticed that the countries we should be most like - Sweden, France, Switzerland, Belgium - are the whitest countries in the world? There used to be a lot of admiration for Far Eastern attitudes, in religion, culture, or medicine, but now that India and China are gearing up as high-polluting capitalists that is fading, leaving only the other "advanced" industrial nations, which have state-sponsored medicine, premarital sex, and condescension, all greatly to be desired. Unfortunately, that's also the list of nations that were either colonial oppressors or made money selling arms to both sides during wars. And very, very, white.
You'd think that would be a lot to swallow, but apparently not.
Even at a national level, there is an admiration for Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Northwest attitudes, with the rest being Jesusland. California looks like an exception at first, but examining what people actually go to see in CA doesn't seem to be all that ethnic, nor all that joyful a mix for those there. No, those most in favor of multiculturalism in theory seem to like it least in practice. The places they wince at discussing - Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas - have the highest nonwhite percentages. The shell game is that they tell themselves it's the Bad White people in those places that tick them off, the Red-White people.
At one level, it's true. They do dislike those people. Or pity them, or feel frustrated at them, or whatever. In fact, the Blue-White people seem fixated on that. They can't look away. They keep coming back to how terrible those folks are.
Because, what would they see if they had to look anywhere else, either inward or outward?
I got some kind of varicolored bar on this; clicked it and got something about spam blocking on this site. There's still a g+ block that goes to google.
ReplyDeleteThought you should know.
I gotta say the Red-White people seem just as fascinated with hating the Blues.
ReplyDeleteSo, all this advice is a an instance of advocating Stuff White People Like?
ReplyDeleteEurope isn't as white as you make it out to be. In France there is a large Muslim population, also Africans from the former French colonies. The Scandanavian countries have a large number of Turkish and Arab guest workers.
ReplyDeleteThe best advice I heard on how to treat the developing countries was from an African Grad student in the US. He said we needed to treat them like adults and hold them accountable for their failures as well as assist them.
ReplyDeleteIt kills me to see the progressive travelers in these countries. They pride themselves on traveling authentically (while the local hotels and businesses would benefit greatly from their upscale business). They travel to south american countries with progressive church groups to help the locals build chicken coops, yet these guys are the ones who sneak across the border to do our construction work. The airfare alone would support whole villages. In a certain sense the old colonial governments while racist to the core, treated their charges with more dignity than the progressives
drmoeller: I agree that the airfare to far-off lands could support more people than what the mini-ministry can accomplish. And yet...... I was begged to return by many in Rwanda. And I would not have made friends with Pastor Paul Gasigi, Professor Mary Jane, and Pastor David Nahayo if I had not gone. Now I know exactly how to support them and how to get support to them without the intervention of third parties. I know who I trust over there. And I can rejoice in the success of the women's cooperative mushroom growing assn. I had a tiny bit in helping. I KNOW what the needs and blessings of Rwanda are because I physically went there. Yeah, I deal with the guilt that the airfare cost is subtracted from the money spent on the Rwandan Christians, but I don't think I would have directly spent anything on Rwandans without the trip sensitizing me.
ReplyDeleteEarl - well, that describes me, but I don't know about the others.
ReplyDeletepchazzz - yes but no. There is a North African population in many European countries, others have Iraqi or Iranian, and the UK is 3-4% Indian-Pakistani, nearby Asian. Black or Far-Eastern population is seldom 2% or more.
dmoelling, there is a good deal of truth in that, but the knowledge of how to manage institutions, how to self-organise, or even how to volunteer is often lacking in many countries. Habitat For Romania now has Romanians doing a lot of the work. But in its earliest years, it was all Americans. It is a values and demonstration issue as well as hard cash.
As for Africa, I don't know what the hell we should do.
@Earl: "I gotta say the Red-White people seem just as fascinated with hating the Blues."
ReplyDeleteNo, you've got that wrong. We don't hate them. We're just annoyed and bored with their tired old hypocritical rhetoric.
Isn't the whole red-blue fad overexposed and ready to die?
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough to remember when reds were Red. Their banners were red, their flags were red, their posters were heavy on red. The Soviets with their hammer and sickle on a red field are gone, so are the German National Socialists and their red flag but the Chi-coms are still around waving red, red, red.