How "white nationalists" fail at owning America's heritage
In the days following the 2016 Presidential election, I was called many things by those who call themselves 'ethnic nationalists', 'alt-right', or any kinds of other bullshit euphemisms for white supremacist, eurocentric, or just plain anti-brown-people thought.
My favorite? The five times I was called "illegal," an "illegal immigrant", or in one case, was apparently reported to the INS, as my last name - not Spanish, btw - has a latin root. This is a response to one of those bland unseasoned bechamel asshats who apparently have so little more to be proud of than the concentration of melatonin embedded in their epidermis.
If your drive to preserve your ethnic heritage is so great that you have a need to exclude the ability of others to do the same, the best place to do so is in in situ [fancy old words that mean 'in the place where it came from'].
If you are the descendant of those who immigrated to this land after the submergence of the Bering Strait, there is nothing that makes your claim to this nation's cultural heritage more valid than anyone else's. Nothing. And should you disagree because you believe your culture or your family somehow has "seniority," perhaps you can comprehend this argument:
Should you have paid attention in history class, you might have heard of an event called the "Great Migration", or a place named the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ring any bells?
My family arrived in Salem, Mass aboard on the ships of the Winthrop fleet in 1630. My great*n-grandfather came to this land in 1630, and was among the first 50 people to take the Freeman's Oath and gain the privilege to vote in 1631.
My family has shed blood and tears to guide and preserve the principles upon which this nation was founded, first by trying to mediate peace and prevent conflict and bloodshed with native peoples during King Philip's War, through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. We've fought for civil justice, environmental protections, equality AND economic growth. We've fought for progress. We've fought to maintain our heritage - our SHARED heritage as Americans - and we're clearly still fighting to protect that heritage today.
We most certainly did not sacrifice for the likes of you and your closed-minded white nationalist comrades to lead us into stagnation and cultural decay. If your argument implies your ethnic privilege is based on 'who was here first', go ahead and whip out your family tree. I'll let you guess which kinds of people the families that built this nation think deserves to be voted off the island.
Welcome to the New World, bro. America was the original start-up, and you got in the door too late to get any equity. We came here to grow, to experiment, to build a new future, and to seek RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, not to impose our outdated social mores upon those who came after us.
If you're so interested in preserving your heritage to the exclusion of all others, please hop the next slow boat to wherever that culture and heritage came from, where you can work on preserving your ethnic and cultural heritage in situ. But should you choose to stay, you need to check your old-world fears, prejudices, and other cognitive distortions at the door.
Find something real to be proud of. Build something of your own. Engage in dialogue with the other side, find a way to work together make this nation better. Create your own way to make a difference, so your children can be inspired by your accomplishments to achieve something even greater.
* The more you know=======***
*reformatted 12.9.2017... no intentional changes to content.
My favorite? The five times I was called "illegal," an "illegal immigrant", or in one case, was apparently reported to the INS, as my last name - not Spanish, btw - has a latin root. This is a response to one of those bland unseasoned bechamel asshats who apparently have so little more to be proud of than the concentration of melatonin embedded in their epidermis.
If your drive to preserve your ethnic heritage is so great that you have a need to exclude the ability of others to do the same, the best place to do so is in in situ [fancy old words that mean 'in the place where it came from'].
If you are the descendant of those who immigrated to this land after the submergence of the Bering Strait, there is nothing that makes your claim to this nation's cultural heritage more valid than anyone else's. Nothing. And should you disagree because you believe your culture or your family somehow has "seniority," perhaps you can comprehend this argument:
Should you have paid attention in history class, you might have heard of an event called the "Great Migration", or a place named the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ring any bells?
My family arrived in Salem, Mass aboard on the ships of the Winthrop fleet in 1630. My great*n-grandfather came to this land in 1630, and was among the first 50 people to take the Freeman's Oath and gain the privilege to vote in 1631.
My family has shed blood and tears to guide and preserve the principles upon which this nation was founded, first by trying to mediate peace and prevent conflict and bloodshed with native peoples during King Philip's War, through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. We've fought for civil justice, environmental protections, equality AND economic growth. We've fought for progress. We've fought to maintain our heritage - our SHARED heritage as Americans - and we're clearly still fighting to protect that heritage today.
We most certainly did not sacrifice for the likes of you and your closed-minded white nationalist comrades to lead us into stagnation and cultural decay. If your argument implies your ethnic privilege is based on 'who was here first', go ahead and whip out your family tree. I'll let you guess which kinds of people the families that built this nation think deserves to be voted off the island.
Welcome to the New World, bro. America was the original start-up, and you got in the door too late to get any equity. We came here to grow, to experiment, to build a new future, and to seek RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, not to impose our outdated social mores upon those who came after us.
If you're so interested in preserving your heritage to the exclusion of all others, please hop the next slow boat to wherever that culture and heritage came from, where you can work on preserving your ethnic and cultural heritage in situ. But should you choose to stay, you need to check your old-world fears, prejudices, and other cognitive distortions at the door.
Find something real to be proud of. Build something of your own. Engage in dialogue with the other side, find a way to work together make this nation better. Create your own way to make a difference, so your children can be inspired by your accomplishments to achieve something even greater.
* The more you know=======***
*reformatted 12.9.2017... no intentional changes to content.
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I love to debate, and I oddly enjoy being proven wrong... but I'm not going to argue.
Keep it respectful, factual, free of cognitive biases and distortions, and without ad hominem attacks and we'll be cool... and maybe even find a way to make the world a better place.