The British have instituted an interesting approach to what I suspect is at the bottom of a number of problems, including the riots in Paris and the ongoing confusion about racism in the US. In todayâs Washington Post article âPub Manners, Boxing Day All Part of Being Britishâ? Mary Jordan wrote,
Fears about immigrants feeling no connection or loyalty to their new country surged following the London transit bombings in July, which killed 52 commuters and injured 700 others
What questions, I wonder, would a revised US Citizenship test ask? What, exactly, are the American values that should be minimally assimilated to empower and enable a population? I am not sure, but I think maybe we should start thinking about that.
Almost everyone in America has at least one line of immigrant ancestors, and while some have speculated that assimilation is not necessarily a good thing, it is actually what made the American âmelting potâ? work. Is the US still successfully assimilating and merging? In some cases, I don’t think so.
Yet I think assimilation is crucial, and failure to adapt to a countryâs culture â whatever country that is â is dangerous for the entire society. If youâve been following the riots outside of Paris, or the unrest recently in Birmingham UK, youâve seen the risks come live.
As it happens, I think it’s possible that here in the US, a lack of connection to âbeing Americanâ? is behind many of our internal African-American issues. In fact, comparing the black experience in the US with the immigrant challenges elsewhere is not all that far afield.
While one could possibly argue that African-Americans âimmigratedâ? over 300 years ago, that would be absolutely incorrect. In reality, slaves were not immigrants in the common social sense, and their descendants did not attain rights and status comparable to other American immigrant groups until the 1960s â a mere forty years ago. Prior to the Civil Rights movement, this population was actually denied assimilation, and the problems were radicalized during the “Jim Crow” years.
What weâve been taught to think of as ârace problemsâ? in the US are, today, actually poorly diagnosed symptoms of a lack of even minimal assimilation, based in large part on the abysmal treatment of blacks in earlier âwhite Americaâ?. Thatâs the bad news. The good news is that if seen from this angle, the âraceâ? issues in the United States are solveable.
So whatâs all this mean? Well, for the French, I think it means theyâre in big trouble. Their culture is far less permeable than the American or the British, and itâs sad but unsurprising that the rioting is spreading.
For the US (or at least, for me) it means that we should be watching to see whether attempting to foster âBritishnessâ? has any affect on the UK’s struggles with cultural cohesiveness. If their new approach helps, I hope the US is not too proud to learn and apply the knowledge, to all Americans.
