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If Latinos want to see what's in America's melting pot, they can turn up the heat

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on

I might believe it, too -- if I hadn't majored in history in college. You see, while skittish and fragile white folks like to whine about identity politics and accuse people of color of having a chip on our shoulder or being consumed by race and ethnicity, none of it is very original. When we group people together by skin color and generalize about them -- or even when we ourselves cluster together with people who look like us and share our backgrounds -- we're doing our part to carry on a long-standing American tradition of drawing color lines.

It's why Benjamin Franklin, an Englishman born in Boston, hassled German immigrants in the mid-1700s because he considered them "aliens" who would never assimilate. It's why there's a Little Armenia in Los Angeles, a Little Italy in New York, a Little Saigon in Houston, a Greektown in Baltimore, a Little Bombay in Jersey City, etc.

Since the founding of the United States, Americans have done all this grouping and regrouping, and no one complained much about it. That's because, for the most part, the game was being run by white people. Only now that nonwhites have suited up and taken the field is it the end of Western civilization.

Maybe you think ethnic enclaves are harmless, and they are. But you freak out when I call myself a Mexican American?

It's the demographics, isn't it? You can tell me. It's one thing to wear a button on March 17 that says: "Kiss me, I'm Irish!" It's quite another to confront the reality of a future where, by 2030, roughly a quarter of the U.S. population will be Latino. You want to know where all that will leave you, and whether your "white privilege" card will be honored by all major corporations, universities, media companies and government institutions. Right?

Calm down. You're good. We're not looking to take over or get even. But some respect would be nice. The first step to welcoming a new day is not treating everyone else like they were born last night.

 

Now, I'll play psychologist. Amigo, you have a problem. Don't project and make it mine.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.

(c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group


 

 

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