‘Identity politics’ furor the wrong argument
October must be a confusing month for critics of socalled identity politics. It has to be difficult to separate those things that promote “tribalism” from harmless celebrations of culture and heritage.
As Hispanic Heritage Month was being ushered out — having run from midSeptember to midOctober — here came Columbus Day on Monday. The national holiday was proclaimed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937, largely to appease Italian Americans after five decades of discrimination and violence.
Suddenly, folks are reassessing how they feel about cultural festivals, ethnic holidays and having certain dates on the calendar set aside to honor the contributions of a specific group of Americans.
For the past few weeks, I heard the usual griping and sniping from fellow Americans who were angry that Hispanics — a group that numbers nearly 60 million with an annual GDP of $2.3 trillion — merited a whole month to acknowledge their achievements. Blame demographics. Hispanics account for 18 percent of the U.S. population and are on pace to make up a quarter by 2030. Mexicans and Mexican Americans alone account for 10 percent of the population. Many white people feel culturally displaced, and they don’t appreciate a yearly reminder. They rail against “identity politics” and insist the country is being destroyed as people retreat into tribes.
Responding to a column on President Donald Trump’s private war against Hispanics, a reader lamented: “The first chance we get, we run to our respective racial and ethnic corners . ... Congratulations, you are now one of the groups who think that racial and ethnic identity is more important than the one that actually should unify us: being human.”
That’s a nice sentiment, but it’s also dishonest. Identity politics date back to the founding of this country, and the concept was invented by white men. All these years later, as white identity politics is trumpeted by conservative talk radio, the GOP, Fox News and Trump himself, the rest of us are just trying to catch up.
Americans’ take on identity politics varies based on whose “identity” is at issue. If it’s mine, no worries. If it’s yours, we have a problem.
For decades, Columbus Day didn’t need defending. Because, for the most part, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus wasn’t being attacked. As more information has come to light about the atrocities committed against indigenous people by Columbus and his men — who sailed under the Spanish flag and brought white Christianity to the Americas — public outrage grew. And Columbus became a target.
In San Francisco, someone threw red paint on a statue of the explorer just days before the holiday. The culprit also scrawled the message: “Destroy all monuments to genocide and kill all colonizers.” Never mind that the city already marks Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
This politically correct pushback has led Italian Americans to defend Columbus, rally around Columbus Day and assert their ethnic pride. It has also provided an opportunity to share their historical contributions to the United States.
There is a lot to share. From 1880 to 1930, about 6 million Italian immigrants found their way to America. They were hard workers, and so they helped provide the labor for American factories, mills and mines. If it was built in the early 20th century — from roads and bridges, to dams and tunnels — chances are that an ItalianAmerican had a hand in building it.
In return for all that hard work, Italian Americans were — see if this sounds familiar — demonized, attacked, discriminated against and scapegoated for every societal ill. They were told their families were too big, their accents too thick, and their natural abilities too limited. Their prospects for whitecollar work were slim.
Today, according to the Census Bureau, Italian Americans account for 6 percent of the U.S. population. More than 15 million people in the United States identity themselves as Italian Americans. You can bet that a few million more prefer the euphemism “Americans of Italian descent.” Whatever we call them, they’re the fifth largest ethnic group in the U.S.
Once again, Americans are arguing over identity politics. And, once again, it’s the wrong argument. Instead of debating whom we should honor or what we should name a particular day, we should confront our inconsistencies. We can’t just flip the script when convenient.
Calm down, folks. There is nothing wrong — and a lot right — with honoring our many different ethnicities, cultures and languages. In fact, the concept is as American as strudel, cannoli, baklava and flan.