I’m listening to two poli sci professors on PBS (local) discuss polarization in American politics. One of the professors is Hispanic, but with the sound off, he passes for “white.” His accent and his name indicate otherwise. And he’s speaking in praise of what he calls the “beautiful metaphor” of the melting pot.
To which I call “bullshit.”
The melting pot is, in reality, a refiner’s fire where gold is separated from dross; the dross is discarded, and the gold is made pure. So the melting pot results in one thing: purity. This is the goal of Stephen Miller, not the poli sci professor on my TeeVee. But that’s where the metaphor goes. Become refined to “white,” or get out. “White” is usually a loosely defined term. These days it accepts most “Asians,” a term that refers to what 70 years ago we were still calling “Orientals,” because there’s still suspicion of Asian Indians setting up Hindu temples (there’s a beautiful one here in Houston, but there are on-line crazies denouncing such things as the thin end of some wedge). Just to say we’re still playing around with what “white” is, even if the Census Bureau doesn’t. The goal is always to make “white” the baseline, and exclude all others. The Stephen Millers among us want to push that to its logical extreme. But always the desire is to define who is in, and who is out; to declare who is dross, and who is gold.
When we try to use the melting pot metaphor as a positive, a description of the ideal of this nation of many nationalities, we actually mean a stew: a dish of disparate ingredients that yield something greater than the sum of its parts, because it stops being just the sum of its parts. But it also doesn’t dissolve all the parts into grey goo. Nobody wants grey goo. But that’s when everything has, effectively, melted, too.
So nobody wants a melting pot, except the people who want the rest of us tossed out of the pot, and only their kind left behind.
Polarization is easier to understand when you take into account the racism that was in America since we were 13 British colonies. It’s almost always about race. The metaphor of stew is about overcoming racism and accepting differences. The metaphor of the melting pot is about eliminating the dross of any race that is unacceptable to those who would be in charge. I’d just point out that, per the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas is now 40% Hispanic, and slightly less than 40% white. But the GOP in Texas is terrified of the Muslims in Texas, because all their primary candidates have to denounce Sharia law so they can keep the elephants away (I know the cliche is unfortunate in this case). They don’t even know what Sharia law is, but they know they’re scared of it. Because they live in constant fear of something. It seems to be their raison d’etre.
That’s the “melting pot” of American history. We don’t need any more of it. And yes, I think the anxiety about Sharia law is actually anxiety about whites being in the minority, but the only shiny object we’d have on Hispanics is Tex-Mex food (yes, I do know how culturally blinkered that is; that’s the point), and, to put it bluntly, that would be like denouncing chili, which is the national dish of Texas. You might as well speak ill of Willie Nelson. So MAGA has to find something else. Also, MAGA thinks the Hispanic vote is on their side; which it was, until it re-elected Trump.
Recently a Muslim group in Dallas tried to reserve a portion of a public swimming pool for a gathering. They welcomed anyone not in their group (it was a group effort, not a mosque event) to join them, but asked that attendees dress “modestly.” The group is actually quite conservative, as they themselves said. Governor Abbott stepped in and denied the group access to the public facility, on the grounds they were discriminating on religious grounds against non-Muslims. They were doing no such thing; they were simply asking non-members who came to the end of the pool they had reserved for their party, to respect a dress code most people in the Southern Baptist town of my childhood would have expected 60 years ago. Abbott didn’t say it, but the dog whistle was clear: no Sharia law on his watch.
As ever, be careful what you ask for. You’re very likely to get it.
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