Damn Those Multiculturists!

Pre-John McCain, during those wacky Giuliani/Romney/Tom Tancredo Blame Jose, Sanctuary City days, the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Republican presidential primary led many of us to believe that the scapegoating of undocumented workers would become a daily talking point of the 2008 campaign. But as even this Wall Stree Journal op-ed by Jason L. Riley reports "the issue seems to have faded, if not disappeared entirely." So far. We'll see.

McCain's recent jettison of once-core beliefs in his quest to be President would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic and sad. The once strict anti-torture dude now OKs waterboarding. He used to call Jerry Falwell and his ilk agents of intolerance. Homeboy now welcomes their endorsements. The day John McCain advocates building a bigger wall is not far off.

But back to the WSJ op-ed and its "reasoned" tone of how Americans actually don't want to send immigrants back -- at least not those who have properly assimilated. (The big question, of course, is what does one mean by "assimilation." Some say it's Latinos speaking English. I suggest it's Hillary speaking in guacamole metaphors and eating at King Taco, not to mention Spanish language TV dominating the ratings and gringo kids watching Dora the Explorer. Assimilation, wonderfully, is a two-way street.) Equating assimilation with English language proficiency, however, is the particular narrow metric the WSJ piece argues today.

The historical pattern is as follows: The first generation learns enough English to get by but prefers the mother tongue. The children of immigrants born here grow up in homes where they understand the mother tongue to some extent and may speak it, but they prefer English. When those children become adults, they establish homes where English is the dominant language.

There's every indication that Latinos are following this pattern. According to 2005 Census data, just one-third of Latino immigrants in the country for less than a decade speak English well. But that proportion climbs to 75% for those here 30 years or more. There may be more bilingualism today among their children, but there's no evidence that Spanish is the dominant language in the second generation. The 2000 Census found that 91% of the children of immigrants, and 97% of the grandchildren, spoke English well.

Nothing to dispute with these facts and figures. Especially when they explain how my 4th Gen Chicano ass has trouble with future perfect tense conjugation of certain Spanish verbs and always mispronouncing Tenochtitlan. But Riley doesn't stop there. Apparently American culture is under attack and it's not the homies looking for jobs at Home Depot parking lots doing the damage.

If American culture is under assault today, it's not from immigrants who aren't assimilating but from liberal elites who reject the concept of assimilation. For multiculturalists, and particularly those in the academy, assimilation is a dirty word. A values-neutral belief system is embraced by some to avoid having to judge one culture as superior or inferior to another. Others reject the assimilationist paradigm outright on the grounds that the U.S. hasn't always lived up to its ideals. America slaughtered Indians and enslaved blacks, goes the argument, and this wicked history means we have no right to impose a value system on others.

Believe me, I have many issues with white liberal elites (see Ken Burns) but a made up aversion to assimilation is not one of them. In any case, Riley advises his fellow right wingers that their hatred of Mexicans is misplaced:

Social conservatives who want to seal the border in response to these left-wing elites are directing their wrath at the wrong people. The problem isn't the immigrants. The problem is the militant multiculturalists who want to turn America into some loose federation of ethnic and racial groups. The political right should continue to push back against bilingual education advocates, anti-American Chicano Studies professors, Spanish-language ballots, ethnically gerrymandered voting districts, La Raza's big-government agenda and all the rest. But these problems weren't created by the women burping our babies and changing linen at our hotels, or by the men picking lettuce in Yuma and building homes in Iowa City.

Keep the immigrants. Deport the Columbia faculty.

And, apparently, all will be right in the US of A: docile maids will continue to clean bedrooms, gardeners will keep trimming trees, and the pesky new immigrants won't be be speaking English for at least thirty more years. Much too long to tell Mr. Riley that his jiu jitsu attempt at appearing to critique nativist idiots all the while embodying their condescending attitudes toward brown people won't go unnoticed.