America’s Banquet of Cultures: Harnessing Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration in the Twenty-First Century

279 Pages·2000·1.075 MB·English

by  Ronald Fernandez

AMERICA’S
BANQUET OF CULTURES
Harnessing Ethnicity, Race, and Immigration
in the Twenty-First Century
RONALD FERNANDEZ
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Fernandez,Ronald.
America’sbanquetofcultures : harnessingethnicity,race,andimmigrationinthetwenty-
firstcentury / RonaldFernandez.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–275–95871–X(alk.paper)
1. United States—Ethnic relations. 2. United States—Race relations. 3. United
States—Emigration and immigration. 4. Minorities—United States—Social condi-
tions. 5. Immigrants—United States—Social conditions. 6. United States—Ethnic rela-
tions—Forecasting. 7. United States—Race relations—Forecasting. 8. United States—
Emigrationandimmigration—Forecasting. I. Title.
E184.A1F474 2000
305.8'00973—dc21 99–088491
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)2000byRonaldFernandez
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:99–088491
ISBN:0–275–95871–X
Firstpublishedin2000
PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.praeger.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
TM
Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe
PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Chuck Harrison,
We loved you, we miss you.
“What concerns is the fact that the strands are here.
We must have a policy and an ideal for an actual situation.
Our question is, What Shall We Do with Our America?”
—Randolph Bourne, Trans-National America, 1916
Contents
Preface: Four All-Americans ix
Acknowledgments xxi
Part One. Immigrants, Serfs, and Refugees:
Who Are They? Where Did They Come From?
1. Old Blood, New Blood, Weak Blood: The Nature of U.S.
Immigration Laws 3
2. Empires and Serfs: Migrant Labor in the United States 29
3. Refugees and Other Aliens 65
Part Two. What Shall We Do with Our America?
4. How Is Society Possible? 101
5. Changing Colors 121
6. Ethnic Extremes 145
7. Social Class and Social Conflict 175
Part Three. Where Do We Go from Here?
8. Compare and Contrast: Great Britain, Israel, India, and the
United States 201
9. The Twenty-first Century 231
viii Contents
Bibliography 245
Index 247
Preface: Four All-Americans
DIVERSITY INCARNATE1
Hisgreatgrandmotherwasaproudmemberofatribethat“neverenslaved”
theAfricanswhoescapedplantationlife.FamilyhistorianssaythatEdward’s
grandmother, half-African, half-Seminole, also had a very special skill: She
spoke Chinese, an ability acquired after twenty years of work in a Florida
laundry.
WhenthefederalgovernmentforciblyexiledtheSeminolestoOklahoma,
some refused to go. Using everything from canoes to rafts,theseSeminoles
paddled into the Caribbean or stowed away on trading ships bound for the
neighboring islands. Thus, Edward’s great grandfather was Bahamian anda
subject of the king of England; others relatives were Cuban and subjectsof
the king of Spain. Somehow they all settled in Florida, where some of Ed-
ward’s kin spoke Spanish, some did not, and all called themselves colored
onagooddayand“niggers”whenthewhitecrackerssnappedtheirwhiplike
tongues.
ColoralwaystrumpedethnicitywhenEdwardwasachild.Liketheeraser
on a giant pencil, the one-drop (of African blood) rule simultaneously ex-
pungedEdward’sSeminole,Bahamian,andCubanroots.Theycorralledour
peopleintoneighborhoodsmarked“colored,”andtheonlytimeEdwardsaw
a white person was in the background threats of his mom. Just before she
spanked him for an offense, the angry, tired woman would loudlyproclaim,
“I’ll kill you before I’ll let them kill you.” “Them” meant white people,the
“almostnonexistent”forcethatneverthelessdominatedeverymomentofthe
boy’ssegregatedexistence.“Youhopesomeonemadeamistake”;youbelieve
orconvinceyourselfthatifyou“touchallthebases,”youcanplaythegame.
x Preface:FourAll-Americans
It’s not you as an individual; it’s a system designed by someone who hated
kids.
As a ten year old, Edward wanted a hamburger, the kind they served at
the Royal Castle Restaurant. So, he skipped lunch for two days, put the
eighty cents in his pocket, and “pumped, then coasted” on his bike until he
arrived “at the Castle.” Elvis crooned, “Don’t be cruel,” as the eager boy
boppedhiswaytothecounter;Edwardwaitedhisturn,orderedhisburgers,
and sat down.
“They ate my ass alive.” With Elvis’s lyrics still in his ear, Edwardheard
the cooks scream, “What the hell you doing, nigger; you know coloreds
don’t sit in this place.” Edward didn’t know. This was white turf, never a
part of his stomping grounds. He got on his bike, pumped—no coasting—
all the way home, and still has no answer to his childhood question. “Why
didn’t the other customers help?” He could understand the need forpoorly
paid cooks to beat up on a kid, but why didn’t the other customers help?
“They just sat there.”
In retaliation Edward and his brother would go to other Castles, order a
pile of burgers, sit down, listen to the abuse, and know, as they left with a
smile, that the burgers would go to waste. It was a “moral victory.”
The Marines helped Edward. Once they figured out that “I could read”
(i.e., that Edward had a brain), he received the discipline he wanted, the
opportunities he needed, and the promise of the money he never had. Ed-
wardmeanttomakeuseoftheGIBillifhecouldsomehowsurvivenotonly
Vietnam but also a “Cinderella liberty” (back by midnight) in the Philip-
pines.
R&R (rest and relaxation) seemed an odd way to define the shipboard
experience of Marines crowded onto ships. YetEdwardandhisfriendshap-
pily obeyed orders when, with the huge troop boats moored in the ocean,
small crafts took the Marines to shore. They walked overabridgespanning
the waste-filled “Shit River,” down an avenue housing the bars used by the
white soldiers, and up to a “T” where, on either side, black soldierstriedto
find solace from the war and a form of “self-imposed” segregation.
Just before they turned into pumpkins, the black Marines walked down
the avenue and over the bridge leading to the beach. Here, many soldiers
threw coins into the river as brown-skinned Filipino children eagerlydived
from the bridge to compete for the soldiers’ spare change. But, when some
white soldiers threw bricks instead of coins, the black soldiers saw red. Ed-
ward explained that the Philippines was the best place for black Marineson
liberty;“theFilipinostreateduslikeFilipinos.Wewerepartoftheirfamily.”
Watchingthewhitesunloadasalvoofbricks,manyblacksoldiersinstantly
reexperienced their unique version of childhood humiliation(s). But this
time, instead of children in shock, battle-scarred men watched helpless Fil-
ipinos scurry to avoid the barrage of bricks. The result was a “race riot”on
Preface:FourAll-Americans xi
the beach that led to more war in Vietnam. While Edward stayed on the
sidelines, he watched as a fellow Marine would occasionally indicate, “This
(white) guy is ok. Don’t fuck with him.” Yet other than that, the black-on-
whitefightingcontinueduntiltheCinderellaboysreturnedtoaconflictwith
no light at the end of the tunnel—not for Lyndon Johnson, andnotforthe
whites and blacks who fought at work and at play in Florida, Vietnam, and
the Philippines.
Edward got a degree. So many people found he could read that he grad-
uated with a 3.85 average and a religious commitment that now defines his
life.EdwardCharlesHarrisonIVbecameRasheedHamza,adevoutmember
oftheMuslimfaith.AsafollowerofAllah,Rasheedfoundbothprivatepeace
and public pride. However mysteriously, God ruled the universe, and Ra-
sheed Hamza took a name that he wanted, not thecounterfeittitle(Edward
the Fourth) inherited at birth.
Whenaskedifheeverfeltattractedtothe“BlackMuslims,”Rasheedsays,
“No.”Hedoesn’trelatetotheprejudiceagainstanybody,buthenevertheless
has the greatest respect for “their success with theblackman.”Theyturned
around a lot of drug addicts, and you have to give them credit wherecredit
is due.
Rasheed went all the way. He got a Ph.D. in education, and he did it for
himself, for his family, and for his people. He sees no bigger opportunity
than that offered by any university in the country. “I mean how can you do
better than this?” Kids walk in, Rasheed gets the chance to helpthementer
the mainstream, and he never wastes time complaining about the environ-
ment.
At 52, Rasheed agrees with many of his African-Americancolleagues;the
university is a “plantation,”andhis everydaylifeisindeeddominatedbythe
rules of “wwb,”(workingwhileblack).Thus,atstudentregistration,henow
accepts that many youngsters will ask a white clerk for information before
they ask the tall, well-dressed black man who helps supervise the mostly
white workforce. Why? “Maybe they think I’m an affirmative action hire
and don’t know anything? Maybe they just can’t ask a black guy for help?
Who knows?”
Rasheeddoesn’t.But,inthemiddleofmiddleage,herefusestowasteany
time bitching about “plantation life.” “I’ve heard all that for years. Let the
others talk, but I’m going to spend what time I have left helping thesekids.
All of them.”
Watching Rasheed with the students is a joy. The man loves his work.
But he is bothered by life on the “plantation,” so much so that he rarely
drops his guard and never stops thinking. It would be “irresponsible” to do
that.
If someone complains about his work, is it because Rasheed screwed up
or because he’s black? Did someone disregard one of his ideas because his
xii Preface:FourAll-Americans
suggestions lacked merit, because the colleague was preoccupied with per-
sonal problems, or because the white colleague could never take even great
advice from a black man?
Mostbothersomeofallarethewell-meaningwhiteswhowanttohelpbut
destroy their own good work with a sure sense of superiority. When push
comestoshove,“Theyknoweverything;I’mjusttheblackguyatthetable.”
As in Edward’s childhood, we are all still fenced in by walls of suspicion,
hate,andmisunderstanding;whitesbuiltthebarriers,buttodaytheyarejust
as penned in as blacks. Everybody is uptight and, as a so-called privileged
class of blacks complains about whites, whites moan, “What more do these
people want? There’s no satisfying them. Jesus, look at what we have done
already.”
A WHOOP, WHOOP INDIAN
Shashi Singh is a Hindu, an Indian, a woman, and a possible American.
Born in 1979 in the western state of Gujarat, Shashi, her brother, and her
parents came to the United States in 1992. Well off, but not welleducated,
her parents linked the family to a human chain that started with hergrand-
mother’sbrother.AsShashitellsit,relativeswouldreturntoGujarat,spout-
ing stories of great wealth and untold opportunities in the United States.
“It’s like a perfect place,” especially if you want a fine education for your
only son.
With a look of concern bordering on shame, Shashi expressesguiltabout
the thinly veiled criticism of her parents and her Indian roots. “Would I
have said such a thing six years ago? My accepted fate then included an
arranged marriage.” Today Shashi thinks that women are men’sequals,and
she resents the paternalism of the Indian culture she simultaneously loves.
In fact, while it’s still hard to swallow, she now believes that the family
moved so her brother would have a better future. She can also go to school
but only if, like a traditional Indian woman, she stays within the limits set
bythousand-year-oldnorms.Thus,whensheofferedherdadsoundfinancial
advice based on a college course, he whisked her off with a look of surprise
and,presumably,afewsecondthoughtsofhisown.“Wouldadaughterhave
said such a thing in India?”
Shashi’s family arrived in the United States with money, business expe-
rience, and a settled group of relatives who, rotating capital among them-
selves, helped the Singhs finance the purchase of two local businesses.
Within months the family settled in an upscale Connecticut suburb and
eventually adopted a series of American nicknames. One uncle is John, her
father is Frank, and her own mistaken identity is “S.S.” Shashi, a young
woman who flawlessly speaks three languages, expresses both exasperation
and anger when she explains her reaction to the reactions of Americans.