They have learned the hard way what it means to have a growing foreign population in their midst -- a population that insists on remaining foreign and hostile to the culture, values and people around them.
Maybe this is true somewhere in America, but it's not true any place I've ever been.
Sure, you can buy pupusas and tamales off trucks at work sites in DC. But there are places you can buy soul food, Thai food, Indian food, Ethiopian, Afghani, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Iranian, Lebanese, Greek, Italian, German, French, Scottish, British, Irish, Swedish, etc., etc.
There is a German deli and a Swiss bakery and a ton of grocery stores that sell Latino groceries, Indian groceries, Chinese groceries.
There are video stores for Hindus and video stores for Koreans video stores for Thais and video stores for Latinos.
We have Latino radio but also Chinese language TV and a station that plays news from all over the world in many different languages.
The kids in the Fairfax school system have more languages spoken at home than any other school system on the planet.
And we all get along fine.
I think all this talk about "hostility" between cultures is the result of hostility its own self, hostility to people who speak a different language and put different spices in their chicken soup. We're all Americans. Some, it's true, more legal than others.
What makes me think this? Well, I did listen to the Washington demonstration on C-SPAN, and they did keep saying, over and over again, that they were Americans, chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" and cheering. |
