I guess that in the USA the swankiest ancestry is to be "Native" American.
Actually there's a lot of prejudice against Native Americans in the US, especially in the West.
But it's definitely cool in some circles.
What's swankiest is to be descended from the earliest Protestant English-speaking colonists.
2007 is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, which is a big deal in Virginia, but I am boycotting it because they're advertising it as "America's 400th Birthday."
In point of fact, of course the Spanish were here first. St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest successful colony and continually occupied outpost of European civilization in North America, established 1565, so America's real 400th birthday by rights occurred in 1965, but of course in 1965 being descended from Spanish Catholics wasn't cool.
There were earlier attempted colonies by the Spanish (Pensacola, Florida, 1561) and France (Fort Caroline, Florida, 1565). The first European child born in North America was born at Fort Caroline, but the parents, while Protestants (Huguenots), were French. But the Spanish captured the French settlers of Fort Caroline and made them leave, so that's another failed colony.
Note that if you remove the qualifier "in North America" then the oldest continuously occupied outpost of European civilization in the Americas is Santo Domingo, 1496, more than 100 years before Jamestown.
Even the distinction between "North America" and "Central America" is ridiculously artificial. But there is something very different about Latin America compared to North America -- Canada and the US are very similar, although the Canadians hate it when we say that.
You can have your land stolen anywhere in the world, including the US, and you can be physically assaulted by a rich and powerful man anywhere in the world, including the US, but in the US, you have remedies, you have a right to redress.
There is corruption all over the world, but here in the US, if you are willing to fight for your rights, you have a chance to win. Especially where the powers that be are Northwestern Europeans, like English, Dutch, Germans, Scots, Scandinavians. Part of the "Protestant work ethic" and I say that as a Catholic.
Freedom of conscience includes the duty to resist corruption, because you owe your first duty to God. Life is short, but the after-life is forever.
Note that you don't have to believe in God or the after-life to practice right action, but I can't otherwise explain why Latin American countries are so corrupt and so poor, except that they're not Protestants, they believe that whatever they do, God will forgive them. Or maybe they just don't have the English legal system. |
