Americans without ethnic prefixes

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

After the mass shooting a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Georgia, which left six Asian American women dead, Maizie Hirono, Democratic senator from Hawaii proposed legislation to contain the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans, fueled by rhetoric that blamed the Chinese for the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

In an address last week, President Biden condemned “vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated”.

Attacked and scapegoated with third grade insults against China from the bully pulpit of the former hate mongering president. A president who had no clue how to alleviate the pandemic, resorting to his characteristic refusal to accept responsibility for his incompetence by blaming China, the country of origin of the virus. His infamous taunts of the “China Virus”, “China Plague”, “Kung Flu” inflamed the anger and hatred of his white base to attack Asian Americans, who they imagined, in their racist delusions, were responsible for the spread of the virus.

The legislation aimed to mitigate violence against Asian Americans passed 94 – 6 in the Senate. The six senators from deep red states who voted against the legislation were Josh Hawley (Missouri), who incited the insurrectionists against the Capitol on January 6, Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Ted Cruz (Texas), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Tommy Tuberville (Alabama). The modern counterparts of Hitler’s cronies, Goebbels, Himmler, Goring and Mengele, they are staunch sycophants of the deposed and disgraced American president. They are all vociferous propagandists of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from their Fuhrer.

Asian Americans, like all Americans of color, have been subjected to racist slurs and violence by white racists for centuries. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have accelerated in the past year; over 3,800 cases of racist violence have been reported against Americans of Asian origin during this period.

So the American theme, its modern doctrine, is now clear. In a way, the doctrine is very similar to the white supremacist symbol of 1488 – 14 for the 14 words of the motto of white supremacy: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”, followed by a repetition of the number 88 for the eighth letter of the alphabet, the letter HH, representing the Nazi salute, Heil Hitler. According to these white racists, America is for white Americans, Hitler’s Aryans. Immigrants from non-white nations are tolerated on grudging sufferance.

When a disaster occurs in a foreign country which has an adverse effect on America, the American descendants of that country who have been legal American citizens for decades, sometimes centuries, become responsible for that disaster, and are worthy targets for violence. The latest example is Asian Americans. There are many other such targets, even today.

The classic example of the doctrine are the Africans who were kidnapped from their homes, brought in chains to America, and forced to slave in American plantations. The forced, unpaid, tortured labor of these slaves built the economic powerhouse that America is today. They are Americans of several generations, they have absolutely no connection with Africa. They are racially profiled and brutally murdered on a depressingly regular basis. And after four centuries, they are still not Americans, they are African Americans.

The Chinese emigrated to America in waves. Immigrants in the 19th century worked mainly on the transcontinental railroad network. They suffered racial discrimination at every level, contemptuously called “The Yellow Peril”. White Americans, while enjoying the benefits of their cheap labor, denied them citizenship, they were not allowed to own land or marry Caucasians. Most of these immigrants have little or no connection with their country of origin. But they are still known as “Chinese Americans” or “Asian Americans”.

Significant Japanese immigration to America began in the mid-19th century, caused by economic necessities. Poor living conditions and high unemployment forced them to look to America for a better life for themselves and their families. They also shared with the Chinese the discrimination, racism and slurs, and were considered an extension of the “Yellow Peril”.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, and America declared war against Japan, an estimated 120,000 Americans of Japanese origin, who had no connection with Japan, certainly none with the attacks, were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps based solely on their ethnic origin, although America had been their home for decades. They are still known as “Japanese Americans” or “Asian Americans”.

Ironically, when America entered the same war against Hitler’s Germany and Italy’s Mussolini in 1941, a few Germans and Italians were “deemed enemy aliens,” and placed under curfew. A couple hundred were even locked in “internment camps”. There were 1.2 million and five million of German first and second generation immigrants, respectively, and over 600,000 first generation Italian immigrants. The vast majority of Germans and Italian immigrants were treated as “Americans”. The reason is obvious, the Asians are the Yellow Peril, Hispanics the Brown Invasion. There is nothing called a White Peril. Not to white Americans, anyway.

Cuban Refugees who fled the Castro regime, and settled in America in the 1950s are “Cuban Americans”. Mexicans and immigrants from other Central and South American countries, some who had lived in the United States when it was Mexico, which became Texas or New Mexico when the US government “annexed” their homelands, are simply Hispanics, or Hispanic Americans.

And the original inhabitants of the land stolen from by the white man are also prefixed as Native Americans!

Then we come to 9/11, when 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists committed the most terrible domestic attack against the United States in its history. The terrorists were from four countries, 15 from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one each from Lebanon and Egypt.

A 2017 study estimated that there were 3.45 million Americans of Arabic origin living in America, many second and third generation Americans. The vast majority oppose Islamic terrorism and expressed their horror of the 9/11 attacks. They have little connection to their countries of origin. They are adherents of Islam, the third most popular religion in the US, after Christianity and Judaism. Predictably, Muslims have been targeted for violence ever since 9/11. Many ignorant, racist Americans (and recent events have proved that they number in the tens of millions) have assaulted and murdered not only Muslims, but anyone who looked Arabic to their racist eyes. They are still known as Arab Americans.

Immigrants take the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America when they are granted citizenship. They also renounce their allegiance to their country of origin. For first generation immigrants, this may be an impossible emotional exercise.

I can best explain this conundrum with my personal experience. I emigrated to the United States in 1990 at age 49, to escape the general violence of an ethnic war, and the personal violence against political rivals of the administration at the time. I chose the United States because my older son was already there on a scholarship to a leading university, which he was awarded while he was in Colombo, on the basis of his scholastic performance. I received my Green Card in 1998 and my citizenship in 2003 as did my family. I will be forever grateful to the USA for giving me the second chance which I desperately sought; which enabled my children to grasp with both hands the wonderful educational opportunities available during the Clinton years to kids who were willing to work hard.

But despite the fact that I swore my allegiance to my adopted country, I have always been a Sri Lankan by emotion, an American by document. When peace finally returned to Sri Lanka in 2009, I had little hesitation in retiring in my home country. My children, who were in their teens when they emigrated, still have an affection for the old country. They speak Sinhalese, have many friends here and visit often. But, after 30 years, America is their home. My grandchildren are Americans, pure and simple. I believe this to be the natural evolution of assimilation for immigrants everywhere.

When Mexico played soccer against the Americans at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 2013, there was a capacity crowd of 90,000 spectators, 89,000 Mexican Americans cheering the Mexican team on, waving 89,000 Mexican flags! Old Glory was hardly to be seen.

It has to be stressed that Americans of every color and creed have fought for America, against Nazism of the Germany of the 1940s, and more recently, to stave off a Nazi/Russian attack on its democracy. Americans of every color and creed have given their lives enforcing the laws of America and defending its constitution. There are grave sites of many nationalities in the Arlington Memorial Cemetery. They were all true Americans, sacrificing their lives for their country. Death is one route to drop the ethnic prefix of a true American.

The only other route is the privilege of having a white skin. Orange is also acceptable. There are no English Americans, no German or French Americans. They are all white, all Americans, all Caucasians. The rest of us will always be Arab Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Pacific islanders or when in doubt, “Other”. Never ethnic adjective-free Americans, not unless we die for America. Italian Americans may be the exception to this rule, but in any job or official application or document, there is no box for Italian Americans, they tick the magic box that says “Caucasian.”

Countries which have attracted most mass immigration from other countries for a variety of reasons, poverty, violence or seeking a better life for their families are, besides the USA, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. When these immigrants become citizens of their country of choice, they are Canadians, Brits, Aussies or Kiwis. The white racists in these countries have their own slurs for their immigrants. But they have no official classification as African Canadians, Pakistani British, Asian Australians or Sri Lankan New Zealanders. The United States of America is the only country which officially identifies, advertises and endorses its concept of white racism. Perhaps unknowingly, even instinctively.

This concept may finally disappear when the most haunting fears of white racists – the loss of white dominance, privilege and supremacy over colored immigrants – become a reality, predicted for 2040. When the browns, the blacks and immigrants of all other hues will form the national majority and restore racial balance.

Racial and social justice for all, which will make the USA, at long last, a true Nation of Immigrants. All Americans, no ethnic prefix.

Hopefully, when my granddaughter and/or grandson are vying for the presidency of the United States in a few decades, they will simply be known as Americans, and not as Japanese/European/Tamil/Sinhalese Americans. Although, truth be told, that does have a nice, global ring to it.