A reader responded to Leonceo Angsioco's story, "Gringos gone wild," about American tourists on spring break, to say:
Angsioco wants to know the answer behind Americans' "cultural insensitivity." It's probably because that's what Americans see foreigners doing in the U.S. all the time. They see Christmas being attacked and taken out of public displays because Jews, Muslims, or Hindus don't celebrate it. They see Christopher Columbus Day being replaced by Cesar Chavez Day or Native People Day. They see Halloween being put on the back burner while Day of the Dead festivals get front-page exposure. Schools are being criticized for "Eurocentric teachings." And don't forget the erosion of the English language. Maybe America's youth are just copying what they see.
Randy Henderson answers:
Well, if they are living in the US, participating in our schools, contributing to our culture, our taxes, and our overall language, they aren't foreigners. No, we can't tell all them thar Jews to go back to Israel, or all them blacks to go back to Africa, and take their customs with them. They are, in fact, Americans every bit as much as the white Christians who came here and took the land from the Native Americans, and have just as much right to contribute to our great, ever evolving culture.
Columbus Day? Columbus was an Italian working for Spain who stumbled on the American continents by mistake, then contributed to the exploitation of natives for gold. He wasn't even part of the history of the United States. And anyway, I hadn't heard that we were replacing our celebration of this sacred foreigner with that of another.
If some people choose to celebrate Cesar Chavez day instead, or the Native peoples and their culture that Columbus ultimately helped to decimate, that's their freedom as Americans. Same for any other holiday. To each his or her own.
And it's not like Christmas, Halloween, and the rest aren't a mixture of traditions borrowed from many cultures and pagan religions already, or that they haven't been heavily commercialized anyway.
As for the erosion of the English language, I'm sure the English will happily tell you that even "proper" American English is an erosion of Queen's English. And are we talking Southern White Gentleman English, or Bronx English, or Texas English? Are those pesky foreigners sneaking into our schools and altering our English books? Or are you referring to kids these days with their crazy hip hop African slang, all that sizzle my lizzle, bling bling my da' bomb stuff? Yeah, that's totally, like, gag me, ya' know? Like, it ain't even good English and stuff like white dudes use dude...and s#!t.
Can people get a little too politically correct sometimes? Yep. Can change sometimes involve overcompensation before a middle-ground is found? Yep. But do we need to evolve socially and be more inclusive and considerate of other cultures and religions? Yep.
Just as we moved past white males being the only ones who could hold office or vote, just as we moved past slavery and segregation, and work to get past open discrimination and mockery of other racial and ethnic groups in our country, we continue to grow past the narrow, white, Christian patriarchal monopoly on what everyone in the nation may officially celebrate, say or do.
And none of what you cited in such a culturally enlightened and "sensitive" manner excuses the kind of behavior Leonceo was criticizing.
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