Quick, Which Ethnic Group Is More Patriotic Than the Average?

Every Black History Month there's always one contrarian (at least one) who pipes up with some snidism such as: "Why do blacks get a month? Why don't we just give everybody a month?" If by "everybody" the cynics mean people of ethnicities whose heritage is not otherwise sufficiently taught in schools, then, yes. We should give "everybody" a month, and "everybody" pretty much has one.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, devoted to commemorating individuals of Asian and Pacific Island heritage who've contributed greatly to our nation. May was designated as it's the anniversary of both the first Japanese immigrants arriving in the United States -- May 7th, 1843 -- and the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10th, 1869 which was built with the considerable labor of a large contingent of Chinese coolies.

And contrarians aside, no matter that it's 2009 and there's a biracial man as president, there's still much we can all learn about others during such designated months. Particularly this month as most other Americans don't distinguish Asian Americans, and look at them as a monolithic group. And as much as 45 percent of the general population says they believe Asian-Americans have more loyalty to their countries of ancestry than to the United States. That number has actually increased from 37 percent in a similar 2001 survey. For the record, about 75 percent of Chinese-Americans surveyed (for example) said they would support the United States in military or economic conflicts. That compares to only about 56 percent of the general population who said they would.

Of course, as you take time to learn about Asian-American history, such patriotism isn't surprising. Just read up on Executive Order 9066, the Nisei Brigade and their rescue of the Lost Battalion to be reminded again that so often in our nation's history it's the very folks who are denied the blessing of liberty who fight and bleed for it the hardest.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month doesn't get nearly the play that Black History Month does. But then neither do Women's History Month (March), Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15th to Oct 15th), or American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month (November). But next time a contrarian wants to know if we have to give everybody a month, you can hand them a calendar and get them educated.

For more perspective please visit That Minority Thing.com.

Comments

[MarionWatts]

Simpler to say this, John (and BTW, good blog): At the end of the day, we're ALL Americans. Our diverse heritages have all contributed to the making of this country and it's what this country is all about. We're all the results of cast-offs from other societies, who were thrown together, sometimes forcibly, shaken up and what you see today is the end product. Our great experiment in diversity, which hasn't always been pleasant or pretty, has certainly been more positive and established than in any other part of the world. If anyone doesn't believe that, just take a trip to Europe, where racism is rearing its ugly head in the emergence of right-wing agendae eerily reminiscent of another time.

http://emiliawahoo76.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/virginiadem

[hglassberg]

The Institute believes compulsory busing (in a metaphorical sense) for dinner parties would go a long way toward eliminating the fears and envy that underlie racial and gender prejudice in this country. If blacks had to attend a white dinner party once a month, whites an asian dinner party, asians a black dinner party, fundamentalists a gay dinner party, and so on, Americans of all description would begin to redirect their antipathy toward Americans who aren't exactly like them from color and gender to food. Racial epithets would become food based...If I have to eat one more overcooked brussel sprout, man, I'm gonna pick up a...Plus, there's always the possibility one ethnic or cultural group will grow to, empathize with, or even like the food of another, and, through eating, grow to understand that group as well.

Yours sincerely,

The Playdo Institute
Handel Glassberg, President

[Lochmon]

That was a very strange and interesting post. I cannot support legislation for it, but I like the spirit of it.

[Lochmon]

That's all good, but I'm still holding out for a "People Like Me Who Put Ketchup On Hotdogs and The Mustard of Our Choice on Cheeseburgers Anti-Discrimination Month".

[preatorius]

It figures. It is so easily to make light of others when you are priviledged.

[Lochmon]

True. It's also easy, when privileged, to have the time and resources to help others. Which, when not engaged in making bad jokes and earning the income that makes me feel privileged, I do.

[chaya]

We gays don't get a month. (That'll be the day).

But seriously, I had trouble with your question. I couldn't figure it out. As far as I could tell, all ethnic groups in America are unusually patriotic. That's when I realized that I was leaving out Anglo-Europeans--of which I am one. Despite white peoples' frequent and loud declarations of patriotism, it seems to me that a lot of them don't really care much about their country. They just like to act like it. But about their country's environmental problems, social and justice problems, security, infrastructure, resources, and economy, they seem disengaged. They don't even enlist in the military in proportion to their numbers. They just like to yell loudly about flags, guns, abortion and gays.

[marco01]

Come to SF, it's Gay day everyday!

[jukesgrrl]

Every day is Anglo-European Day -- and the motto is, "What have you done for me lately?"

[Jas Wee]

Too true.

[DocTwain]

Figure it out, people.
It's about class, not race.
If brown people dominated the upper class in this country, they wouldn't act any differently. Don't kid yourselves.
As long as workers are fooled into thinking it's about race, the rich will have a boot on their necks.

Btw, most people don't enlist in the military primarily out of "patriotism." We haven't had a real, legitimate war that required U.S. blood to be spilled in more than a generation, leaving out the Persian Gulf police action, and that didn't require national patriotism, only a dedication to international law. People go into the military as a career move. It's no more "patriotic" than becoming a fireman or a teacher.

[Acidic]

And we have a winner!

[Javier Guillen]

June is Pride Month

[readerann]

The answer was in the article, in answer to the stereotype that Asian Americans are more likely to support their country of ancestry in a conflict than the United States. That's why it's a good idea to read more than the headline.

[AuntiepoppyCock]

I think people who embrace all races, cultures, and nations as one of their own. I live for diversity, as a matter of fact I need it. I have to be around all sorts of people from all income levels. I would go nuts around a bunch of rocket scientist, politicians, lawyers, or bums... I enjoy intellects, computer geeks, and practical jokers also. Patriots love everyone and take great pride in their country without belittling others with false pride...

[Snowball]

The way I see it, every day of the year is white male day, so I get to celebrate my heritage non-stop. I fail to understand the victim envy that so many of my tribesmen on the right want to wallow in just because we also celebrate other people's ethnicity one month out of the year.

[Lochmon]

Very well said! I'm a member of that same group... and, in a couple decades, we'll have minority status too. I think it's a very, very smart idea in the meantime to set fair precedents as to how minorities are treated.

[marco01]

I think it has something to do with the complete inability to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

[Laserbeam]

And where do women fall in all of this? We are more than half the world's population and we get.....ONE WHOLE DAY that isn't even recognized by our schools or our government.

And we wonder where our girls' self-esteem is?

[Snowball]

Uh, read the last paragraph.

[Rahan]

Just read his piece until the end. He just said March is Women History MONTH.

[DocTwain]

Boo hoo. A day or a month or anything of the sort is just lame. The goal is equality. Equal pay is coming slowly, but it's coming. More women are going to college than men; more women are going to graduate school than men. That's how it's going to happen, and it's happening, and it's inevitable. More of the professions are slowly becoming majority-female. Eventually as women do more and more of the hiring and firing, parity will be attained. In time (twenty years or so), we'll be worried about men, who will be less educated and will have lower median incomes than women, and who will also be more vulnerable to economic downturns.

That's in the US, of course. But as for other places, I don't think something as corny as a "women's history month" in the US is going to do anything real to help women under the harsh oppression of fundamentalist patriarchal religious misogyny....

[Lochmon]

Well, of course, that one day is intended for women who have produced offspring, so that leaves out a lot of other females. Further, since it always falls on a Sunday, the question of closing schools and government doesn't arise.

I do think y'all deserve a lot more than that. On the other hand, if women ever really get organized, they can easily take over the entire planet. Which would not at all be a bad thing.

[preatorius]

Hello!
March is Women's History Month. What planet have you been living on?

[DocTwain]

Maybe a planet in which women are treated with respect 12 months out of the year?
One can hope.

[dvoconnor]

#1. Define patriotism.
#2. Tell me how a person's patriotism can be measured.

[preatorius]

I dunno. I think that going to war and putting your life on the line for a country that refuses to allow you to have equal access to education, jobs, housing, or riding a bus is kind of a good indicator of patriotism.

[superstition]

Patriotism is a nicer version of the word nationalism.

How nationalist a person is depends upon how biased they are in favor of the people in their nation in comparison to the people outside it.

[Rastageneral]

I've read somewhere that per capita, Hispanics have participated in the military & received more medals of bravery for their military service than any other group. As a quick answer, how does that answer your question?

[sweetsdawsonusn]

Thats not true...Native Americans, Blacks and Asians received just as many. Also, when you say Hispanics....is that black, white or brown hispanics? Get my drift. All Americans as a whole are very brave when it comes down to it. We fight everybody if freedon is at risk.
As a Black man I understand this that we had to protest to go to war on more than one occasion. This is my country....

[MacTheBlogger]

Well, I blame my parents.

See, Mom & Dad raised me to understand that a person's ethnicity was irrelevant. That I was supposed to care more about the content of their character than the color of their skin, to borrow a phrase. Made sense. Obvious stuff.

Turns out Mom & Dad were wrong. Turns out we're supposed to pay very close attention to the color of someone's skin. We're supposed to divide everyone into their ethnic groups and them treat them accordingly. Watch every single word, and under no circumstances can we think or say anything that in any way may offend anyone of certain ethnicities.

I sure liked it better when the color of a person's skin didn't matter.

[PaceSetter]

I blame your parents too...

There is nothing wrong with educating yourself, embracing and celebrating our differences.

Here's what it's like where I grew up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklorama

http://www.world66.com/northamerica/canada/manitoba/festivals/folklorama

[Scurvybro]

There was a time when the color of a person's skin didn't matter?

If that's what you believe and how you conduct yourself, I commend you. But if you truly believe there was a time when race and ethnicity did not matter in this country, then you are beyond delusional.

[chaya]

Ethnicity does not equal skin color. By pretending that ethnic differences don't exist, the majority (white people) effectively erase other cultures--because what they really mean is that they were raised to think everyone was like the MAJORITY. (Anglo-Europeans). And they're not.

Ethnic differences abound in this country. They make it strong, vibrant, and self-renewing. We would be absolutely sunk if we were all the same, and our many ethnic groups help us keep evolving. I really value them.

[mat3]

Race and sex are all that matter these days. The recent Supreme Court opening speculation will confirm this.

[preatorius]

In what century was that the case?

[Paz1980]

Great post, but you're also lumping Chinese with Koreans with Japanese with Vietnamese, etc., while they're all very different and come from totally different circumstances in the US. But I agree that they're mostly very patriotic --- apparently a recent attempt by the Japanese government to make third-generation Japanese "proud of their heritage" (eyeroll) resulted in the conclusion that in fact these Japanese Americans identified very strongly as "Asian American" and weren't that hyped about reinforcing ties with Japan. When you look at other ethnic minorities that feel totally alienated from their country of birth (I'm thinking Algerian-French kids who booed the French anthem during a France-Algeria soccer match), I think that speaks volumes about how well Asian Americans have done. When minorities do end up alienated for generation after generation, it's a shortcoming of both the minority's leaders and of the society in which they live.

It would actually be really ideal if nobody had to have their own month because all Americans were viewed as equal regardless of race (or if everyone became "mutts" as one person already said here). Sad fact is that even if we non-whites would like to forget our skin color, society doesn't. My parents told me I'd have to work twice as hard to receive half the recognition of someone white, and while it's sometimes (bizarrely) the reverse, society really never lets me forget what race I am, regardless of my nationality.

[BiGnBulKY]

dont forget the black asians = Philipinos....

[jade7243]

Actually, no he didn't. He said:

"Particularly this month as most other Americans don't distinguish Asian Americans, and look at them as a monolithic group."

[MarionWatts]

Your first paragraph struck a chord, because the British are literally tearing their hair out and tearing themselves apart due to what they call 'multi-culturalism'. They've approached what they call 'multiculturalism' by encouraging all their immigrants to retain their native cultures and customs to the point that in some areas of the country, the indigenous culture and customs are totally ignored. (A lot of this is due to British post-Imperial guilt). The result is that there are entire neighbourhoods throughout Britain where English is spoken as a second language, where second and third generation descendents of these original immigrants feel alienated and where the indigenous British population in poor working class areas feel disenfranchised. Grandchildren of Windrush Jamaican immigrants support West Indies cricket and Jamaican soccer instead of the English national team; grandsons of Pakastani colonials readily support Pakistan over England in sports.

The end result of Great Britain's botched experiment in trying to please all the people all the time has been the home-grown suicide bombers who perpetrated the 7/7 atrocity and an incipient and worrying rise of the British National Party, closely allied with the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi parties.

[Acidic]

Very well said! This comment should be posted several more times.

[Foreground]

Where do Indians fall in this, out of curiosity? I don't really pay any attention to the whole "ethnic history month" thing, but I do notice that most people in America tend to seperate India from Asia in their minds, to the point where I've actually gotten into rather confusing arguments about my "Asian-American heritage" with people who I know should be able to locate India on a map in less than three tries...

[Republicrats]

Perhaps , and the only ethnic group that was brought in chains to the new world by the european slave trade for 300 years-only 87 years of which was an American slave trade- were those of African descent. The European slave trade is responsible for the continuing dis-enfranchisement of the American Black, you do not get rid of the stigma in a few generations no matter how the guilty government tries to make up for it with selective laws.
Asians come from many countries, many of which are repressive and the US has offered the chance for them to grow on their own merits.
The US melting pot is strengthened by all immigrants, we are too quick to assimilate and then castigate those that come behind us, we are all in this experiment together!

[marco01]

Amen brother.

Diversity is one of our great strengths.

[FanofPaine]

Yes to the chain thing, except for that whole Japanese Internment thing during WWII.

[Foreground]

To be fair, that was very short, comparatively. The relocation, occassional enslavement and almost total genocide of the indigenous people of America is a good analog.

[marco01]

"I am very proud of my white ancestors, who did far more than any other ethnic group-- more, even, than all the others put together-- to bring about the golden age of liberty, prosperity, and advancement of knowledge that has been developed over the past 500 years or so."

And what about the countless multitudes of blacks who contributed their blood, sweat, and tears to the building of this great nation and got the whip and bondage in return? What did they get for their massive contributions to the building of this nation,? slavery, then Jim Crow, then institutionalized and implicit discrimination.

And since you're big on ancestry, what of those whose ancestry is slavery? Have you ever tried to imagine how you would feel about this country if your ancestors were held in bondage by it?

The black race had 300 yrs of slavery, 100 yrs of Jim Crow, followed by continuing tacit discrimination. To think that the modern descendants of these oppressed and used peoples should just instantly rebound to the level of their former oppressors is just naive and arrogant. This country owes them. As a people, they were denied the fruits of their labors for centuries and were unable to pass them on to their descendants. Those fruits went to us, the descendants of the oppressors. Well past time to give it back.

[preatorius]

You might want to check out the condition of your white ancestors prior to their visits to the middle east, during the crusades...

[marco01]

Not sure what you're talking about. If you are referring to the first paragraph, note that it is in quotes. I was rebutting a previous poster.

[sweetsdawsonusn]

I am like the song that James Brown sang in the 60s. "I don't want nobody to give nothing, just open up the door and I'll get myself" That means when you have 10000 whites in a college and 1 black gets in and all hell breaks loose. Only because one white did not get into school. Look at the case concerning the fire fighter in new haven ct. 19 whites and 1 hispanic passed and all the blacks failed. Something stinks to high heaven in new haven, ct. I think there was some cheating going on there.

[larry278]

The history of Asian-Americans is full of surprises. Though their parents, brothers & sisters were forced to leave the USA's west coast after 12/7/1941. Young Japanese/American men volunteered to serve in the USA's armed forces. The USA used the pretex that Japanese/Americans could cooperate with invading Japanese forces or (get this) Japanese/Americans were movved far inland to poorly built relocation (read concentration) camps to 'protect' these extremely loyal Americans from assaults by 'patriotic' white Americans. 'Patriotic' white Americans bought the Japanese/American's valuable property for a song under strange conditions. We call it a rip-off now.
About 40-50 years after WW II ended the Congress, at last, paid our Japanese/Americans compensation for being forced to move far inland on a false, flimsy pretext.
Since I'm white some expect to be proud of my ancestors. No dice, I'm glad that they came to what became the USA. But taking pride in a favorable accident of birth, no. I take some pride of what I have accomplished such as completeing college & earning an MS. None of my ancestors managed to do that in the 200 years they had been in what became the USA. I guess that they didn't want to become educated bad enough to make the sacrifices & efforts of studying & working. Or maybe didn't feel right at a university. I wasn't concerned about that. I concentrated on earning A's. I was ashamed if I only earned a B.

[HaloGuy]

What happened to this progressive attitude in our fair country? It seems that the majority still feels content in its own ignorance.

[larry278]

The progressive attitude is a mere myth, like the American dream. In event any progressive attitude does develop it will have to compete among other progressive attitudes to even be accepted as 1 of many progressive attitudes. Perhaps some progressive attitudes will merge & select the elements their new, merged, progressive attitude will have. In a few years, America will have fewer progressive attitudes competing among each other to become THE American Progressive Attitude. The wining progressive attitude will then become a very small minority in America.
THE new, merged, compromised, reorganized American Progressive Attitude will then compete with other American Attitudes to become the dominant, de facto, so called American Attitude.
Since this is the USA, there never will be any American Attitude accepted, dominant, de facto, American Attitude. You're speak of a phantasim when you talk of only 1 American Progressive Attitude, HaloGuy. Get over it. It isn't going to happpen. Americans are an exceptionally diverse lot. A consensus among Americans is a foreign concept or idea.

[BrianMac]

"...support the United States in military or economic conflicts..." So you're equating supporting the US in any military or economic conflict with patriotism here? That sounds like someone other than a person who loves their country, even when they disagree. Sounds like a nationalist.