What Those Ancestry Ads on Television Don't Tell Us
By lindamuralidharan on 2017-09-22 06:27:31
There is a lot of analysis out there telling us what is wrong with our less than perfect society in the US. I sort of resonate
with Gore Vidal's name for us: "The United States of Amnesia." And now Kurt Anderson has come out with a book
supposedly blaming it all on our having lived mentally in a variety of fantasy lands since the founding days of the nation.
Both shortcomings are no doubt enhanced by the stepped up "bread and circuses" merry-go-round of modern life. There are
a million visual and kinetic choices to keep us distracted from Disneyland to live streaming to "blockbuster" movies to
mixed martial arts. You are nowheresville if not training for a marathon or paying for your newest gym membership. Or, as
some have suggested, the powers that be provide a circus in the form of a president who is an entertainer in so many ways.
And absolutely the biggest claim that the media and the majority of politicians make is that you are going to vote mainly to
add to you pocketbook. And along the way you are to check the latest app that tells you where to get the cheapest gas and
then you go to your extreme couponing meeting. And when is your next trip to Vegas or a casino? Bread, bread, bread.
Whatever the "cause" we certainly are having a peculiar time of it in not recognizing or acknowledging the basics of
immigration and how it in all its various guises and permutations is woven into the fabric of this country. Maybe part of the
fantasy that Anderson talks about has to do with the fact that historically a lot of the assimilation of the "melting pot" of
nationalities immigrating here was to hide your origins. People named Maliszewski became "Malis". People named
Palermo or Palmieri became "Palma" or "Palmer"......Oh, dear! I have forgotten what Kirk Douglas' Russian immigrant
family name was..... [caption id="attachment_10373" align="alignleft" width="700"]
Immigrants
working in a blast furnace[/caption] This is a generalization. Many communities of people from places such as Italy or
Japan or Poland or the Netherlands lived in close proximity, ate traditional foods, and practiced the particular form of
religion they had in the old country (whether Jewish, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant Christian, Buddhist or
any other). However, I would say that until the discovery of pride in one's ethnic background that has become common in
the last three decades or so, the first or second generation born here worked hard to "blend in". When the xenophobic and
bigoted among us rail against Hispanic communities or some communities from Africa or Asia for not learning enough
English and sticking to themselves, they are forgetting the many past groups who started out in self-protective enclaves
while their kids and grandkids (often the ones stuck with translating for their elders when they were young and living at
home) utilized public education and a solid family background to go forth into the larger society and become "American",
often contributing to society as productive members of their communities, making serious technical and scientific
discoveries, adding to our pool of needed professionals in fields such as law, medicine, education, and the military. We
forget so much, it seems. Amnesiacs? Or just distracted? So we have come to a point when a political figure, Steve Bannon,
who is influential in presidential and media circles, can say with a straight face that citizens built this country. Citizens as
opposed to immigrants. He can say this and get away with it...despite an attempt by the media interviewer to call him out on
that historical inaccuracy....because so many everyday people buy into the idea that immigrants are giving this country a
headache of giant proportions. They easily believe the myth that significant numbers of jobs are being taken "away" from
native born Americans, that immigrants drain the welfare coffers, that immigrants contribute mightily to crime in this
country, that immigrants have nothing to offer this country. Despite documentation to disprove these myths, many believe
them. Consequently Bannon can ignore the Chinese laborers who were the main source for building the transcontinental
railroad, the slaves who fueled much of the economic engine of America in its early years, the slaves who built many of our
historic structures, the Polish, Italian, Irish, German, other East European immigrants who worked in our coal mines and
steel mills and construction projects. He ignores the Asians that were sometimes limited to running hot, cramped laundries
and restaurants.....businesses requiring long hours and usually no benefits. Need I go on with the obvious? J am an
obsessive reader of obituaries. Even when I am new to a place and know almost nobody much less any of the likely to be
deceased in the first few years I live in that locale. As I read a few obituaries each day I learn very much about the habits,
religion, fields of employment and ethnic makeup of my community. Even I, who grew up around communities of first,
second, and third generations of immigrants and who was married many years to an immigrant, am stunned by how many
of the celebrity obituaries refer to someone born in other countries or to immigrant families. One fellow, for example, won
a Nobel prize in Chemistry. Roger T. Tsien was born to Chinese immigrants in 1952. Once they tried to buy a home in New
Jersey but were rejected because of their nationality. They appealed to civil rights laws that protected them from that
discrimination and they eventually got a home in suburban New Jersey. I divert here for a moment to my old neighbor and
winner of the Nobel in physics. Ivar Giaever and his wife came to this country from Norway and raised their family in New
York State. I hope he is still alive.....I did not learn of him through an obituary obviously....and he did the basic research
leading to the prize while employed by the General Electric Company in its research lab. His kids baby sat mine. [caption
id="attachment_10372" align="alignright" width="272"] Dia -% Nobel winner Roger T.
Tsien[/caption] So many celebrities known for their inventions, prizes, movie production, and many other creative endeavors
were born elsewhere but as adults made their greatest contributions to humankind right here in the US. This week a
scientist I had never heard of was on the obituary page. He was himself born in the US but his parents both emigrated from
Poland to the Bronx in New York City where he, Maurice Bluestein, was educated to the Master's Degree level. Later he
received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. And why do I mention him? That is because he figured out that an older
way of measuring wind chill effects was highly inaccurate. He then joined other scientists in leading the research that
resulted in the far more useful formula that we all hear applied in our weather report when we check to see what the "wind
chill factor" might be for the day. To see photos of 12 immigrants behind some of silicon valley's largest companies you can
follow this link. Click on start the slideshow link and then click on "read more" below the first photo to enlarge the
captions. I was particularly struck recently by the obituary of formerly powerful Senator Pete Domenici, Republican from
New Mexico. For one thing, he was the type of Republican that is in seriously short supply these days. I did not agree with
him on much but he was more than willing to cooperate with the opposition, with Democrats, when good government and
widely acknowledged good policies warranted it. I did not know, however, that his mother lived "illegally" in this country
for more than 30 years while otherwise being a model mother, wife, and citizen. [caption id="attachment_10377"
ade
align="alignleft" width="480"] pis (ae. college
dropout, came with his brother from Ireland and fOunded a Fortune 500 company|/caption] Since she had been born in Italy,
Federal officials suspected her household of Italian descent of being loyal to the Axis during WWII and since she was not
legal she was arrested from her home with her husband at work and with her terrified children looking on. She was released
after a period of time, and the AP article reporting all this did not specify how that occurred. They did explain that she
didn't even know that she was illegal all that time. She was brought into the country as a baby. When she married a
naturalized Italian immigrant she received false information to the effect that the marriage automatically made her a US
citizen. Domenici's father had become a US citizen by virtue of serving in the military (he had actually been drafted) in
WWI. [caption id="attachment_10374" align="alignleft" width="600"]
146 immigrant women died in
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. police watch as women jump to their deaths from upper floors[/caption] The article also
explained that his childhood experience and the family trauma that accompanied his mother's abrupt arrest motivated him to
support bipartisan legislation providing a path to citizenship for undocumented persons. Of course, many anti-immigrant
and xenophobic voters and politicians quashed that comprehensive immigration reform. For centuries successive waves of
immigrants have been harassed, exploited, discriminated against, disrespected and sometimes feared by those already here.
The mainly Anglo Saxon folks here early on were suspicious of the German speaking folks that came in along the Eastern
Seaboard and negative views were held regarding successive waves of Irish, Chinese, Italians, Poles and other East
Europeans, Hispanics and more recently Asians and Middle Easterners who might be confused with radical religious
terrorists. Politicians who pretty much want this to be a white country...to the extent possible given the extant population of
people of color....want to turn more and more citizens against immigrants and foreigners in general so they can re-write
immigration laws to skew towards pretty much white only categories of folks likely to be given permanent visas. These
views give the lie to the transcontinental railroad being built by Chinese imported labor, the African descended slaves who
helped fuel the US economy in our early years, the poor from eastern and southern Europe who toiled in our factories and
coal mines, the many Asian relegated to working long hours in hot, cramped laundries or restaurants. But the mythology or
amnesia that wipes from consciousness these millions of people, many the ancestors of folks reading this blog, is the lie.
[caption id="attachment_ 10375" align="alignright" width="480"]
Immigrant to US at age 10..Fortune 500
founder[/caption] And it is a lie to think that these did not assimilate, especially as the first and second generations born
here often went beyond the public school secondary education to become engineers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, professors,
scientists. People the Republicans are claiming we need more of. When we give immigrant and other marginalized
communities the support that middle class kids get, we get more of the skilled people right here in the USA. No, I don't
know if it is distraction by bread and circuses or amnesia or a tendency to prefer fantasy to reality or all three, but I do know
those ancestry ads on tv are misleading or maybe downright dishonest. Very attractive people say things like, "I used to tell
people my nationality is Hispanic but now I know I am from all peoples." Another says, "I wanted to know what I come
from, etc". When she discovers that she has genetic material from a spot in Africa, she basically says that now she knows
who she is. Well they both speak perfect American English. Their nationality is American and, no, we are not our
genetics. We cannot even say genetics determines all of our behavior and personal characteristics. Of course, certain
inherited genes may predispose you to some diseases. It may be true that for some families especially talented in sports or
music that their gene pool is particularly rich in traits that incline one to excellent coordination or musical ability. However,
we are the result of our time and place as much as our genes, and much also depends on whether we have a sort of passive
personality that is content with little, with what our immediate environment may offer or whether we have a more curious,
perhaps driven, bent. In the latter case we will be interested in variety of things and probably work to develop skills in
several disciplines. The doors that open might be quite different depending on whether we spend our childhood in a small
town in Africa or Malaysia or whether we spend our childhood in a European city or perhaps Las Angeles, Ca. [caption
id="attachment_10376" align="alignright" width="480"]
Google CEO from Chennai, India[/caption]
Watch TV closely to catch the hype and contradict it with friends and family. Listen to the politicians and catch the hype
that would inhibit and suppress the well being of the citizens they are elected to protect. Then do something about that.
