A post on a site that I like to read on occasion quoted a New York Times reporter as asking whether Muslims would ever feel assimilated. Challenged on her logic, she pointed to the headscarf many Muslim women wear as an indication that they are not assimilated. The site rightly poked fun at that assumption, but it got me to thinking.
Is assimilation a good thing? Certainly, the Borg thought so, and having multiple divergent strains seems to me to be a recipe for disaster (and there are a lot of reciples for disaster; have you noticed?), but surely there is some way to say that both individualism and collective unity are desirable? That the things which make us unique make us special, and the things which make us indistinguishable make us one? Does it have to be all or nothing? I doubt it.
Some groups, I know, take pride in their out-of-the-mainstream style (and then again, which mainstream? New York? Dubuque? Flagstaff?), and some refuse to give up any of their individuality. I think thats unfortunate, and I hope they reconsider, because, all in all, we're stronger together. Be proud, be pleased, but -- be part, too. Its what made this country what it is -- or at least, what it had the potential to be, and is, on occasion. Can we have some more of that?
Dammit, there's my liberal streak showing again. Sorry.
2 comments:
As of last month she was working at the Washington Post but they have since parted ways.
I hear what your saying. Growing up in upstate NY, I lived in a college town. A lot of the professors including my father were immigrants but their children were all born in the US.
So even though I have dual-citizenship, I have always felt as though I am American of my parents heritage and proud to be both. I never saw this as incompatible with the idea of being an American because this country unlike many of the European countries is one of immigrants. Whereas my cousins who were born and raised in the UK also of immigrant parents do not see themselves as British.
I've read that, in articles about the Muslim communities in and around London. It enhances their sense of unity, but apparently its at the cost of enhancing their sense of Britishness.
Not sure how far to take that logic string, but its an intruiging one.
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