Globilization

 

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said multiculuralism "is not who America is."

DUH!

At best the statement is arrogant. At the worse it is ignorant.

America was formed by waves of different nationalities, starting with the English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish. Other nationalities followed. Africans from many countries came, but not out of choice, as did Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Pakistanis, etc., etc., etc., etc. 

My mother's family arrived from England in 1636. My father's family in the 1920s via Nova Scotia via LaRochelle, France in the 1600s. 

I've said before I never thought I had an ethnic identity like my Irish friends who step-danced or my Italian friends for whom spaghetti sauce was as common as breakfast orange juice.

Only when I left the U.S., did I realize that my baked beans on Saturday night was part of my ethnic identity.

How boring being only with your own kind. 

I worked with a Pakistani woman. She was thrilled to make me a traditional meal and that I would take an interest. Interest? What a taste treat.

Living in Geneva which is 43% foreign has enriched my life beyond measure. Not only have friendships formed there, but it gave me the opportunity to visit exotic places. I wouldn't have missed a Berber tent, drinking mate tea with a silver straw as part of a woman's group in Damascus, seeing first hand places of rebellion in Prague told by people who'd been there, living for almost two weeks in a St. Petersburg apartment and hearing how life was under communism from people who had lived it. 

Only speaking one language would cut my enjoyment of other nationality's movies, books, magazines, conversations, festivals. Others are far more gifted than me and speak many. I am a bit jealous, but they've put in the work to learn.

When I lived in Boston there were all kinds of ethnic celebrations. We had enclaves of different nationalities that let me dip my mind into something beyond my normal life. 

Multiculturalism adds color, smells, taste, intellectual stimulation, understanding of the human condition to every day life. It makes us better citizens of our planet, never mind our countries.

And to say America isn't a multicultural country? Multiculturalism doesn't preclude some common cultural values, Mr. Pompeo. It does help stamp out ignorance and a limited life and mostly it limits ideas that we can all benefit from no matter who we are and where we are.