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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34967 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023

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I'm arguing that "Western Civilization" is too broad a concept to consider as the basis for nationhood

to the extent that some of them did view it as a nation, their conception of that nation was limited to exclude most Europeans.

Your argument, read over several posts, seems to be that where we "draw the line" on who assimilates into the American nation is largely arbitrary and has changed over the centuries. In support of this point you mention the different immigrant groups people have complained about over the years, which, of course, has included many different sorts of non-Anglo-Saxon white people. And you accurately mention that the origins of American civilization are specifically English and Northwestern European Protestant, not Italian, Hungarian, Polish, etc.

Where I disagree with you is that "Western Civilization," i.e. European origin, is too broad of a concept for the basis of nationhood, or that the conception of that nation truly excluded most Europeans. In 1790 Congress restricted naturalization to white people, not to "English and Dutch and Scottish Protestant liberals" or "Anglo-Saxons." Similar naturalization restrictions continued until well within living memory--even when the laws favored Northwestern Europeans after 1924, the other allowed groups were still Europeans, even if Southern and Eastern Europeans were considered less desirable Europeans. Non-Westerners were not allowed at all! Here's how the Supreme Court thought of the question in 1923 when debating the naturalization of an Indian man:

It is a matter of familiar observation and knowledge that the physical group characteristics of the Hindus render them readily distinguishable from the various groups of persons in this country commonly recognized as white. The children of English, French, German, Italian, Scandinavian, and other European parentage, quickly merge into the mass of our population and lose the distincitive hallmarks of their European origin. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that the children born in this country of Hindu parents would retain indefinitely the clear evidence of their ancestry. It is very far from our thought to suggest the slightest question of racial superiority or inferiority. What we suggest is merely racial difference, and it is of such character and extent that the great body of our people instinctively recognize it and reject the thought of assimilation.

In the US, there was a historically-recognized kinship between the many different types of people who made up "Western Civilization," and rather than being too broad, this concept was successfully used to create nationhood.

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