I don’t know about the rest of you, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Pat Buchanan.
Maybe it’s that austere look of his that’s splashed across http://buchanan.org, or maybe it the long list of blog entries that always seem to end with America ending up in flames because in the Census has projected that in 2041 the U.S. will no longer have a truly dominant race. Most likely, it’s that comment Dr. Seaman brought up in class that sums up the idea of his new book: “We were all separated, but we were one.”
It’s these kind of ideologies that are driving racism in America today. It’s not just Buchanan that has expressed these views. I come from rural Oklahoma, and I can tell you, my grandparents have reminisced about the ‘good ole days’, when ‘things were simpler’ way more than once What they often don’t mention though is just how monochromatic those times were. Things were simple, race wise, because they were never forced to truly interact. If I always knew calculus existed, acknowledged, but never had to deal with it, I might say calculus is simple to, because avoiding it makes my life a lot easier.
Obviously, comparing racism to hating math is not something I’m really trying to do, but I hope you see my point. I’m all for people upholding their ideologies, their cultures, etc, but when it comes at the expense of not just one person, but a whole race, I wish people would be considerate, or at least humble enough, to come forward and see that. I’m not really an idealist though, and I know that’s kind of a Miss America hope, but a girl can dream.Ultimately, I don’t believe Buchanan is intentionally racist, but that doesn’t hide the fact that his comments advocate a “separate but equal” kind of world. I keep finding it astonishing that 50 years later, there are still people that are completely ignorant that anyone was hurt by those blatantly racist policies.
In terms of the quote you noted at the end of the first paragraph, I wonder how you see that as contrasting (as you clearly do, deeply) the concept of the salad bowl we discussed favorably in class. I appreciate what you say in your second to last sentence–which really suits our focus on ideology at this point.
In terms of the salad bowl concept, I think Buchanan would see it as two separate salad bowls. I really like the salad bowl metaphor probably because I used to be so focused on the melting pot one. It wasn’t until I took Dr. Hagood’s deconstructing literacy class that I realized that the melting pot wasn’t really the best solution. Buchanan doesn’t even won’t to see other cultures but just live in his nice or, as Casandra would put it, completely lettuce world while all the croutons and tomatoes go live in their own worlds. I think that the lettuce and tomatoes should acknowledge each other, and appreciate the fact that without the other, the salad would pretty much suck.