See other Immigration Articles
Title: Tom Tancredo At American University: Maybe It Is About Race
Source:
Vdare
URL Source: http://www.vdare.com/sterling/090314_tancredo.htm
Published: Mar 14, 2009
Author: Cooper Sterling
Post Date: 2009-03-20 02:00:38 by Prefrontal Vortex
Keywords: None
Views: 82
Comments: 5
By Cooper Sterling Former Congressman Tom Tancredo delivered a speech to an overflow student audience at American University February 24, sponsored by a promising new collegiate organization—Youth for Western Civilization. Tancredo is rightly a hero to all immigration reform patriots. But at American University, in a clumsy attempt to appease the overwhelmingly unsympathetic students—idealistic American proponents of a multicultural, multiracial, pluralistic society; a sizable contingent of young non-Westerners—Tancredo, flustered at times, struggled to define his message.[Watch YouTube clips here and here.] Tancredo’s central point, namely that Western Civilization is worth preserving, simply fell flat. Any concern that Western societies will be unable to assimilate mass immigration was fundamentally anathema to the audience. In particular, the non-Western contingent obviously prefers to remain unassimilable. They understand that blood is thicker than water and that ethnic and racial heritage is worth preserving. Tancredo’s urgent call for “assimilation” employs a catchphrase that too many patriotic immigration reformers, intent on saving their nation and local communities from alien annexation, have failed to carefully assess. Do we really want a massive influx of non-Westerners to “assimilate”, in a rather superficial way, into our communities? Do we need non-Western refugees from Third World countries settling in vast, largely homogenous areas or Michigan, Maine and the upper Northwest, currently stable, safe, highly livable, neighborly communities? “It is not about race”, the soft-spoken Tancredo said at the outset of his speech. He asserted his steadfast opposition to diversity, multiculturalism, and (in this speech, mostly illegal) immigration. But he also repeatedly emphasized that his concerns about assimilation, citizenship, and Western Civilization had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Tancredo spent a great deal of time awkwardly trying to reconcile the irreconcilable: that the issue of mass immigration has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. He even went out of his way to stress that race and ethnicity should be immaterial criteria for legal immigration and citizenship, although it was quite unnecessary to do so. Tancredo claimed that the issue of citizenship and nationhood is merely one of language and cultural assimilation. Adopt the language, customs, and folkways of Western Civilization and America will remain, well, American. But this is the equivalent of believing that, yes, the leopard can indeed change his spots. Massive waves of Third World refugees will enhance American democracy—if they can recite the pledge of allegiance! Tancredo was repeating the familiar neoconservative refrain that America is not about peoples, demography or ancestral heritage, but is simply a “proposition nation” of “values” and “ideals”, open to anyone willing to give them lip service. Tancredo cited the late Samuel Huntington’s contention that our national identity is grounded on a core set of values, overwhelmingly Protestant and European. This is completely anodyne, given Tancredo’s explicit non-racial emphasis. But it didn’t stop the Southern Poverty Law Center telling its donors that he “expressly advocated a white nationalist point of view” anyway. What the $PLC most objected to: a quote from Tancredo that appeared in a student newspaper: “Throughout history, people who are not white Anglo-Saxon have become American by adopting a white Anglo-Saxon culture.” Apparently even white Protestant values are unacceptable—let alone actual white Protestants. And the AU audience, overwhelming multiracial and multicultural, wasn’t buying it. When Tancredo said that he couldn’t accept the rationale for a black student or Hispanic student association and asked the audience rhetorically if they would approve of a white student association, many in the audience applauded. I sensed at this point that I may have more in common with the multiculturalists—those willing to acknowledge the significance of heritage and ancestry—than with a well-meaning but ineffectual advocate of assimilation. Tancredo’s apologetic tone and his harping on the necessity of “assimilation” exemplify why immigration patriots have won only short-term defensive victories against mass immigration, diversity and multiculturalism. The long-term prospect—the type of country our grandchildren and great grandchildren will struggle to live in—should drive the programs, policies, and objectives of our leading immigration-reform organizations. And the type of country future generations of native-stock Americans will inherit rests on this maxim: demography is destiny! (If for no other reason than that the races vote systematically differently, and current immigration policy is driving the U.S. further to the left.) Opposing mass illegal and legal immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity while disregarding the role of race and ethnicity—above all in establishing the criteria for immigrant selection—is largely why we’re in the mess we’re in. It is the equivalent of not only misdiagnosing a patient but prescribing the wrong treatment—treating someone who has advanced throat cancer with Listerine. The way out of this mess (if there is a way out) will depend on a multifaceted long-term strategy. A sizable increase in white birthrates; stripping out the incentives for non-traditional immigrants to relocate to the U.S.; reversing the cultural pollution of our “entertainment industry”, which promotes diversity, multiculturalism and white demoralization—all would make for a good start. Tancredo should have been more forthright about the necessity of preserving our Western heritage and emphasized the following measures to accomplish this objective: For starters, let’s shut down the Department Of Education. The Department of Education is the single greatest promoter of multiculturalism and eliminating the department would terminate a number of multicultural initiatives. Build a high-voltage electric fence with concertina wire, a concrete barrier, and an alligator and diamondback rattlesnake-stocked trench complete with quicksand that sends a message: cross at your own peril. (OK, that’s a joke. But you get the point.) We need a second “Operation Wetback”, regardless of the cost. Deport those who are here illegally; give ICE more enforcement authority to shutdown businesses who hire illegal aliens. This should have been a major part of Obama’s “stimulus package”. Let’s finally recognize it as the snare and delusion that it is. Once the perverse incentives are removed, once the U.S. is no longer receptive to populations that seek to displace native-stock Americans, once the risks of relocating to America outweigh the incentives, then we can begin to reverse the destructive impact of diversity and multiculturalism. If we make America an undesirable place for undesirables, then we can be well along the way on the long process of rescuing our nation’s heritage and re-establishing a robust majority culture. Tom Tancredo’s contributions to his country and the cause of patriotic immigration reform have been invaluable. But unfortunately, he still seems clueless about what really matters when it comes to keeping America American. A Hispanic student quoted by the University of Maryland student paper was, inadvertently, much clearer: “‘He said he's not being racist, but just look at the people he's railing against,’ a student called Lidia Rosas told the University of Maryland Student paper. ‘What color are they? You can't separate the two issues.’['We need to make our voices heard', By Marissa Lang, Diamondback Online, February 25, 2009] “You can't separate the two issues”. I second the motion.
Tom Tancredo At American University: Maybe It Is About Race
Lidia Rosas [Email her] said despite Tancredo's insistence, it is very hard to separate supporting anti-immigrant politics from being prejudiced against the immigrants themselves.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
The reality is that it is not about race. It is about culture. Western european culture is the culture of the United States. It is not the culture of Mexico. The influx of people's from other cultures can be tolerated - as long as they are willing to take part in this culture. Too large of an influx of people who don-juan-to is disruptive.
""I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
Sure you can. You just have to be willing to do so. Many whites have been willing. Most non-whites have not. That's the reality. Make of it what you will.
#2. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
"You can't separate the two issues"
 | "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis |
#3. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
(OK, that’s a joke. But you get the point.) Even the author, like Tancredo, has to apologize. It's over. Turn out the lights.
Build a high-voltage electric fence with concertina wire, a concrete barrier, and an alligator and diamondback rattlesnake-stocked trench complete with quicksand that sends a message: cross at your own peril.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom.~~William Wallace
"Corporation: An entity created for the legal protection of its human parasites, whose sole purpose is profit and self-perpetuation." ~~ IndieTx
ALAS, BABYLON
#4. To: IndieTX, sourcery (#3)
Expect service interruptions.
Turn out the lights.
... now with Solium™!
#5. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
Tancredo is about to be hectored into silence by the usual suspects. Any group that promotes Western civilization will be greeted like the plague on our left wing campuses.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest