Happy Ethnic Pandering Festival

Today and tomorrow include three competing holidays. The main one currently is "Indigenous People's Day."
On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world; and we recommit to upholding our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations, strengthening our Nation-to-Nation ties.

For centuries, Indigenous Peoples were forcibly removed from ancestral lands, displaced, assimilated, and banned from worshiping or performing many sacred ceremonies.  Yet today, they remain some of our greatest environmental stewards.  They maintain strong religious beliefs that still feed the soul of our Nation.  And they have chosen to serve in the United States Armed Forces at a higher rate than any other group.  Native peoples challenge us to confront our past and do better, and their contributions to scholarship, law, the arts, public service, and more continue to guide us forward.
Leif Erikson Day, which is today, also drew a presidential proclamation this year.
Over 1,000 years ago, Leif Erikson, son of Iceland and grandson of Norway, embarked on a historic journey across the Atlantic, landing on the shores of North America.  Widely believed to be the first Europeans to set foot on this continent, he and his crew embodied traits that would come to define a uniquely American spirit — restless and bold, brave and optimistic, and in search of a better future.  This same spirit would guide generations of Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes to immigrate and build new lives in the United States.  It would lead countless families to plant roots in the Great Lakes States, the northern Great Plains, and enclaves across the Nation.  It remains ingrained in the hearts of roughly 11 million Americans who trace their ancestry to Nordic countries today.

On Leif Erikson Day, we celebrate Nordic-Americans and all the ways they strengthen the fabric of our Nation.  They are leaders in business and philanthropy, educators and scholars, artists and inventors, doctors and nurses, first responders, service members, and so much more.  In every field and throughout every community, their contributions help bring us closer to making the promise of America real for every American.

On this day, we also reaffirm our strong partnerships with Nordic nations and their people. 

And the displaced Columbus Day got one too.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera on behalf of Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, but his roots trace back to Genoa, Italy.  The story of his journey remains a source of pride for many Italian Americans whose families also crossed the Atlantic.  His voyage inspired many others to follow and ultimately contributed to the founding of America, which has been a beacon for immigrants across the world.

Many of these immigrants were Italian, and for generations, Italian immigrants have harnessed the courage to leave so much behind, driven by their faith in the American dream — to build a new life of hope and possibility in the United States. Today, Italian Americans are leaders in all fields, including government, health, business, innovation, and culture.

Columbus Day is formally on the 12th of October, but used to get moved around in order to craft a 3-day weekend for government workers. For some reason they're still moving it to Monday even though they no longer consider it a day off -- well, they still take the day off, but not on account of Columbus any more. 

I'm struck by how each of these proclamations is almost identical: mention the historic issue, pander to a particular ethnic group, talk about their contributions to 'all fields' or 'every field' or 'every community.' Your group is so special, just like everyone else's!

5 comments:

J Melcher said...

Your group is so special, just like everyone else's!

That's hardly the worst of messages. The one exceptional danger would be if "your group" and "everyone else's group" are all distinguished from the speaker's (tiny, elite, exclusive) group, which has God-like privileges of perspective, perception and judgement, and utters rulings upon which "class" is, or isn't, woke or deplorable, leading or behind on the arc of history...

Assistant Village Idiot said...

If they get specific (hey, Scandinavians seem to produce a helluva lot of engineers, what's up with that?) then you draw attention to the point that some groups don't produce in many areas. Native Americans are actually terrible stewards of the environment and always have been - which is fine, because they were just trying to make a living and stay alive, just like everyone else. They are in the military a lot. Good on them. But that's not everything, and they actually aren't good at everything.

Grim said...

I was originally going to protest that Southerners deserve non-ethnic but 'group' credit for being in the military more -- 40% of the force has been Southern since the volunteer force has started. Southerners are 37% of the population, though, so it's not that huge an over-representation. Native Americans are 1.4% of the population and 1.7% of the military.

The over-representation rate may actually work out in their favor, but in terms of raw numbers it's Southerners all the way. On the other hand, why compete over such an issue? I respect that they have a culture that is also disproportionately likely to produce brothers-in-arms. It compares favorably to a lot of places; the Northeast and California were the worst for a long time.

Grim said...

Excepting Maine, I should add. For some reason Maine produces a lot of military servicemembers.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

More Navy and USAF? That would make sense from the culture.

In Maine you might not be thinking in terms of marching much of anywhere, nor even driving all that much. But flying or navigating? sure.