Untied we stand

Untied we stand

In a poster seen in gift shops and bookstores in areas where Native Americans (wrongly called American Indians) are corralled (बाड़ा / बन्‍दी बनाना) on reservations (fraudulently termed `nations'), an original son of the soil asks: “So you're against immigration? Splendid! When do you leave?” Aimed at racist descendants of white settlers who seek to perpetuate (यादगार बनाना) anti immigrant exclusivism and entitlement in a usurped (हड़पना) land, another Native American sneers: “Let me get this straight: You're afraid of refugees coming to America, killing you, and taking your property?” A third one mocks: “Immigrants threatening your way of life? That must be tough.” And a fourth ironic one: “Illegal aliens, huh? I totally feel your pain, man!”
These are the forgotten people of America. Exterminated en masse (one poster reminds “Americans”, that the biggest genocide in history didn't occur in Nazi Germany but on American soil), theirs is an unheeded lament. But it is a reminder of something most Americans choose to forget, even when recorded by the occasional historian or social critic: This land is not originally your land; you stole it. From that largely unacknowledged fact came the modern American ideal of inclusion, of diversity, of plurality, of a melting pot ¬ or salad bowl if you prefer ¬ “from California, to the New York Island”. Settlers and immigrants, let's share the loot! That cosy compact is now being threatened by an insecure cabal (साज़िश) that seems to have decided that some immigrants, particularly earlier ones like them, are better than later ones, whose hunger and enterprise constitutes a threat to their sense of entitlement as white first-comers. Ergo, various stratagems are being devised to shutter down America and keep new comers out and competition at a distance. They range from falsifying and distorting statistics to show immigrants are more prone to commit crimes, to more nefariously linking minorities to terrorism, to demonising guest workers for “stealing American jobs”, to vilifying (गाली देना) free trade agreements ¬ forced on the world by the US ¬ for “theft of American prosperity“.
Several recent developments have pointed to the strain these tactics are putting on the American union, a nation whose togetherness is written in its very name ¬United States. Earlier this week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, widely reputed to be the brain behind President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant stance, dissed the state of Hawaii, saying he is “amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from ... his statutory and constitutional power”, in other words, to stop Trump's travel ban.
Reprimand ¬(धमकी) and geography lessons ¬ from America's 50th state was swift. From informing him that Hawaii was not one island but several, to a Senator asking him to “have some respect”, for his state, Sessions was excoriated (तीव्र आलोचना करना) by islanders whose diversity, openness, and aloha spirit is the stuff of legends. But why just Hawaii, Sessions and his associates barely understand mainland America and its march into modernity and pluralism. Hours after the Hawaii howler (बहुत बड़ी गलती) , Sessions threatened to stop law-enforcement funding for nine so-called sanctuary cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami ¬ cities which keep America's engine of finance and commerce thrumming and feed dirt poor states like Sessions' Alabama, ranked 47th in the union. Why? Because, as commercial entrepots that thrive on immigrant enterprise, global engagement and free trade, these cities have a far more accommodating view of immigrants demonised by nativists, who take a far more charitable view of gun violence perpetrated by their white cohorts and constituents while disparaging immigrants.
However, America is already gone too far on the high road to diversity and multi-culturism to be rolled back. Already, there are four states that are “minority-majority” (where minorities are in a majority) in the US, including California and Texas, two of the bigger states. There are nine other states, including New York, New Jersey and Florida, where the percentage of non-Hispanic white residents has fallen below 60%. Thirteen of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the US are minority-majority, and additional seven have a non-Hispanic white population below 60%. In 370 counties across 36 states and the District of Columbia, non-Hispanic whites accounted for less than half the population. In terms of pure geographic landmass, these blue areas may be small compared to the vast red (and white) heartland. But of the nation's 3,142 counties, the 370 minority-majority ones ¬ 12% of the total ¬ are home to almost one-third of Americans, of incredible (अविश्वसनीय) diversity. They are also home to most of the country's economic engines, its enterprise, its innovation and its wealth. These bubbling, thriving, entrepreneurial islands in America are now under threat of lockdown ¬ from being denied manpower to a financial squeeze. In any other country, such emerging confrontations may have presaged (पूर्वाभास) fissiparous tendencies, but the United States is made of sterner stuff. Although there are occasional calls for secessions from parts of the country, including in White House petitions, the Civil War and subsequent court rulings settled the matter. It is a no-go area.
The story goes that a Mrs Powell of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “Well, Doctor, what have we got (a republic or a monarchy)?“ Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.“ Of course Americans will keep it, but not without some testing times. One may just be coming up.