Can We Talk

By Dr. Aubrey Bonnett

Immigrants, America and the Declaration of Independence

On June 2, I was on my way to Cornell Medical College to see an old friend and, as is typical when it rains in the City, found it difficult to get a taxi cab to take me from the west side to the east side location of the Medical School. Finally, my wife and I were picked up by a south Asian cab driver who, as we engaged in conversation about life in America, asked me what I planned to do on the upcoming 4th of July, even as he recounted his experiences with New York’s City finest, (the NYPD), and how he, of Indian ancestry and a religious Moslem domiciled in Buffalo, felt the sting of xenophobic treatment from law enforcement officials, and some members of the public, even as he pursued the American Dream.

The next evening at about 9.30 pm as I was passing by Eisenhower Park in Nassau County, (It is actually larger than Central Park in the City), my wife, Dawn, inquired as to why a large crowd had gathered in the park and the nearby grounds. I commented that it was most likely for the fireworks display, maybe to be held early; even as she made the telling observation that the crowd seemed uniformly white- no East Indians, African-Americans, Latinos, that we could see in the vast numbers gathering.

This set me thinking of the changing demographic face of America and whether that changing demographic, largely non- white – whether first, second generation or later — shared the same salience and significance for the 4th of July as the white population then gathered.

It was on July 5, 1852 when Frederick Douglass was called upon to give a speech at Rochester, New York. This great American, not yet legally a free citizen in these United States of America, bemoaned the fact that the invitation was but a cruel hoax, a farce to him. He stated thus: "This Fourth of July is yours not mine, you may rejoice, I must mourn."

I also remembered the address given by President Bush on July 8, 2003 to a large and receptive audience at Goree Island in Senegal. He, not the Reverend Wright, spoke thus of the "middle passage" and its place in our nation’s history. "One of the largest migrations in history was also, one of the greatest crimes of history." And, President Bush continued further by stating that, faced with American hypocrisy, betrayal and brutality, "Enslaved Africans heard the ringing promises of the Declaration of Independence and asked the self evident question, then why not me?"

But this America we now inhabit is a changing one. An American of mixed interracial parentage – still called in America, a Black American, is poised to be the nominee for the Democratic Party in the nation, and may be the next President of one of the mightiest nations on earth. But then I reminded myself that I, in my still evolving life span, had witnessed the waning, then subsequent decline, of another great Empire- the British Empire- now but a shadow of its past pomp, power, glory and unrivalled economic and military strength.

Our America is changing demographically- African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and other Americans are slowly transforming the social, educational, economic and political landscape – albeit at different rates of incorporation. The Republic and, as we now know it, the American Dream, is also rapidly changing in an era of rapid globalization. An eroding economic landscape, with sovereign wealth funds owning much of our re-sources; an overstretched military, not equipped to fight and successfully win asymmetrical warfare; a shrunken, impotent dollar; a fastly dwindling middle class and a rapidly growing gap between rich and poor. And some of our basic values of privacy, the right to freedom of expression for example, under attack in the context of our "fight to defeat terrorism."

But yet there are many in America who continue to see hope in America and the American Dream and, of those "many", are included the large number of new immigrants of West Indian, South Asian, Latin and Central American, Middle Eastern and other ancestral heritages who, like the white immigrants of old, are still investing in the hope of America. The new American of Sikh heritage in the CIA; the Haitian-American as a proud member of a changing FBI, the Dominican-American member of the federal Judiciary, the Asian American Governors of Washington and Louisiana, and the African and West Indian-American Governors of Massachusetts and New York; are but a few of the millions who will vitiate the American Dream.

Not a vaunted dream foisted on the nature of white supremacy and privilege; not a dream anchored solely to a bellicose foreign policy of war and more war; nor a policy built on expanding more wealth to the already powerful economic institutions and power elite; not one fostered on usurping and wasting much of the scarce raw resources on our planet. Indeed, the American Dream must be a transforming dream built on humility, faith, justice, true equality, and perennial individual liberty, as Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton’s dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, outlined in her book — The Idea of America: Keeping Faith with our Values in a Dangerous World.

As England was in the early twentieth century, America is so poised in the early twenty- first century, and the national election, soon upon us, will force on us a choice of which leader – Senator Obama or McCain- is best equipped with the social and psychological capital, fortitude and farsightedness to lead us in reinvigorating the Dream.

As we celebrate the nation’s Declaration of Independence, let us hope that there will be more congruence between the dreams and hopes of all of our citizens – whatever their hue, religion, class or sexual orientation.

Douglass, who always longed for the full realization of the American Dream, would be utterly amazed and dumbfounded at the changes in America which, while not a perfect nation, is still a work in progress and a magnet for many. This American Dream, built on the Declaration, will require all of our united efforts to realize its full potential. To do so, however, America must embrace and capitalize on its rich and changing diversity, even as it tries to position itself in a rapidly changing world scene; with new nations and political actors vying to find their rightful and just place, even as others barely eke out an existence.

Indeed this July 4th may be one of our most important in more than a generation. May we focus on this significance, even as we celebrate its ritualistic and symbolic importance?