FACES AND PLACES: Hyphenated American or not, we're all united now (10/14/01)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Hyphenated American or not, we're all united now

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States, there has been growing concern regarding so-called hyphenated Americans, e.g., Ukrainian Americans, Polish Americans, etc. The inevitable question remains: are we loyal Americans? This is natural. Such fears emerge every time our nation has been in danger.

Some of the foolish ideas that have surfaced as a result of the rise of "multiculturalism" hasn't helped. Multiculturalism is a divisive concept. It does not represent the thinking of most Ukrainian Americans.

In his 1971 publication "The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnic," Michael Novak predicted that the 1970s would be the decade of the white ethnic, a time when ethnic contributions to America would be recognized and celebrated.

To achieve this end, a new politics was required, wrote Dr. Novak, "a politics of cultural pluralism, a politics of family and neighborhood, a politics of smallness and quiteness." It was also to be a politics of patriotism. "To ethnics," wrote Michael Novak, "America is almost a religion ... ethnics believe that they chose one route to moderate success in America, namely, loyalty, hard work, family discipline and gradual self-development. They tend to believe that some blacks, admittedly more deeply injured and penalized in America, want to jump ... over the heads of lower-class whites. Instead of forming a coalition of black and white lower classes, black militants seem to prefer coalition with white intellectual elites."

For a time it appreared that ethnic Americans would have their day. The Ford Foundation funded three separate institutions that developed proposals aimed at addressing the ethnic agenda. The first was the American Jewish Committee which established the National Project on Ethnic America, coordinated by Irving Levine in New York City and David Roth in Chicago. The major goal of the project was to depolarize tensions between blacks and white ethnics through dialogue and greater understanding.

A second Ford-funded effort was the Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs at Catholic University. Headed by Msgr. Geno Baroni, the center focused on ethnic neighborhood revitalization, as well as social and technical assistance to local community leaders. One of its most ambitious projects was the creation of a Black/Polish Conference in Detroit.

The third Ford-funded project was the Center for the Study of American Pluralism, headed by the Rev. Andrew Greeley of the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. The Rev. Greeley's major focus was on data, primarily sociological and historical, related to ethnic American life. Like Mr. Levine and Msgr. Baroni, the Rev. Greeley was an articulate advocate-spokesman for ethnic Americans, believing that America's intellectual class was woefully ignorant of this vital segment of the American experience.

Under the leadership of Sen. Richard S. Schweiker (R-Pa.) and Rep. Roman Pucinski (D-Ill.) the U.S. Congress passed the Ethnic Heritage Studies Bill in 1972, providing federal dollars for ethnic cultural and literary projects as well as historical research. The monies went directly to grass-roots organizations. The U.S. executive branch recognized the significance of ethnicity in American life when President Gerald R. Ford appointed a Special Assistant for Ethnic Affairs to the White House Office of Public Liaison in 1976.

I had the good fortune to be involved with America's ethnic revival all through the 1970s. I served on the national boards of the National Project on Ethnic America and the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs. The Rev. Greeley was a member of my committee at the University of Chicago when I was writing my Ph.D. disseration on the history of Ukrainian Americans. I served as the first, and thus far only, Special Asssistant to the President for Ethnic Affairs. I helped organize four White House conferences related to ethnic concerns (including one devoted to the 1980 Census which led to the inclusion of an ethnic origin question), as well as a crucial meeting between the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Ethnic Heritage Studies Act advisory board.

At no time during my association with the ethnic revival of the 1970s and early 1980s did I or anyone with whom I worked suggest that our ethnicity was anything other than an integral part of America's rich heritage. It was understood by all of us that there was an American cultural core that informed our primary identity as individuals, and that around that core were all of the cultural manifestations associated with our ethnicity.

Cultural pluralism is a unifying concept that celebrates ethnic diversity while respecting the primacy of American culture. Cultural pluralists are acculturated Americans who believe that loving our ethnic heritage makes us better Americans. While we cherish our differences, our point of convergence is on our similarities as Americans.

Today, cultural pluralism has been deformed by America's leftist intellectual elite and their black recruits. It has been hijacked by something called multiculturalism, a divisive notion that stresses distinctions rather than similarities. The emphasis is not on ethnic cultures but on race, gender and class. American society is portrayed as oppressive, homophobic, racist and retrograde - hardly a core around which to congregate. Western civilization is portrayed as the root cause of imperialism, poverty and world terror. Those who dare to question these beliefs are demonized.

Multiculturalists maintain that all cultures are of equal worth. Universal standards, norms, truths are dated concepts, reflections of racism and male hegemony. Reality is relative, "situated," i.e. whatever we believe is true is a reflection of our differing interests and circumstances.

Tragically, America's media-sanctioned black leadership has never accepted cultural pluralism. Unlike other ethnic leaders, they believe their people can never succeed in the United States because of the horrific scars of almost 250 years of slavery and the current spectre of "instituional racism." This extraordinary mindset has led to the emergence of Afro-Centrism, a peculiar ideal predicated on black superiority. Because all scholarship is the product of white hegemony, the divergent black accomplishments have been stolen or submerged. Reparation is the only just solution.

Ukrainian Americans are cultural pluralists. Our motto is many cultures, one American nation. We will do what it takes to help our country overcome our common enemy.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: mbkuropas@compuserve.com.

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