Identity Politics and Republicans

Italians for Bush - www.weeklystandard.com

I found this article on the Weekly Standard's website and read through it. The idea is that Italians have shifted voting patterns from Democrats to Republicans. Luisa sees it as being that Italians have assimilated to the point where they want to be patriotic and American. I more or less agree, but this leads to the question of the historical differences among Italian immigrants (or European immigrants in general), Asian immigrants, and African-Americans. Without going into it too much, while all three entered the country with disadvantages, for the most part, there are differences between European/Asian immigrants and African-Americans. The obvious difference is that African-Americans had to deal with the historical baggage that is slavery, while later immigrants did not. Then there was expressed discrimination in the South against Blacks, although discrimination against other immigrants did occur, just not on the same level as the Jim Crow laws of the South.

So politically, this leads to the differences between most identity groups and Blacks. While you hear about the Urban League and the NAACP, this was the first time that I had heard of the NIAF. Quick, other than for Hispanics (more on them in a moment), think of a non-Black ethnic political group.

So what about Hispanics? They don't have the historical or widespread discrimination that occured with Blacks. So why are groups like La Raza becoming so important? Why are Hispanics spoken as being the "next big ethnic group" and thus Republicans have to "reach out" to them? You can see that some within the ethnic group want to follow the Black model and become a "favored" political group. Of course, being a favored group hasn't helped Blacks, especially relative to Asians or other ethniticities. So why would Hispanics want to follow this pattern? If you're going to pick a pattern to go, then why not follow the pattern of Asians?

I think the common link between Blacks and Hispanics will end up being the culture of separation that prohibited assimilation between both groups. While the causes of that separation are radically different (imposed by others for Blacks, self-imposed for Hispanics), that separation can prevent Hispanics from joining the rest of the culture in the successes of American culture and society.

Right now, it is hard to say what the future will hold for identity politics as a whole and for individual identity groups. However, if Hispanics choose to not learn from history and choose to make themselves separate from American society, then it will be to their detriment.