Blue Star Chronicles

Apparently Jessica Alba has raised the ire of some La Raza types for not being Latina enough. She is a third generation American and doesn’t speak Spanish.

My whole life, when I was growing up, not one race has ever accepted me, … So I never felt connected or attached to any race specifically. I had a very American upbringing, I feel American, and I don’t speak Spanish. So, to say that I’m a Latin actress, OK, but it’s not fitting; it would be insincere.

That actually sounds like the American dream to me. She identifies as an American, not connected to any particular race to the exclusion of another. But then, those who strive for divisiveness take exception to this melting pot ideal.

Mary Katherine Ham explains.

One blog post on the comments remarks, “Guess sell-outs come in all races and sizes.” Another calls it a “disturbing hoard of quotes.” Another claims she “hates Mexicans.”

Comments about Alba’s comments include, “F**K YOU THEN, JESSICA…VIVA LA RAZA!!!,” “She should just change her last name to White, then,” and “I thought she could be a good role model for Latinas, but she is a fake, tryin’ to be white.”

Alba wasn’t trying to make a political statement. Instead, she sounds like she was trying to avoid speaking for an entire ethnicity and many recent immigrants when she barely speaks Spanish, and identifies as an American first. But because she didn’t reflexively take upon herself her ethnic mantle and collective responsibility, she’s bashed as a traitor to her race.

Mary Katherine Ham goes on to discuss statements by other successful Americans who are first or second generation immigrants, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Pacino. Their road to success in America, by their own statements, had to do with assimilation rather than division.

Barack Obama called this sort of behavior ‘divisive’. Those who would call these successful actors from immigrant families ‘racists’ are the ones who are divisive. They would have every American hyphenated and living in their own world.

Part of what has made America the success it has been is our diversity. We have truly been a melting pot society with enormous success. Until very recently.

My ancestors crossed the pond and lived in Plymouth Colony. I don’t know how many generations that is, but it’s quite a few. Should I still be calling myself an Irish-American or Scottish-American? I’m not able to speak Gaelic. Does that make me divisive and a racists?

Also see: Jammie Wearing Fools, Michelle Malkin

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