The Political Hat

     The “Black Legend” was one of the plethora of examples of different countries and peoples trash talking each other since time immemorial.  More recently, though, it has become a rallying cry against “Anglo” culture that “usurped” the rightful Spanish-speaking foundational basis of the United State of America.

     Now, it is being used to deny the true and wonderful genesis of the American essence.  It is being used as an excuse to delegitimize America.  Above all else, it accuses others of racism, by utilizing racism itself.  With the recent invasion of illegal immigrants, it has come back to the fore front.

     How do they begin?  Simply thus:

“These newcomers are well indoctrinated; four of the sample questions on our naturalization test ask about Pilgrims. Nothing in the sample exam suggests that prospective citizens need know anything that occurred on this continent before the Mayflower landed in 1620. Few Americans do, after all.

“…

“If Americans hit the books, they’d find what Al Gore would call an inconvenient truth. The early history of what is now the United States was Spanish, not English, and our denial of this heritage is rooted in age-old stereotypes that still entangle today’s immigration debate.”

     They go on and describe Spanish and later Mexican presence in what is not the territorial United States.  This of course, is irrelevant.  America is not defined by territorial boundaries, or even of racial boundaries.

     Stereotyping and trash talking others, as noted previously, has been the norm since the dawn of man.  Disgracefully, Americans have not been immune from this.  But contrary to practically every other nation on Earth, America has been able to go beyond such boundaries because our defining characteristic has been neither territory or race, but a civic virtue that is open to all those who choose to embrace it.

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