Old White Americans’ Nostalgia

Mohan R. Limaye

(1) Some of my old (white) American friends have lately been expressing deep nostalgia for the “good old days,” like the era portrayed in Leave it to Beaver, the 1950s – the presidency of Eisenhower.

My reaction/response:  The good old days were not so good for the African-Americans.  The 50s were a period of segregation, of pre-Civil Rights, and pre-Voting Rights in American history.  Hankering after or wishing for the 50s only indicates that these white men have still not made truce with the idea of the equality of the races.  This reminds me of a similar case in India: I’ve often heard some Brahmins (my caste) in my state grousing, bitterly complaining, against the “quota system” – the “Affirmative Action” program -- of post-Independence India, which was conceived with the idea of making amends for, atoning for, the centuries-old discrimination against the former untouchables and other low (“backward”) castes.  In both these cases, I’m not talking about economic disparity alone but more about social justice.  Just as there are/were poor whites, there are very poor Brahmins too.  But (in the 1950s) on the social ladder, both the whites and the Brahmins occupied a much higher rung, respectively, than the African Americans/Hispanics and the untouchables.    

(2) Some of these aging American friends of mine have also quoted approvingly what Cameron, the (former?) British Prime Minister, is reported to have said, “Multiculturalism doesn’t work and hasn’t worked.” 

{I do not know whether these American friends of mine are implying that they support Trump’s immigration policies or even (again) are being nostalgic about a bygone-United States of Thomas Jefferson when the Browns and the Blacks knew their place in a White-ruled world.}

My reaction/response: If Cameron’s ancestors had not assiduously built an empire on which the sun did not set, he would not have had to worry about this Multicultural-England “problem”.  His dear motherland would have remained as lily white as Chaucer’s England or the England of Elizabeth I.  We tend to forget that all actions have consequences and the “descendents” have to live with them.  Nobody can escape Karma, not even God or the deities (nor even my favorite ones -- Shiva, Ganesh and Uma).  Incidentally, I suspect that Cameron was using the word “multiculturalism” as code for “racial diversity.”   

(3) My two Republican-leaning male friends (again, white: It’s a shame that I do not have any Black and Hispanic friends) have been saying that whites have become a minority in the U.S. population

{By the way, this is not the first time I heard this: Heritage Foundation, for instance, has been sounding an alarm, singing this same doleful tune, for at least the last two decades.  Other whites also have been crying wolf}.

My reaction/response: White Americans are the racial majority in the United States. African Americans are the largest racial minority, amounting to 13.2% of the population. Hispanic and Latino Americans, including the white Hispanics, amount to 17% of the population, making them the largest ethnic minority. The whites make up 62.6% of the nation's population.  If we include the white Hispanics in this calculation, the total white population by race will then be higher (I did some research on Google, Bing and Wikipedia: These are current – 2015 -- figures).

But more relevant than just counting heads is the undeniable fact that whites are in total control in all the important spheres of life in this country – political, financial, military, industrial, and literary.  (Tokenism doesn’t count – for instance, the US President is brown.)