Hazel Motes

The argument about Heritage Americanness is ultimately about assimilation. What Vivek is trying to subtly claim without being direct is that his race should be able come to America en masse and continue their cultural, religious, and marriage practices. It presents a genuine challenge, because Americans have always been fairly comfortable with white Christian sects preserving their uniqueness. But that level of comfort is always higher when those sects are content with a life at the margins of society: the Amish for example. The more they try to be central to public life, the more difficulties arise. One thinks of course of the Mormons, and also of Jews, who are not Christian but their communities were present in Europe for centuries before the New World was discovered, and like Mormons have overlapping religious texts with Christians. Integrating and assimilating these sects is still an ongoing challenge for America. Hindus, meanwhile, practice a pagan religion that is totally alien to mainstream American religious history, and yet they very much want to be central to public life— as evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of Indian corporate leaders and political candidates. Indian corporate leaders are dogged by accusations of egregious nepotism and discrimination against white employees. Vivek himself raised to public prominence through his wealth, which he reportedly generated through an apparently nefarious pump-and-dump stock scheme. Americans increasingly have serious questions whether Hindu ethics align with historical Christian American ethics. Meanwhile they loudly demand that Americans with long historical memory and deep cultural traditions tied to their European origins and Christian beliefs deny that legacy in the name of becoming more welcoming to Hindus. The whole thing smacks of self-serving opportunism on Vivek’s part, and Heritage Americans are well within their rights to ask how newcomers like him plan to assimilate to America’s dominant white, Christian culture. And if they refuse, and instead demand we deny our heritage so as to flatter their pride and avoid offending their delicate sensibilities, to tell them that they will need to kindly leave.