Feeling very grumpy about nation-specific parades (Brighton, Russia: new home, live in, moving to)
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My parents and I are immigrants. We arrived from the former USSR in the late 1980s. For the better part of my childhood I grew up in the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Bergen Beach. Many of its residents were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations Americans.
I would argue that my parents and I were more assimilated than many native born in the neighborhood.
We never claimed to be Russian-Americans. Just Americans.
We never claimed how we loved Russian food and how great it was.
We never claimed how beautiful of a country Russia was and how we loved to visit it.
It seems to me that to a lot of Americans, especially white Americans of European ancestry, assimilation has a special, utterly hypocritical definition.
My parents and I are immigrants. We arrived from the former USSR in the late 1980s. For the better part of my childhood I grew up in the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Bergen Beach. Many of its residents were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations Americans.
I would argue that my parents and I were more assimilated than many native born in the neighborhood.
We never claimed to be Russian-Americans. Just Americans.
We never claimed how we loved Russian food and how great it was.
We never claimed how beautiful of a country Russia was and how we loved to visit it.
.
Maybe you and your parents didn't.
But plenty of Russian-Americans do.
Maybe you and your parents didn't.
But plenty of Russian-Americans do.
What's your point? I wasn't implying that others who also immigrated from the former USSR don't apply the same hypocritical definition of assimilation as many Americans of other European ancestry.
It simply seems to me that the concept of assimilation is used, by some, as q cover for their prejudice.
It's a known tactic across many historical periods. The Nazis claimed that Jews didn't assimilate even though, in reality, German Jews were hardcore in their German identity.
Jews in the USSR were accused of the same bull****.
Have you ever seen the Irish, Italian, Brazilian, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc parades? All of them have their flags and people wearing them, etc..
Yeah. And I avoid/dread the St. Patrick's Day Parade (Irish Day Parade) just as much as I avoid/dread the Puerto Rican Day Parade! Both are inconvenient, long, all day events, full of annoying, loud, obnoxious, drunk people. I don't care if it's a bunch of rowdy, drunk Irish people or rowdy, drunk Puerto Ricans. Drunk is drunk and I head straight towards the opposite direction from both.
You should be happy that apparently lots of people aren't interested in assimilation. Don't you like your neighborhood just as it is?
My neighborhood is American. I couldn't find another nation's flag flying if I tried.
Assimilation is heading back to your birth country to kill the people you left behind in a world war. Some immigrants do that, some won't. That's the ultimate test.
My parents and I are immigrants. We arrived from the former USSR in the late 1980s. For the better part of my childhood I grew up in the predominantly Italian neighborhood of Bergen Beach. Many of its residents were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations Americans.
I would argue that my parents and I were more assimilated than many native born in the neighborhood.
We never claimed to be Russian-Americans. Just Americans.
We never claimed how we loved Russian food and how great it was.
We never claimed how beautiful of a country Russia was and how we loved to visit it.
It seems to me that to a lot of Americans, especially white Americans of European ancestry, assimilation has a special, utterly hypocritical definition.
You are to be applauded then, for your fellow countrymen don't show much interest in assimilation.
I live within walking distance of a Russian market. Its patrons are the furthest from an example of assimilation I could possibly offer. They're the only blight on an otherwise typical American working class neighborhood.
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