And now there seems to be another identity scandal that involves a scholar who is accused of not being Cherokee.
I will never become American enough to understand this “don’t touch my identity” drama. This is a legacy of being an immigrant nation and having no other way to avoid getting lost in a mass of people than grasping on to artificial identity constructs.
I always say things like, “in Spain we do this and that” or “our Calderón is so much better than your Shakespeare.” Hispanic people don’t seem to have a problem with it. To the contrary, they always keep including me with, “we, the Hispanics” or “as one of us, you understand.” But if somebody did object, I’d tell them to go stuff themselves because, in all probability, they don’t even remotely do as much for disseminating and raising the prestige of the Spanish culture as I do. So what makes them more “Hispanic”? An accident of birth? Yes, how hugely enlightened. Let’s all police each other’s DNA profiles now. And maybe even measure a few noses while we are at it.
I would feel nothing but happy and honored if somebody from, say, Australia or Denmark wanted to be Ukrainian and practice the language and the culture of Ukraine. But as I said, I’ll never be American enough to understand why one needs to begrudge a completely arbitrary identity to anybody else.
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