SB 1070 and the Melting Pot Myth: Why America Needs to See Itself as Beef Stew to Fix Immigration

SB 1070, Arizona's controversial new immigration law, gives power to the local authorities to ask any individual they encounter during, say, a traffic stop, if they suspect the individual could be in the country illegally, that they be shown documentation to prove their immigration status. The phrase "show me your papers" has been used frequently to describe how a police officer might approach someone they might suspect could be illegal, though it's fairly obvious to myself and many others that the only people who would ever be asked such a question would have brownish or very tan skin and some sort of accent. Try as they might, proponents of the law will never convince me that racial profiling won't occur in its implementation because, let's face it, how many little old white ladies are going to be asked to show their papers? That little old white lady could be an illegal Canadian, but that's highly unlikely for a number of reasons.

The main reason why the whole racial profiling thing here is an issue, besides the fact that it's a fine example of xenophobia, is the simple fact that officers will be harassing legal immigrants and American citizens, who now must carry with them proof of citizenship when they go out to ensure they aren't detained. The entire law itself steps on the toes of the federal government, whose constitutional duty it is to take care of matters relating to immigration, but the state of Arizona and its Republican governor know this. They passed this law like a child throws a temper-tantrum when Mom or Dad isn't giving them what they want fast enough - they want the feds to "secure the borders".

Yes, the federal government needs to fix our racist, xenophobic immigration laws, and until they do, we will still have problems with illegal immigration. Frankly, I think there are many people, our current and even previous president included, who would like to and have even tried to pass immigration reform, but there are far too many opinions on the matter to get congress to agree.

The greatest opposition to immigration reform, and immigration in general, is afraid that the large numbers of Hispanic immigrants are going to "take over our country" and demand that we all start learning Spanish. While this is entirely ridiculous (and I think the same was said of the Germans about a hundred years ago), they base their irrational fears on what they see around them: Mexican families who speak Spanish, watch Univision and Telemundo, and "don't assimilate".

So many people assume that all immigrants, once they enter the United States (legally, of course - which costs thousands of dollars and many, many years) they automatically reject their former homeland and join the Great American Melting Pot. The problem is, this country has never been the "melting pot" we all want it to be. It's more a beef stew - we have all kept a bit of our own cultures, whether they be carrot, potato, or onion, but we still all have that delicious beefy American taste in common.

Even among us "real Americans" (i.e. white people, like Sarah Palin), it shows. Where I live, in Minnesota, most of us (especially out state) are very white, Scandinavian/German, and Protestant (lots o' Lutherans), and that's where the whole "Minnesota nice" thing comes from. We smile, nod, and mind our own business. Out east, there are lots of Irish and Italian families who are still very Irish and Italian. See? Beef stew, my friends. Our Hispanic immigrants will have the same thing happen to them - after a few generations, they'll still retain their Mexican or Latin American center, but on the outside they'll be just as fat, obnoxious, and nationalist as the rest of us!

The problem is, many of these families are new immigrants, first or second generation, and so they have yet to make that transformation. We have forgotten that our ancestors were still very much German, Italian, Irish, Norwegian, and Swedish when they first came here. The fact that they were more removed from their homelands (the Atlantic is pretty big, and it seemed even bigger back when you had to cross it by boat) probably sped up the process, sure, but even after all this time you can still tell what culture settled in what part of the country. Even though we've got that delicious beefy broth on the outside that gives us a common flavor, we'll all have our individual textures unique to the cultures of our immigrant ancestors underneath it all.

I hope that, someday, we can pass a comprehensive immigration law that will apply to the entire country so that the people who want to come here and work hard picking our veggies and scrubbing our toilets can do so without fear of being deported. I hope we can learn to accept these new immigrants and their children (don't get me started on the phrase "anchor baby" and how horrendously racist and chauvinist that is) as just fellow members of the Great American Beef Stew, and, most urgently, I hope the state of Arizona comes to realize that this law isn't the answer to its problems.