Posts
Being of Scots descent, and being something of a technological history buff...
I'm aware of how far behind England Scotland was before England invaded and Anglicized the norther half of the isle.
Once that colonization had occurred, Scots hit the ground running with industry, inventions, medicine, and science.
Scots were Irish as far as Americans were concerned when my, now English, ancestors hit the shore.
But it makes me aware that a people doesn't have to remain backward.
Mom's side of the family is Italian and hit America at the height of Italian and Catholic discrimination in the US.
Their eventual success and assimilation to American culture makes me aware that a people doesn't have to remain oppressed from being willfully different.
But, do lecture me on the historical oppression of your ancestors while you reject American culture and education to be the backwards other who can never succeed.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteA great comment deleted for lack of signature.
DeleteHell, even my (paternal) ancestors got some of that! When we Scandihoovians got to Minnesota, the place was more or less run by the lace-curtain Irish, who considered us basically a servant people, fit to hew wood, draw water, make beds and sweep the streets. They looked way down on Lutheranism, considering it a bastard religion fit only for servants.
ReplyDelete