Racism and the Melting Pot

What is the most serious problem that we face? Is it race? The Black Panthers (a radical black organization that flourished around 1970) believed that racial tensions are really class tensions. This is very perceptive. What we mistakenly regard as racial problems or anti-Semitism will disappear if we can absorb both the underclass and the overclass into Middle America.

I want to revive an old idea, that has fallen into disfavor, the "melting pot." The melting pot does not mix together all the races or cultures. It melts down the old world baggage, the old hatreds (such as those which erupted in Bosnia), the old tribalism, the old language and the old ideas, allowing this new race or tribe to join in the patchwork quilt that is the new American people. The first generation of each wave of immigration finds itself at the bottom of the social ladder, forced into tenements or shanty towns. They are the "huddled masses." By learning to speak English like a native, by learning how to be an entrepreneur, the second and third generations often rise to great heights. But they always retain some of their original cultural heritage, usually food, art and dance.

One after another, the immigrant groups succeeded in pulling themselves out of the slums into the mainstream of American middle class life. The latest groups to do so have been waves of immigrants from Latin American countries, and from various parts of the Orient. They have succeeded so well that former Cubans now dominant Miami political and economic life, and Oriental-Americans take most of the choice positions in the California University system.

Success has even come to Native Americans and African-Americans, who were involuntary participants in this great American experiment. The experience of each tribe of Native Americans has been different, but one way or another, each has learned English and become entrepreneurs. In the latest generation, for instance, many previously unassimilated tribes have become entrepreneurs by opening gambling establishments, or smoke shops, since they are not subject to state taxes or regulations, being independent nations. They have finally made it into the middle class, which is and should be the goal of all immigrants to America.

The first generation of African-Americans who really acted like immigrants came north or went west out of the south in the 20th Century. Fully two out of three have clawed their way out of the ghetto and have made it into the middle class, without much help. They then find themselves despised by the underclass blacks they left behind, and they often wonder if they made the right decision. They did, if our revolution succeeds. The parasitic underclass will be uprooted and transformed.

This is not to deny the reality or importance of genuine racism, such as that displayed by the police in some cities. And this is a dangerous racism, as long as the "code of silence" between police officers remains unbroken, because we allow these people to carry guns, and shoot people "resisting arrest" or people who are "felons fleeing the scene of the crime."

Racist cops are not prejudiced; they did not prejudge. But after years of arresting mostly black perpetrators, and being shot at by blacks and possibly having fellow officers killed by blacks, they become racist, and suspect every black person. But here is where they make their mistake. They do not recognize the difference between middle class blacks, who are just as likely to be upright and honest as the white middle class, and the criminal underclass, much of which is also black. Anyone who has known both can immediately spot the differences, in dress, body language, accent, occupation and residence. This is why college educated cops are much less likely to be racist, because in college they will probably encounter middle class blacks.

Most immigrant groups quickly grasp the importance of idiomatic English, study, hard work, self-sacrifice and self-discipline. They also see the need to send their children to college, for that is the royal road to middle class life. These periodic injections of new immigrants give American civilization its vitality. We have a unity-of-diversity, a rich tapestry of many colors and cultures, or maybe we should say a rich soup of many different cuisines or a symphony of many rhythms and melodies.

Democracy in this country must be rule by the consent of middle America, which comes in all colors, creeds and tribes. This is our country. We built it. We were the pioneers who conquered a nation, an act which may ultimately benefit the Nations of Native Americans we conquered. We were the inventors and tinkers, who ushered in the latest wave of the industrial revolution. We are a new people, forged in the melting pot. We are the overwhelming majority. Indeed, most middle Americans never encounter anyone who isn't. We are more alike than different from our neighbors in the suburbs or at work, whatever their color, creed or tribe. We are the silent majority, frustrated and discontent, because somehow, someone stole our country when we weren't looking. Who could it be? How could that happen?

We middle Americans are not the only inhabitants of this country. I learned in sociology class (confirmed by my own life-experiences) that America has four distinct classes. We are preyed upon by a parasitic and criminal underclass, and kept down "in our place," as clerks and tradesmen, by the overclass, which the sociologists misleadingly call the upper middle class, as if they are just another part of the middle class, when they are in fact constantly trying to distance themselves from middle class styles and attitudes. And then, there is a rich, old-moneyed class that provides fodder for the tabloids. They have their own enclaves in Palm Springs and Miami Beach, and their own rituals, such as the "coming-out" debutante parties in swank New York hotels. Their great-grandfathers may have been robber barons in the 19th Century, and collectors of monopolies, but their 20th Century progeny have more than evened the scales by philanthropy and public service.

Neither the parasitic underclass nor the overclass has gone through the melting pot. Their old cultures have not been melted down and rendered out of their souls. They retain their old world grudges and their old world attitudes. They are not part of the American people, being "old world" people who just happen to live here, like refugees. "People" is a term charged with meaning. More than a collection of individuals, a "people" implies common values, history, and aspirations.

Underclass blacks retain attitudes born of slavery, such as dependency on the whites, and hatred of the whites. They have developed their own patois and body language, mutually unintelligible to speakers of standard English. They sneer at hard work and self-discipline, a slave attitude, and thus cut themselves off from the African-American middle class. These distinctions have been encouraged by the overclass.

Sometimes the effort to overturn the melting pot is called "multi-culturalism," a serious mistake from this point of view. If all blacks were middle class, there would be no more racism, because the white middle class would no longer associate blacks with crime, welfare, vandalism and other parasitic and anti-social behavior. Thus, the way to end racism is to uproot the underclass. Simply living here, simply being here, does not make one American, or give one the right to continue living here.

The overclass is more European than American. The overclass is nearly invisible, by choice. They live in their own little enclaves, such as Summit, New Jersey; Shaker Heights, Ohio; and Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Their children go to private prep schools like Andover and Choate, and they all go to the same summer-long camps while growing up, and finally to the same colleges and graduate schools. Middle America goes to State. The overclass goes either to the Ivy League or to elitist liberal arts colleges scattered around the country (Stanford, Oberlin, Wooster, Albion, Occidental, Reed, Swarthmore, to name a few). Overclass kids are hard-working, highly competitive, one might even say "driven," and highly conservative in values and attitudes. The overclass is an "old boy" network, so having the right values and lifestyle is important. The overclass is about half Jewish, and about half "Puritan." If all Jews were middle class, there would be no more anti-Semitism, since being Jewish would not be synonymous with "dominant elite." As for the Anglo-Puritans, they are descendants of the old gentry class in England which fought the King under Cromwell.

It is possible for middle class individuals to move into the overclass, but only by adopting their values, beliefs, attitudes, look and lifestyle. The overclass is quite at home in Europe or Israel, their "old country." Overclass values, attitudes, grudges and opinions are all old world, not American. See "The Rise of the Overclass," by Jerry Adler, in the July 31, 1995 issue of Newsweek, p 33 ff., and Michael Lind's The Next American Nation.

I do not wish to leave the impression that there is some vast conspiracy determined to keep middle America down. No such thing. The values, attitudes and belief systems of the overclass are different, that is all. And they have the power, and we do not. Power today is ownership of the machinery of mass communication, which determines the public image of public figures, and public image is all we know about the people we elect.

Thus, there is no true democracy for middle America, since we have no voice. We are the silent majority, as Nixon recognized. Our views are not taught in the Universities, reflected on network television or in national newsmagazines. A democracy is rule by the consent of the governed. We have not given consent to rule by the overclass. It is time to regain control over our own destiny. So, this is just one more reason for the peaceful revolution that will usher in the Third Republic, hopefully based on Aristarchy. But we must be careful to restrict the Aristarchy to Middle America. If the Overclass establishes a foothold in some institution or profession, it will then systematically exclude anyone but fellow members of the Overclass for admission, publication, or advancement. In the Third Republic, that would be illegal, and punished by exclusion of the perpetrator from his present career or occupation or type of business.

The overthrow of the Overclass is one more meaning of the revolution I have been advocating in this book. But why should Middle America be the rulers? Perhaps this illustrates the relativity of all values. I think Middle America should take the country back from the Overclass, because I am Middle American, and proud of it, even if I did attend an Overclass college. What that experience taught me was to dislike the dominant elite.

We should take the country back because we are the overwhelming majority and because we are a new people, the hope of the world, having given up all the old hatreds of our ancestors. Everything is possible for us, including the full realization of those ideals represented by the Declaration of Independence and by the Statue of Liberty. The Overclass can take their "National Interests" and "RealPolitik" back to the Old World. Good riddance.