How Much Ethnocentrism is Okay?

Responding to a reader question.

Subscriber/provocateur (in a good way, usually) Andrew Dolgin asks:

Matt, you say we are becoming more like the UK due to a lack of ethnocentrism, or at least an effort to eliminate it, while promoting it everywhere else. Is your implication here that the U.S. should be more ethnocentric or that Americans should also oppose the ethnocentrism of others in order to avoid becoming like the inbred UK?

Or more simply, do you think that America should be more ethnocentric in that it should be a white nation? A Christian nation? What exact ethnicity are you referring to?

Andrew, what an impressively nasty question you’ve asked. Congratulations!

Henry Nowak bled to death and was ignored by police specifically instructed not to attempt to be “colour blind” in their work. When I say I think this is crazy, just as I thought it was crazy to try to racialize distribution of Covid vaccines or to fire educators who wouldn’t teach “toxic whiteness,” your question (after some throat-clearing) is, “Do you think that America should be… a white nation?”

Very obviously, I don’t think this. I’d have to renounce not-exactly-white relatives (not-exactly-white kids, even) to have that opinion. More to the point, if I say I believe the law should be color blind, how is your next question, “So are you a racist?” This however has become a go-to rhetorical move, another example being the episode where the cast of The View denounced Coleman Hughes as a “pawn” and a “charlatan” for winning studio applause with the line, “We should try our very best to treat people without regard for race both in our personal lives and our public policy.”

I don’t think of America as a “white” country. To me the best part of our system is that anyone can be an American overnight, provided he or she accepts a few minor guidelines, like agreeing to tolerate other religions and embrace free speech. As for the early academic weasel word “ethnocentrism,” it’s so close in meaning to “chauvinism” that it probably never needed to exist, but in the name of making work for Yale social scientists, we apparently must live with it. How chauvinistic should Americans be? I don’t know. Just enough? As much as any other citizen of any other place? We wouldn’t expect an Egyptian or a Pole to fall prostrate apologizing for their countries, and especially not an Egyptian or Polish cop. Why do we need this from Americans or the English? It’s all an absurd academic fad, and when I roll my eyes at it, that’s not pining for white supremacy, but having a sense of humor. God, I can’t wait for this era to end!