As a naturalized American and immigrant, the 4th of July holiday has given me reason to reflect about America and Western society, especially with the recent news events like the violence in Europe, and the decision of the US Supreme Court to ban affirmative action as a basis for school acceptance.
Like most immigrants, all of us need to learn how to assimilate and understand the customs and norms of our adopted country. At the same time, we also bring something new to American culture.
The recent violence in Europe, particularly in France, is also partially (but not entirely) due to both discrimination in police tactics, but also a failure of some migrants to assimilate into their adopted country.
Failure to share a common culture is one reason why tempers flare and discrimination exists. Assimilating into a foreign culture does not mean totally dropping that of your native country. There is a balance to strive for. Countries cannot exist peacefully without that recognition by migrants. Likewise Western countries like America and those in the EU should recognize the value of diversity.
The rejection by the US Supreme Court in early July 2023 of affirmative action as a basis for selecting incoming students works in an ideal setting where there is no discrimination and people have equal access to education and nutrition. In the decades that followed the tumultuous Sixties, affirmative action allowed men and women like Barack and Michelle Obama to rise to the top of their fields. Unfortunately this should have been accompanied by efforts to improve education and nutrition in certain locations that need it, but resources are always tight and limited.
The Court is correct in that it should not allow certain racial groups an advantage over others while disregarding merit, but again the conditions that would have made that work were not really addressed perfectly. Just like in the Sixties, certain groups are still disadvantaged in terms of opportunity. Perhaps there are other ways to address this. Investments in education, and spreading out that investment to schools for the disadvantaged and not just the Ivy League schools, is one way.
For example, as an immigrant there are certain views, ideas, paradigms, that I bring to America that can enhance business success. Growing up in a less developed country, one can see opportunities that someone who has lived in America for decades might not see. We can see that the melting pot of Silicon Valley, Boston Route 128, Austin, and other places where immigrants work well with locals create innovation and wealth for the entire country. But there is also the danger that living in these places creates a view that only that is America.
America is a large country. Not just in size, but also in the breadth and depth of the people and cultures who live in it. There are very developed and exclusive places, but there are also very undeveloped poor areas.
We also see in certain undeveloped pockets in this country that a lack of diversity also comes with economic hardship. Not to simplify the argument to that, but diversity brings dynamism, a quality very much needed in business.
There are no easy answers. We are all products of the culture, education, biases, and practices in the respective places we live and grew up in. However, a failure to accept diversity as something that can bring happiness and prosperity to an area will hurt those who subscribe to that view and refuse to change the most.
Diversity can definitely help Western societies like the United States and France. But reaching that ideal will only work if both sides recognize what each has to offer, and meet halfway. Unfortunately without that willingness to work on this, the violent breakdowns that we see in France will also happen here.