Born Fighting: Webb wins Virginia primary
James Webb, a Vietnam War hero who served as Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, won Virginia's Democratic Senate primary two weeks ago. [Washington Post] Webb, who left the Republican Party over his opposition to the Iraq war, is also known for his recent book Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. [Amazon]
As a North Carolinian living in New York, Born Fighting has come in useful. In the South, white people are generally just referred to as "white"; it took me about five years to get used to New Yorkers asking me what my "background" was. "Well, I majored in Poli. Sci. in college." When they clarified that they were asking where my family was from, I'd say my mom was born in Alabama and grew up in Louisiana, and that my dad was from NC. "No, but before that?" "Oh, my ancestors were Scotch-Irish."
I was shocked by how connected New Yorkers were to their ancestors' countries of origin, even if their ancestors had become American citizens more than a century ago. As one white guy from Alabama told me during my first week in New York, "people here are really into their races - it's weird" (whereas, in the South, race is really more about color than ethnicity). Eventually, I came to realize that it wasn't a divisive thing (i.e. - if a pretty Italian girl asked you where your family was from, it didn't mean she was ruling out the possibility of dating); instead, it was just a way of preserving traditional cultures (which I think is a good thing).
Once I started thinking of myself as Scotch-Irish, and not just as white, I read up more on the history of the Scotch-Irish. It was then that I realized just how much of what I had always considered "North Carolinian," or "Southern" - from names to cultural traditions to philosophical leanings - could be traced to the Scotch-Irish settlers who arrived in the Southeast during the 18th century.
Webb's book about the Scotch-Irish (he uses "Scots-Irish") has been criticized for glossing over the group's role in some of the brutal episodes of American history. That's probably a fair criticism. That said, Webb's central thesis - that much of what people refer to as "red state" values can traced to Scots-Irish values - is extremely convincing. In a review of Born Fighting, Tom Wolfe summarized these core beliefs as follows: "our rights come from God, not the Government; all of us are born equal, and 'born aristocrats' don’t exist; and tread on either of those two truths, and we’ll fight you down to the last unbroken hyoid bone."
"Webb Wins Democratic Nomination in Virginia" [Washington Post]
As a North Carolinian living in New York, Born Fighting has come in useful. In the South, white people are generally just referred to as "white"; it took me about five years to get used to New Yorkers asking me what my "background" was. "Well, I majored in Poli. Sci. in college." When they clarified that they were asking where my family was from, I'd say my mom was born in Alabama and grew up in Louisiana, and that my dad was from NC. "No, but before that?" "Oh, my ancestors were Scotch-Irish."
I was shocked by how connected New Yorkers were to their ancestors' countries of origin, even if their ancestors had become American citizens more than a century ago. As one white guy from Alabama told me during my first week in New York, "people here are really into their races - it's weird" (whereas, in the South, race is really more about color than ethnicity). Eventually, I came to realize that it wasn't a divisive thing (i.e. - if a pretty Italian girl asked you where your family was from, it didn't mean she was ruling out the possibility of dating); instead, it was just a way of preserving traditional cultures (which I think is a good thing).
Once I started thinking of myself as Scotch-Irish, and not just as white, I read up more on the history of the Scotch-Irish. It was then that I realized just how much of what I had always considered "North Carolinian," or "Southern" - from names to cultural traditions to philosophical leanings - could be traced to the Scotch-Irish settlers who arrived in the Southeast during the 18th century.
Webb's book about the Scotch-Irish (he uses "Scots-Irish") has been criticized for glossing over the group's role in some of the brutal episodes of American history. That's probably a fair criticism. That said, Webb's central thesis - that much of what people refer to as "red state" values can traced to Scots-Irish values - is extremely convincing. In a review of Born Fighting, Tom Wolfe summarized these core beliefs as follows: "our rights come from God, not the Government; all of us are born equal, and 'born aristocrats' don’t exist; and tread on either of those two truths, and we’ll fight you down to the last unbroken hyoid bone."
"Webb Wins Democratic Nomination in Virginia" [Washington Post]
posted at 9:04:00 PM | permalink
<< Home