Letters

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Wednesday
May 9, 2001

America's success credited to immigrants

For someone who advocates an open mind, your article exhibited some of the most pretentious and narrow-minded preachings I have ever heard ["Embrace"]. As I read on and on, all I saw was an increasing number of generalizations that revealed how skewed your perspective of the world is and how blind you really are.

You do not understand that someone's culture is the root of his or her identity that provides a strong foundation that develops the very character that builds a strong and prosperous society. One of the major problems in America is that there is no concrete, defined identity because relative to other nations, the United States is very young and has very weak roots.

The period of time that it has been a leading nation is a very short one and many people make the mistake of determining a nation or a people's worth solely on the magnitude of it's economic and technological success. There are many social problems that plague this society which cannot be remedied simply by the current wealth of the U.S.

Such problems need to be addressed from the core of a people, wherein there exists moral and social consciousness that oftentimes are not emphasized in many aspects of modern culture. For you to dismiss Iranian culture for nothing more than the few superficial (and some inaccurate) characteristics that you mentioned is atrocious and infuriating. Any person of character has an understanding of his/her past.

An individual may not agree with some aspects of his/her culture, but nonetheless, that person will acknowledge it as a presence in their life. I know many Americans that take pride in their Irish, British, or German cultures. They treasure family trees that show them their lineage so that they can know the legacy that they have come from.

Chinese, Indians, Koreans, and the hundreds of other nationalities that that have immigrated to this country uphold their proud traditions while living in a foreign land because their culture is a base that will guide them through their assimilation into a new culture. They take the best of both lifestyles and are thus able to have a richer life because they expose themselves to a broader range of things. That is drastically different from completely discarding one's culture.

You say that Iranians who maintain their culture are scared of learning the modern ways of this society and are the "primitive" and aghabmoondeh people. Well my friend, it takes a much stronger and courageous person to be able to uphold his/her morals, beliefs, and practices in an environment that does not welcome them and might even be hostile toward the new culture. It does not take a person of much substance to easily be molded by the influences of his/her surrounding society.

I am very proud of my culture and believe it to be, in some areas, superior to the modern/pop culture I see in the United States. I am not a closed minded person and have exposed myself to many different things. I have tried to learn about many different life styles and customs through making friends with non-Persian people. I have had the opportunity to grow up in an ethnically diverse environment and believe that one of the benefits of living in the United States is the high level of tolerance for different viewpoints and practices.

I love learning about different ethic foods, religions, morals, family traditions, etc. And what is all of that?-one could argue that it's American. Because after all, what is the United States but a nation of immigrants? People have come here from Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africaand each of these people have brought their own practices that have been adopted by the United States and enriched the nation. Had these people simply said, "I am now American," we would not be experiencing the joys of Yoga, Indian curry, martial arts, and so much more that I can't think of at the moment.

There are so many ways that these cultures have helped this country and much of America's success is credited to these immigrants. I'm not going to go into how very wrong all of your specific accusations of certain things in our culture were (for instance, our food is healthier than traditional American food and, heart disease being one of the most imminent problems in this country, more and more people have turned to Asian and Middle Eastern foods for healthier meals and life styles). I think I've repeated enough times how throwing away ones roots and very identity is showing the greatest disrespect and hatred for oneself.

As a seventeen-year-old that came to this country at a very young age I am proud to tell you sir that I am indeed still an Iranian and will always proclaim myself as one with the utmost pride.

Mitra Yousefi

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