On Race Politics in America
- Jia Han
- Sep 29, 2022
- 4 min read
This writeup is to call your attention to the book by Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? [1]. In my opinion, every immigrant and next generation should read this book. Late Samuel Huntington was a well-known Harvard political scientist. He had written three classic books: The Soldier and the State (1957), Clash of Civilizations (1996), and this book Who Are We?(2005). All these three books were against prevalent political trends at the time, i.e., they are politically incorrect. Yet, future development proves or will prove that Huntington was correct.
I came to the attention of Who Are We? after reading James Miller’s Can Democracy Work? [2]. The last chapter of this book, entitled CODA:Who Are We, is related to Huntington’s book (as you can see from the title). I probably should have read this book earlier. Identity and identity politics are important topics. Yet there have been few formal definitions and good discussions in the literature. Prior to Huntington’s book, I have read Fukuyama’s Identity [3]. Fukuyama’s book is largely politically correct, useful but much lower quality than Huntington’s book. In addition, it has some serious errors.
Why America Is Prosperous?
Before considering immigration, one should understand why America is successful. Early study on this topic was carried out by German sociologist Max Weber [4]. Weber’s study is a classic in sociology. However, it is too simplistic. For a recent review on Weber’s hypothesis, one might read Niall Ferguson’s book, Civilization: The West and the Rest [5].
Much more relevant is a recent study by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson [6]. (BTW, I am sure this book is going to be classic.) The beginning of this book provides an example of a city divided by the US-Mexico border [7], which shows huge differences. These authors have written many high quality papers and books (see links at the end of this writeup for some articles in Chinese). However, even explanations of their book are oversimplified. The reason is that any political or economical topics can be extremely difficult to solve, perhaps 1000 times more difficult than any physics or chemistry topic.
Immigration and National Identity of America
Now we may consider immigration and its role in America. Conventional wisdom seems to imply that immigration is good. However, open immigration is not necessarily good. One counterexample is the Middle East. The Middle East used to be the forefront of world civilizations. For millennia, immigrants came from Europe, Asia, and Africa to the Middle East. Look at the Middle East now.
I will not spoil you the joy of reading this book yourself. Just a short note on race relations. The black-white race relationship in America has been a problem for me to fully understand. I thought about it and wrote some short articles before. According to Niall Ferguson [8,9]:
Whereas ‘race’ is a matter of inherited physical characteristics, transmitted from parents to children in DNA, ‘ethnicity’ is a combination of language, custom and ritual, inculcated in the home, the school and the temple. It is perfectly possible for a genetically intermixed population to split into two or more biologically indistinguishable but culturally differentiated ethnic groups.
We know that most American blacks came as slaves. However, one would think that this occurred many generations ago. By now, this would have been solved. After you read this book, you might have some ideas.
A related topic is Civil Rights law. Law should be color blind. It seems to me Affirmative action does not agree with true equality which Law should satisfy the universality principle, i.e., should not favor or restrict to a particular group of people. I have written some articles earlier and try to understand Civil Rights law [10-12]. After reading Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?, this issue is solved for me.
[13] is a related video that may interest you. [14] is a book review on Who Are We? Although the author did not really understand the book. It mentioned Trump. That is another topic.
References:
Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity, Simon & Schuster, 2005.
James Miller, Can Democracy Work? Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Francis Fukuyama, “Identity: the demand for dignity and the politics of resentment,” Picador, 2019
Max Weber, "The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism" (1905). Translated by Stephen Kalberg (2002), Roxbury Publishing Company (麦克斯·韦伯： 新教伦理与资本主义精神)
Niall Ferguson, "Civilization: The West and the Rest," Penguin Books, 2012
Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson, "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty," Crown Business, 2012.
韩家亮：南北美洲政治经济发展轨迹 http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=33841
Niall Ferguson, “The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West,” Penguin Books, 2007.
Theodore J. Lowi, Benjamin Ginsberg, Kenneth A. Shepsle, Stephen Ansolabehere, “American Government: Power and Purpose,” W. W. Norton & Company; 12th. Edition, 2012
Uncommon Knowledge: Douglas Murray and His Continuing Fight against the "Madness of Crowds” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp4XhZytdD0
WaPo 18 July 2017 Samuel Huntington, a prophet for the Trump era
Related links:
韩家亮：《Why Nations Fail》对中国经济增长的分析与前瞻 http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=35161
韩家亮：比较不同殖民地发展巨大差别的institutions根源 http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=35436
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