The "His Panic" Threat

“The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream. The United States ignores this challenge at its peril.”

This statement might sound oddly familiar, and you might say that it perhaps comes from Rush Limbaugh, Tom Tancredo, or Jeff Sessions. However, these pastime figures do not compare to the author of these words: Harvard Prof. Samuel P. Huntington (passed away on Dec 24), who wrote “The Hispanic Challenge” that was published in 2004 in Foreign Policy.

Huntington was, and remains, an extremely prominent political scientist who chaired a variety of critical and powerful departments and institutions that have shaped policy makers and thinkers throughout the nation. As a passionate intellectual, Huntington produced, edited, or co-authored 17 books and over 90 scholarly articles, covering topics like American government, democratization, military politics, strategy, and civil-military relations, comparative politics, and political development.

As an undergrad at UCLA, I had the opportunity of reading one of his most influential books, “The Clash of Civilizations,” where Huntington presented the idea of 8 civilizations in the world, with the West being an independent and unique entity among them. Huntington urged the US and other Western countries to refrain from seeking the spread of their ideas and standards across the globe, expressing a disapproval of universalism and emphasizing the concrete cultural and religious beliefs of other civilizations. According to Huntington, an attempt to spread Western values is dangerous and would lead to potential conflict and war between civilizations.

Huntington’s idea seems somewhat simple and problematic when placed against the complexity of the world we live in. Considering the globalized nature of the planet (rapid spread of ideas, goods, technology etc), the use of stealth economic tools to influence other nations, the destabilization of nations due to previous intervention and exploitation, among various other factors place into question Huntington’s isolationist argument and idea of stagnant cultures.

The challenge of the “other” and the dangerous effect of foreign cultural influence argued by Huntington was transplanted into his article: “The Hispanic Challenge.” The threat, according to Huntington, is inside the US, the leader of the Western world. Ignoring any class or national origin differences, Huntington groups all "Latino/as" into Hispanics. Hispanics', more specifically Mexicans', lack of assimilation, history with the western states’ territory, rapid migration, adherence to cultural traditions and language, and illegal immigrant mass threatens to destabilize the US and fragment the country into two Americas. As quoted by Huntington: “There is no Americano dream. There is only the American dream created by an Anglo-Protestant society. Mexican Americans will share in that dream and in that society only if they dream in English.”

When I first read Huntington’s article in 2004, not only was I deeply disappointed and saddened, but I also remembered Edward Said’s book Orientalism, specifically where he says that the Oriental has been Orientalized by the Orientalist (the West), for it is by defining the other that the West has defined itself. Similarly, Huntington in his article strives to illustrate Mexican-Americans and immigrants as a dangerous aspect of American society that must be controlled. They are different. They are the other. They are not American. They are a threat.

Perhaps Prof. Rodolfo Acuña provides a more licensed perspective and critique of Huntington’s work on Mexican-Americans and immigrants in general:

Samuel Huntington’s eurocentricism went beyond his eight civilizations thesis. He also opposed Mexican Immigration claiming that it was unique because Mexicans did not assimilate until the fourth generation. Because he had a Harvard professorship, the media did not press his argument. His data was flimsy as was his documentation, and it is evident that he knew little about Mexicans. I am second generation Mexican American as are the bulk of my students. You can go on any Los Angeles school yard and by the second grade immigrant children are speaking English and eating the same American junk food as mainstream Americans. Huntington offers data that shows Mexicans are not achieving educationally. Evidently Huntington never heard of class and inferior schools. The educational achievement of Mexican children at private school is much higher than at state schools. It has nothing to do with assimilation. His family may have loved him but the Truth always evaded him.

I hope Huntington rests in peace, along with his very divisive, xenophobic ideas that have influenced many leaders in this nation. I also hope that the continued immigrant student movement, amazing AB540 students who demonstrate their commitment to the US and world, the many immigrants who provide their labor in hopes of a better life, and the many successful immigrant leaders all continue to chip away at the mountain of lies, racism and fear that stands in the way of prosperity and unity in this country.

To read the late Prof. Huntington’s “The Hispanic Challenge”: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2495&page=0