Back in September 2002, a little girl was born into a Canadian family with a Western dad and an East Asian mom. In November 2002, another little girl was born into a Canadian family with a Western dad and an East Asian mom. Today, those two women face off in the US Open tennis finals.
Boris Johnson says he’s rooting for the player who was born in Toronto in November 2002, not the player born in Montreal in September 2002. That’s because the one born in Toronto later moved to the UK.
People sometimes ask me the difference between patriotism and nationalism. I’d say that in this case, Johnson is behaving more like a British patriot than an English nationalist. To Johnson, Emma Raducanu seems like one of “us”, not one of “them”.
PS. Yes, with political figures one never knows what they really think. I’m taking Johnson’s comments at face value to illustrate a point.
PPS. In contrast, here’s Laura Ingraham:
On Wednesday, Ms Ingraham began her programme by saying: “In some parts of the country, it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore.
“Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people and they’re changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like.
READER COMMENTS
Market Fiscalist
Sep 11 2021 at 6:35pm
I see the girl born in Toronto won it. I watched the post match interview and she has a beautiful posh London accent. She could not be more English in my opinion (apart from being good at tennis of course!).
Frank
Sep 11 2021 at 7:01pm
The difficulty with free immigration — as with free trade, is that there are winners and there are losers. It is too much to expect the losers from either to vote for free immigration. Of course, the losers could be compensated. 🙂
A
Sep 12 2021 at 1:26pm
Low skill immigration tends to hurt the nearest generation of low skill immigrants. The people imbibing Ingraham are often victims of manufacturing efficiency and the rise of knowledge economies. Immigrants are an easy, but inaccurate target.
Joseph
Sep 11 2021 at 7:29pm
You are comparing apples with oranges here. There’s a massive difference between one of a kind and millions. There’s a massive difference between those who came into a country to become a citizen and those who want to live their old life and speak their mother tongue, just be paid more, often without ever integrating properly, without accepting the customs of their new country. Often they try to keep their children from integrating as well. You know full well communities like this exist in most Western countries. You may believe it will all pass in a couple of generations – perhaps. But in the meantime these people cause massive distress to those around them.
steve
Sep 11 2021 at 8:57pm
“You know full well communities like this exist in most Western countries.”
We do, but in all honesty I think most of us have learned to live with the Amish. I dont think anyone is really stressed about them.
Steve
Joseph
Sep 12 2021 at 4:17am
Oh you think this is such a smart comment. Now tell us please: how dangerous is it for an outsider to wander into a place where Amish live? If they were clearly Christian? Jewish? Muslim? Any risk whatsoever? Get my drift?
Phil H
Sep 11 2021 at 10:55pm
Wow – never mind the extraordinary tennis, her on-court interview after the win was amazing. Incredible presence of mind at that moment, brushing off the interviewer to roll out a lovely list of thanks, plus effectively playing to the crowd… how do you learn to do that at age 18?! (I’d love to do it at age 40…)
But yes, as Scott says. Given that taking sides in a ball game is an inherently silly thing to do, if we’re going to do it, it’d be best to at least do it in a way that is not hurtful and exclusive. Nationality and team affiliation are at this point often matters of choice, and it seems OK to offer some random partisan support to someone who has chosen to be on “my” team; much better than because of their gender or skin colour or other hard-to-change characteristic.
Scott Sumner
Sep 12 2021 at 12:02pm
Everyone, this post is not about the merits of immigration. It’s about how we view people of different ethnicities (who in many cases are not recent immigrants.) Large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans have lived in America for centuries.
Scott Sumner
Sep 12 2021 at 12:04pm
I would add that I live in Orange County, one of the nicest places to live in the entire world. And it’s chock full of immigrants.
Maniel
Sep 12 2021 at 12:32pm
I’m not sure, because I’m unfamiliar with Ms. Ingraham’s background, but could she be speaking as a member of one of our indigenous tribes, Cherokee Nation perhaps?
Scott Sumner
Sep 13 2021 at 12:06pm
If only!
Monte
Sep 12 2021 at 12:45pm
I, too, welcome immigrants who come here willing to contribute, as well as embrace the ideology of Americanism. This doesn’t mean they must abandon their religious and/or cultural beliefs. On the contrary, they should celebrate them, insofar as they’re lawful. I do, however, have a problem with those who come here seeking to undermine, discredit, and destroy our Republic. Sadly, that threat is increasingly coming from within our borders, rather than from outside them.
Scott Sumner
Sep 13 2021 at 12:06pm
I agree.
TMC
Sep 12 2021 at 1:34pm
“”This is exactly what socialists like Ocasio-Cortez want: eventually diluting and overwhelming your vote with the votes of others who aren’t, let’s face it, too big on Adam Smith and the federalist papers,” Ms Ingraham said.”
Seems the issue she has is about economics, and the belief that immigrants are turning America more socialist, not ethnicities.
Scott Sumner
Sep 13 2021 at 12:14pm
It’s pretty clear that when she says the neighborhoods don’t look like America, she’s not describing a neighborhood of immigrants from social welfare states like Sweden, Norway and Denmark, she’s describing non-white immigrant neighborhoods. And many immigrants are quite hard working and entrepreneurial.
Again, she is describing what neighborhoods look like. She says it’s hard to “love” those areas in the way you’d love neighborhoods with native born Americans. That’s pure bigotry–we are all American, whether immigrant or native born.
TMC
Sep 13 2021 at 2:31pm
She did not say it doesn’t ‘look’ like the America she knows, but “In some parts of the country, it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore.”
Then explicitly cites socialism as why. When David Duke praises it, she calls him ‘one racist freak’.
Juan Manuel Perez Porrua Perez
Sep 16 2021 at 12:42pm
Patriotism and nationalism: a distinction without a difference.
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