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.MEXIFORNIA Victor Davis Hanson 133racism and victimization as cheap condiments here and there in hispublic rounds.In this context, it is hard not to have grim thoughts about thewhite, liberal, guilty and frightened college presidents of the pastfew decades who set up racial satrapies on California campuses.Now safely retired in California coastal or mountain retreats, theyhave left behind a legacy of absurd intellectual ghettoes whoseinhabitants are always angry.March once on the president’s officein the 1960s and acquire a Chicano studies professorship; marchtwice and gain an entire ward, replete with separate theme dormsand private graduation ceremonies.After all, if in their private livessuch white men preferred to live only among other affluent whitepeople, why at work wouldn’t they approve of separate dorms,departments and graduations for brown people?Few of the Mexican-American friends I grew up with in my home-town speak fluent Spanish anymore, whether or not they finishedcollege.(Completing eighth grade then provided a far better edu-cation than finishing high school does now.) They may not all betitled and degreed, but almost all are informed and can read, write,compute and understand the basic tenets of the culture they havehelped to build and maintain—and which they most certainlythink is far superior to that of Mexico.Their children know only afew words of Spanish—quite in contrast to the present 65 percentof all foreign-born Hispanics in the United States, who now speakonly limited English.Most of my generation has become insurancesalesmen, mechanics, contractors, teachers, civil servants, occasion-ally wealthy businessmen and high government officials—in otherwords, the present-day “future of California.” There are no Mexi-can flags on their cars, which more likely sport decals like “ProudParent of a Lincoln School Honor Student” or “Semper Fi.” Abouthalf of them, it seems to me, are not married to Mexican-Ameri- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]