Flying the Dallas to Austin leg home Saturday afternoon, I was reading Phillip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” on the plane. The man sitting directly across from me asked about the book, if it was fiction or true.
I told him it was historical fiction, based on the premise that Charles Lindbergh defeated Roosevelt in 1940 and cut a deal with Hitler to keep the U.S. out of World War II. That is as far as I am in the book, by the way.
He said it was interesting and had parallels to today. He lived in the Valley and he started talking about the 1960 election and how Joseph Kennedy bought it and we talked about the 1948 United States Senate election. Then all of a sudden, he starts talking about how bad things were and how all the Mexicans were coming over and stealing food stamps. At that point, I told him my wife and my children are Hispanic and I turned around. After a moment, he starts talking again.
“I’m half Hispanic, but I’m the kind who was born here.”
I just said congratulations and turned back around. I was shaking and I was baffled. Then it dawned on me. Because I’m white and because the book I was reading had a title that would have fit in with white nationalism (not to mention a swastika on the cover), he assumed we were on the same time. I don’t think I would have had this conversation a week ago. The wildness in our politics has spread to general society since the election. It’s sitting in the seat next you.
I looked over at my son (oblivious with his headphones on) and something else hit me. That guy is losing. The culture war isn’t going to go his way. He’s got one vote. I’ve got one vote. But the next time we elect a president the kid next to me will vote. And he will vote with the knowledge that people like that man would have his grandmother sent back. He will know that they would deny her the vote, and likely try to find a way to deny him the vote if they can see him coming.
I’m not trying to claim my kids know what it’s like to be discriminated against. But they see it happen to other people who come from the same part of the world as their grandmother and cousins, and they know. They will bring that sensibility to the voting booth. First my oldest, then his brother in 2022 (he’ll miss 2020 by three weeks) then their sister.
And they will bring something else. Because assimilation is grand, they will bring their white privilege. They will arrive at the booth with whatever ID is needed, with the knowledge of their rights and exactly how to assert them and they will have no fear in doing so. They won’t vote out of fear. They won’t vote out of anger. They will vote and they will organize and they will march and most importantly they will live their ideals of tolerance and fairness and righteousness.
And they will win.
Oran Today 