A heritage to celebrate
The traditions we start now can be built on our care for one another, and for our environment.
This time in October, we recognize the many aspects of heritage. We used to call it “Columbus Day,” indicating the arrival of one of the first European expeditions on the shores of what we now call the United States. Now it is named for Indigenous People as we intentionally recall who was here, nurturing and protecting this land, before Europeans. The roots of our communities are deep and complex, and include conquering, colonization, violence, and theft, as well as collaboration, inclusion, and mutual respect.
I’m considering heritage because of the language around immigration, refugees, migration, and what many like to call a “crisis.” Humans have always moved around this planet, seeking conditions more conducive to our ability to survive and thrive. It is relatively recent in human history that we have established borders and boundaries and systems to control who crosses them, when, and under what conditions. And while it seems likely that suspicion of “strangers” has long been part of our cognitive processes, it is also relatively recently that we have constructed intellectual frameworks to justify the classification of human beings into “desirable” and “undesirable.”
This classification underlies the white supremacist idea of “replacement.” It indicates that people “like us” are desirable, and uncontrolled migration will allow people not “like us” to replace them, “taking over.” And this idea - this fear - underpins the inability of our country to humanize its immigration policies and processes. It is used to mobilize far right white nationalist groups such as those who attacked Congress on January 6. It is used to justify the militarization of border patrol and even local law enforcement.
The repercussions of this idea - protecting the “desirable” from the “undesirable” - reach far into our social structures. In order to move beyond its influence, we need to challenge its roots. No category of human beings is undesirable.
Heritage can become a source of pride when we redefine it as the heritage of all humans, indeed of all creatures on this beautiful planet. The traditions we start now can be built on our care for one another, and for our environment. We can embrace the multiplicity of human experience, backgrounds, and cultural practices.
This is a heritage our grandchildren and their grandchildren can embrace and celebrate.