Mayor Cory Booker, (D) Newark, New Jersey: “I reject the idea of a post-racial America. I want to luxuriate in the racial deliciousness of our country: the Italian-Americans, the Irish-Americans, the Mexican-Americans. I mean, that’s what makes America great. We are a nation that celebrates racial diversity. We’re not Norway. We’re not South Korea. We are the United States of America. The story of America is bringing such differences together to manifest a united set of ideals, not a united culture, not a united language, not a united religion, but a united set of ideals. That was what made America dramatic when it was founded, the first country of its kind in humanity. So I reject that [the idea of a post-racial America]. I want to celebrate all of America: its richness, its diversity, its deliciousness.”
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44 comments
November 4, 2008 at 11:40 pm
bitchphd
Finally someone in public life has said it. Thank god.
November 4, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Tyler Madden
Two sentences into this, I stood up and announced to the room that I thought this was one of the smartest things I had heard someone say on TV. The use of “deliciousness” seemed odd to most in the room, but I consider it an ideal description.
November 4, 2008 at 11:44 pm
urbino
Cory Booker: cannibal.
November 5, 2008 at 12:41 am
RobinMarie
This made me happy.
And I also think the “deliciousness” is an apt word choice.
November 5, 2008 at 3:10 am
Martin G.
Well excuse the hell out of my Norwegian ass, Booker. I didn’t know us Norwegians didn’t celebrate racial diversity. I’m sorry about that.
November 5, 2008 at 7:04 am
Ahistoricality
Cool.
November 5, 2008 at 7:06 am
Don
Sorry, I can not agree with the “not a united language”. We need a united language along with an educational system which can see beyond one language to teach our children a need to communicate on an international basis. But, in this nation, we need one common language.
November 5, 2008 at 7:10 am
dana
Yeah. I have to draw the line at the united language. I think it would be dumb to bother legislating it, but one reason immigrants from all over the place have been able to share united ideals is that they (or realistically, their kids) shared a common language.
November 5, 2008 at 8:42 am
kid bitzer
why all this love for booker, when he completely flubbed the quote?
all that blather, and not once did he use the mot juste:
racialicious!
oddly enough, i too think the common language is important, and i have even considered that i might support an amendment to that effect.
(as long as it was included in the constitution in a variety of translations, of course.)
it’s odd, because i am mildly multi-lingual, racially cosmopolitan, and should be a one-world anti-english fan.
but the u.s. legal system is so closely tied to the constitution and a series of other english-language texts, that i just don’t see how anyone can aspire to full citizenship without competence in english.
whether we want to mandate what’s good for ya is a different question, of course. we may not want laws prohibiting saggy pants.
but brothers should pull up their pants, as president obama said on mtv.
and that ‘should’, which falls short of legal enforceability, is what i feel about the use of english in the united states.
November 5, 2008 at 8:44 am
politicalfootball
Jimmy Carter understood this a long time ago:
As for the language thing, as long as it continues to be advantageous to learn English, people will do so. No point in fretting about it or trying to impose it.
November 5, 2008 at 8:58 am
kid bitzer
“as long as it continues to be advantageous to learn English, people will do so”
that was one of the many, many catastrophes of the bush administration: people looked at the highest office in the land, and said to themselves, in a thousand different tongues, “aw fuck it–if he didn’t need to learn english, why should i?”
November 5, 2008 at 9:01 am
Matt Weiner
the u.s. legal system is so closely tied to the constitution and a series of other english-language texts, that i just don’t see how anyone can aspire to full citizenship without competence in english.
Because the English-speakers have shown such deep respect for and knowledge of the Constitution and the ideals that motivate it.
November 5, 2008 at 9:03 am
kid bitzer
don’t you philosophical types get off on saying “necessary but not sufficient”?
November 5, 2008 at 9:07 am
dana
As for the language thing, as long as it continues to be advantageous to learn English, people will do so. No point in fretting about it or trying to impose it.
Don’t mistake my mild criticism for fretting. This is exactly right.
November 5, 2008 at 9:38 am
jhm
If one substituted ‘enthnicity’ or ‘culture’ for ‘race,’ I would concur. I don’t believe the construct we call ‘race’ is valid, and the perfect example of this is that the Irish, Italians et cetera were once considered separate ‘races.’ It’s fine to use the word, and perhaps the way this is portrayed here actually lessens the idea that characteristics such as hair, eye or skin color tell us something about the individuals who poses or do not poses these traits, but I think it’s unhelpful not not point out that it is equating these traits with culture.
November 5, 2008 at 9:54 am
kid bitzer
can’t agree, jhm.
“ethnicialicious”? it just doesn’t have the same sound.
November 5, 2008 at 10:06 am
ajay
I can’t think of another civilised country in which it would be acceptable for a local politician to make a speech gratuitously insulting a basically harmless foreign nation.
I can easily imagine the Mayor of Paris saying “Paris is by far the finest city in the world; we have beautiful buildings, vibrant culture, great food, and so on”, but I can’t imagine him adding “Aren’t you all glad we aren’t in a shithole like Stockholm, eh?”
November 5, 2008 at 10:08 am
ari
You’re kidding, right ajay? You can’t imagine a French politician mocking the Germans? Or a British politician mocking the French?
November 5, 2008 at 10:14 am
kid bitzer
don’t worry, ajay–
that’s just the level of discourse you expect from a dive like davis, ca.
November 5, 2008 at 10:34 am
Tiny Hermaphrodite
Actually Ari, I am going to disagree with you here. A French Politician mocking or insulting Germans or a British politician doing the same to the French in such a throwaway manner is somewhat hard to imagine these days. When such things happen they are for calculated and, if caught by the newscycle, bound to cause controversy.
November 5, 2008 at 10:36 am
ari
I’m happy to defer, TH, as I’m busy luxuriated in racial deliciousness.
November 5, 2008 at 10:40 am
Tiny Hermaphrodite
forNovember 5, 2008 at 10:41 am
Tiny Hermaphrodite
And I owe you some chocolate.
November 5, 2008 at 10:48 am
JPool
In case anyone was serious, it’s worth pointing out that rather than mocking Norway or South Korea (which no one seems be rushing to defend), Booker was simply pointing out that we’re different from them. The messge is not, “Fuck you Norway!” but “Norway: Contains mostly Norwegians.”
Let the (socially constructed) racialiciousness continue.
November 5, 2008 at 11:01 am
silbey
I can’t think of another civilised country in which it would be acceptable for a local politician to make a speech gratuitously insulting a basically harmless foreign nation.
You haven’t been to Britain recently, have you?
November 5, 2008 at 11:16 am
kid bitzer
“Norway: Contains mostly Norwegians.”
man, i love that as a specimen of labeling.
“oregon: manufactured in a plant that that also processes tree nuts”.
November 5, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Matt Weiner
don’t you philosophical types get off on saying “necessary but not sufficient”?
It’s not necessary either. The Constitution can be translated into other languages. And respect for the Constitution and for the ideals behind it is so poorly correlated with fluency in English that I don’t think it makes sense to say, “America needs English as a united language because its ideals are expressed in an English-language document.”
dana is right — as long as it’s advantageous to learn English, people will. But that means: no, not a united language. The united ideals are essential. The united language will only fail when the ideals have failed — or continue to fail — to the extent that people aren’t integrated into society. And that lack of integration can happen without language barriers.
So yes, we should continue to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the U.S. as well as other kinds of cultural diversity. Everyone should get the means to learn English, as everyone should get the means to mix with the rest of society in other ways, but just because you don’t speak fluent English it doesn’t make you any less of an American. And it doesn’t mean you can’t be a full contributor to our society and our cultural diversity. Or should we ship I. B. Singer’s Nobel Prize to Poland, or Israel?
November 5, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Vance
If we’re overrun by Norwegian immigrants, we could adopt a Swiss-style bilingual model, without wavering on the ideals.
November 5, 2008 at 1:05 pm
andrew
Matt Weiner is right.
November 5, 2008 at 1:05 pm
kid bitzer
las malvinas son argentinas!
no, it’s not altogether a propos; i just like saying it now and then. used to be good for irritating tory friends.
November 5, 2008 at 1:07 pm
andrew
Incidentally, Norway is linguistically diverse.
November 5, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Matt Weiner
I enter this data point perhaps in opposition to my thesis, though it supports another thesis of mine, that Norm Coleman is scum.
November 6, 2008 at 6:37 am
“We’re Not South Korea” » The Hub of Sparkle!
[…] in comments made in a lively interview I saw on streaming video and which are quoted here — Cory Booker for the win. The full statement: I reject the idea of a post-racial America. I want to luxuriate in the racial […]
November 6, 2008 at 9:34 am
Martin G.
It just seems like a weird comment when I live in a city (Oslo) which has a 25 % immigrant population, when immigration is the #1 wedge issue in Norwegian politics and when you look at the charts for number of immigrants as a percentage of population:
US: 12 %
Norway: 7.5 %.
South Korea: 1.1 %
Which means Norway has a per capita immigrant population the ballpark of such homogenous cultures as the UK (9%) and Russia (8.5%). We are an ethnically diverse nation, and one in every 13 people you meet here will not have been born here.
The big question is, though: do we celebrate our racial deliciousness? To that, I’d have to say that some of us do, some of us (e.g. 1/3rd of the country who vote Progress Party) don’t.
November 6, 2008 at 9:43 am
ari
You Norwegians and your pesky “facts,” always gumming up the works.
November 6, 2008 at 11:09 am
Martin G.
As it happens, Norway has 42.6 % more facts per capita than Newark does.
November 6, 2008 at 11:23 am
ari
I suspected as much.
November 6, 2008 at 12:19 pm
andrew
It’s the oil wealth. Newark’s economy just can’t keep up.
November 6, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Martin G.
Also, our rocky, mountainous inland terrain is naturally rich in factoid ore. Fact refining is a huge industry here (4.6 % of GDP).
November 6, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Nation of immigrators - A public policy blog on our dysfunctional immigration system » Immigration ICE Melts, USCIS Disingenuously Self-Promotes and Labor Caves
[…] Mayor Cory Booker — interviewed on MSNBC after President-elect Obama’s victory was confirmed — said […]
November 7, 2008 at 8:16 am
ajay
Fact refining is a huge industry here (4.6 % of GDP).
Some Norwegian politicians have raised the fear that the US could put heavy diplomatic pressure on Norway – or even mount an invasion – in order to secure Norway’s huge reserves of facts. But these fears are groundless. Historically, US foreign policy has had very little to do with facts.
November 7, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Martin G.
It is my understanding that the lie fields of the Middle East have been a more attractive goal for the US these past couple of years.
November 21, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Still luxuriating in racial deliciousness. « The Edge of the American West
[…] may remember this post. Well, it seems that Mayor Cory Booker is still luxuriating in this nation’s racial […]
December 1, 2008 at 9:50 am
We Contain Multitudes. « PostBourgie
[…] Booker rejects the concept of a “post-racial” America, but his notion of diversity still involves […]