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" Throughout this country's history there have of course been systematic efforts to create an official underclass. "
Eric Liu
Been
History
Country
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" Many smart folks seem to think that if you just get your metaphors and messages right, you'll win. That if you start describing what you favor as a 'moral value' - 'affordable health care is a moral value' etc., - then you'll appeal to red-state voters. "
Eric Liu
Win
Health
Smart
" Six decades ago, as Mao's Communists seized power, the question in Washington was, 'Who lost China?' Now, as his capitalist descendants stand astride the world stage and Washington worries about decline, it seems to be, 'Who lost America?' "
Eric Liu
Lost
Power
Now
" Republicans say they want citizenship to truly mean something. Let's be equal-opportunity about it and test everyone, including those very Republicans and others whose forbears came here generations ago. "
Eric Liu
Want
Test
Others
" If half-black Barack Obama had decided years ago to call himself white - which his genes certainly entitled him to do - his story would have carried very different meaning. If millions of part-black people had followed him into whiteness, then the N.A.A.C.P. would be in true crisis. "
Eric Liu
White
Him
Story
" In the end, arguing about affirmative action in selective colleges is like arguing about the size of a spigot while ignoring the pool and the pipeline that feed it. Slots at Duke and Princeton and Cal are finite. "
Eric Liu
Action
Like
Pool
" True fans of the Constitution, like true fans of the national pastime, acknowledge the critical role of human judgment in making tough calls. We don't expect flawless interpretation. We expect good faith. We demand honesty. "
Eric Liu
Constitution
Good
True
" After watching my first World Series in 1977, I wanted to be Reggie Jackson. I bought a big Reggie poster. I ate Reggie candy bars. I entered a phase during which I insisted on having the same style of glasses Reggie had: gold wire frames with the double bar across. "
Eric Liu
World
Style
Glasses
" I know many people on the left are suspicious of words like Americanization. To them, it can sound like a cover for white privilege and warmongering. It suggests arrogance and groupthink. But these connotations are not fixed. It is in our power to reshape them by recalling the best of America. "
Eric Liu
People
America
Best
" There have been, in recent years, many Asian American pioneers in the public eye who've defied the condescendingly complimentary 'model minority' stereotype: actors like Lucy Liu, artists like Maya Lin, moguls like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. They are known, often admired. "
Eric Liu
Stereotype
Like
Years
" If the undocumented have to work hard to attain citizenship, those of us who already are citizens should have to work hard to sustain it. We should all have to serve more, vote more, build more, and do more for our country. "
Eric Liu
Citizenship
Hard
Vote
" In the end, a new Americanization movement can't just be about listing our privileges and immunities, which we catalog in our laws. It also has to be about reinforcing our duties, which we convey in our habits. "
Eric Liu
Just
Laws
Movement
" The nativism behind the push to repeal or amend the Fourteenth is ugly and obvious. "
Eric Liu
Behind
Obvious
Push
" Race in America has always centered on our mutual agreement not to see each other. White or non-white. Black or non-black. Mongoloid, Hindoo. We've always bought into to the crudest, humanity-denying forms of sorting. "
Eric Liu
White
See
Race
" Have you ever watched someone become American? Last week, at a national citizenship conference I organize, thirty immigrants from 17 countries swore an oath and became citizens of the United States. It was a stirring experience for the hundreds of people in the room. "
Eric Liu
Experience
Week
You
" You cannot mistake Bush's clarity of purpose. He believes in a story about freedom and opportunity that makes his followers feel like they aren't just ticking their days down but are part of something larger than themselves. "
Eric Liu
Mistake
Freedom
Purpose
" In the end no segregationist scheme has withstood the force of a simple idea: equality under law. "
Eric Liu
In The End
Simple
Equality
" What we should celebrate more than diversity is what we do with it. How do we bring everyone in the tent and create something together? In a twenty-first century way that activates our true potential, we all need to become sworn-again. "
Eric Liu
Celebrate
Together
Create
" Conservatives forget that citizenship is more than a thing to withhold from immigrants. Progressives forget it's more than a set of rights. "
Eric Liu
Rights
Forget
Citizenship
" To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure. "
Eric Liu
Problems
Infrastructure
Profound
" I had heard so much negative talk about our generation, that we're slackers and young fogies, that I knew wasn't true of the people I know. "
Eric Liu
People
Negative
Generation
" Jeremy Lin is the only Asian American in the NBA today and one of the few in any professional U.S. sport. His arrival is surely leading other talented Asian American athletes this week to contemplate a pro career. "
Eric Liu
American
Week
Today
" Today, public understanding of our past and our system of government is pitifully low. "
Eric Liu
Government
Past
Today
" Identity in America is complicated but it's also simple: it's about whom you identify with and who identifies with you. "
Eric Liu
Who
Simple
Identity
" Imagine filling a college with the first 1,000 students to get perfect SATs. Whatever the racial composition of that class would be, the notion seems absurd because we know that college in America is supposed to be about creating citizens and leaders in a diverse nation. "
Eric Liu
College
Perfect
America
" Here's a proposal, offered only partly in jest: no resident of the United States, whether born here or abroad, should get to be a citizen until age 18, at which time each such resident has to take a test. "
Eric Liu
Citizen
Here
Age
" We all want merit to mean something, and we all may be tempted to reduce that meaning to something measurable and concrete like an SAT score. The reality, though, is that who deserves entry into an institution depends on what the institution exists to do. "
Eric Liu
Mean
Want
Reality
" Like the 'little emperors' of one-child China, too many Boomers were taught early that the world was made (or saved) for their comfort and enjoyment. They behaved accordingly, with a self-indulgence that was wholly rational, given their situation. "
Eric Liu
World
Early
Like
" My grandfather was a general in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force during World War II, and I grew up hearing the pilot stories and seeing pictures of him in uniform. "
Eric Liu
World
Air
Air Force
" As it stands now, those of us who are lucky enough to be citizens by birth don't have to do much. Very little is asked of us. "
Eric Liu
Little
Birth
Enough
" The Boomers have modeled a set of bad habits, and one grand gesture is not going to unwind all those bad habits. "
Eric Liu
Unwind
Habits
Bad