Cultural Stereotypes

Ours was, and is, a nation of diverse immigrants. However, our strength lies not only in diversity, but in the remarkable extent to which immigrant culture becomes our own.

Name our favorite eats: pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos. Name 20 "American" Nobel Prize recipients, or spelling bee winners. Disproportionate numbers are immigrants, or first generation children of immigrants. The day that people no longer risk their lives for the American Dream, is the day our culture will begin to die.

If we were to instantly remove all Latino immigrants, the whole State would implode, from agriculture to the unholy halls of government. Were Asian immigrants to vanish, Silicon Valley would crash. In other times, or places, foreign-born Irish, Italian, or Chinese were equally vital to the well-being of our nation.

Here we are, Sacramento physicians, in Century 21, caring for people of a very different ethnic, linguistic or cultural experience. Except for immature adults who are obligated to offend (for example, by playing music whose volume or lyric can be an auditory assault), Californians respect one another's sensibilities. However, I believe we too often regard the immigrant as ignorant, suspicious, harboring a foreign folk lore and disease, or clinging to a foreign mythology. The truth is that most immigrants are intelligent, courageous risk-takers. That is the very reason they come! They adapt very quickly.

The truth is they bring a fresh current of ideas into the stagnant waters of our culture. As the dismal results of our bilingual education experiment confirm, people adapt most effectively when left alone. Physicians must be sensitive to patients' special limitations and needs, yet try to avoid pandering. After all, that is the coin of politics, and it would be unfair to pilfer it.

lufboro@jps.net