December 23, 2025
Have you heard the phrase Heritage American? At first I thought it meant furniture, like Colonial, Traditional Revival, Empire, and Postmod Pretentious (I made up the last one). Unfortunately, it’s a loathsome idea that’s gaining steam on the right: that descendants of white, pre-Civil War colonists and settlers are more “American” than others. This X post has gotten a lot of attention.
These cretins think people from “colonial old stock” score highest in righteous Americanism, with everyone who immigrated since 1945 (like Melania Trump?) at the bottom. This is absolute, no-holds-barred, nativist, racist, xenophobic, total, utter, unmitigated, un-American crap.
As it happens, some of my relatives arrived fairly soon after the Mayflower. Others fought in the battles mentioned above and for the Union in the Civil War. My parents were proud of this history but couldn’t stand people who bragged about such things, and liked bigots even less. My dad, who spent four years in uniform in World War II, didn’t need Ancestry.com to know how American he was.
I’ve never thought my blood made me better than anyone else, including the many immigrants in my hometown. I went to school with first-generation kids whose families came after the war, some of them fleeing both Nazis and communists. Years later I worked at the Voice of America with people from Eastern Europe, Vietnam, Cuba, Africa, and all over the world. No matter when they got here, you’ll never find a more patriotic group of Americans than those who suffered under real tyrants, not “the woke left.”
Even conservatives who I rarely agree with about anything are blasting the heritage movement. As one of them pointed out, the folks on the Mayflower were boat people. (They and the Puritans were also fanatical religious cultists but that’s another story.)
This testimonial, which was written about my German great-great grandfather Christian Keune in 1850s Illinois, could apply to the great, vast majority who came here long after colonial times, like last month. I only wish more people today had the writer’s decency and common sense.
Many of the best and most reliable citizens of Macoupin County did not have their nativity in this land, but being of foreign birth and parentage and having come to this country to better their fortunes and provide more generously for their children, they have adopted America fully as their home and have aided in building up American institutions and promoting the prosperity of the community in which they live.
