Silence prevailed at that point, and the discussion ended. One of the latent residuals in American life has always been the persistence of ethnic identity that exists as the numerator to the denominator of political allegiance. In what the multiculturalists among us are content to call our multicultural society, this strain of various ethnicities and, of course, races has been made to appear equivalent to citizenship itself. The contradicting fact of the matter is that our country has never had nor can have a blood base. But what differentiates ethnicity and citizenship is clear.
Ethnic identity is one thing.
Constitutional allegiance is another. One is sociological. The other is political. Equating them is a step in the wrong democratic direction. Suffice it to say that ethnic and racial identities will continue to be part of the woof of American life, and, to the extent that they do not translate into chauvinism or mindless tribalism, this is to be expected.