Over the years I have often heard cosmopolitan liberals express a sentiment to the effect "the United States has no culture".
And if you press them on this they'll probably go on to clarify that the US of A as a whole has no unified national culture transcending all class, racial and regional differences, which seems like a reasonable opinion. And they'll probably concede that Appalachians or Southern whites, Mormons, prairie ranchers, New Englanders etc. do have distinct cultures of their own, even if it carries the legacy of structural racism or something. This also has parallels in Europe. There's probably no leftist there who will deny that Bavarian identity exists or that the Bretons have a culture, for example. But this has the potential to open up further cans of forms. For example, can a Somali goat herder become a Southerner or an Appalachian hillbilly? Should he even? Can a Syrian farmer become a Saxon or a Swabian? Can a Senegalese become an Alsatian?
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And if you press them on this they'll probably go on to clarify that the US of A as a whole has no unified national culture transcending all class, racial and regional differences, which seems like a reasonable opinion. And they'll probably concede that Appalachians or Southern whites, Mormons, prairie ranchers, New Englanders etc. do have distinct cultures of their own, even if it carries the legacy of structural racism or something. This also has parallels in Europe. There's probably no leftist there who will deny that Bavarian identity exists or that the Bretons have a culture, for example. But this has the potential to open up further cans of forms. For example, can a Somali goat herder become a Southerner or an Appalachian hillbilly? Should he even? Can a Syrian farmer become a Saxon or a Swabian? Can a Senegalese become an Alsatian?
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