Which minority should we model?

The Wampanoag, who taught the British to plant corn and other crops, saving them from starvation? The Iroquois whose democratic ways inspired Ben Franklin and others? The Cherokee of New Echota in Georgia, who formed a local government after the form of the US government and founded the first bilingual newspaper (The Phoenix) in America, yet were forcibly and illegally moved to the other side of the Mississippi? The Navajo Code Talkers of WWII? The Standing Rock Sioux, who are trying to get us to observe the simple truth: “mní wičhóni” – water is life?

Model minority? Which model minority?

The Haitians who supported the American Revolution in the Battle of Savanna and later overcame the English, Spanish, and the French in order to secure their own independence? Haitian Revolutionaries who demoralized Napoleon and made him agreeable to the steal of a deal we call the Louisiana Purchase? Haitians who drafted a constitution declaring that any enslaved person from another country who made it to Haiti would be free?

Which minority?

Descendants of Mexicans who became Americans, through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, yet whose appearance is met with racist suspicion of being illegal aliens?

Which model?

The Chinese who catalyzed 19^th century infrastructure development of the Western US, so Americans could manifest their destiny, but whose presence precipitated the Chinese Exclusion Act?

What about this model minority?

Patriotic Japanese-American citizens who were stripped of possessions and shipped to internment camps during WWII?

This one?

Immigrants from India, who were once classified as “Hindu” on the census? Indians, like US military veteran Bhagat Singh Thind, who were denied citizenship and even denaturalized by the court system’s changing definition of whiteness?

Why not this model?

African Americans who have fought in every war for the honor of a nation that continues to dishonor them? African Americans who have known no other home than America, but still get told to “go back to Africa”? African Americans who led the largest and lengthiest revival movement in the nation’s history, known as the Civil Rights Movement, which expanded the rights and privileges of all people?

Healthy models?

Modern immigrants who enjoy better health outcomes than Americans (until they adopt American lifestyles) yet are scapegoated for abusing our healthcare system? The same immigrants who are blamed for draining our welfare system and somehow taking our jobs at the same time?

Can’t we learn lessons to emulate and repudiate from within and across various people groups without mythologizing one group over another as the model for all?