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Forget the Past, Remember the Ancestors! Modernity, "Whiteness," American Hellenism, and the Politics of Memory in Early Greek America
- Journal of Modern Greek Studies
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 22, Number 1, May 2004
- pp. 25-71
- 10.1353/mgs.2004.0001
- Article
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This essay examines the politics of memory associated with the construction of an "American Hellenic" identity by AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) in the context of Post World War I American nativism. It examines AHEPA's assimilationist politics in relation to two dominant narratives about American national identity at the time, (a) political/cultural nationalism, and (b) racist nationalism. It shows that although political/cultural and racist nationalisms were incompatible in their expressions of Americanism, they worked dialectically to make race a crucial consideration in the immigrant quest for national belonging. Thus AHEPA's assimilative politics of national inclusion entailed more than political and cultural conformity; it required a narrative of its racial fitness to American "whiteness." A politics of memory was instrumental for AHEPA's inclusion in the racialized nation. AHEPA sought to exclude ethnic memories that were deemed incompatible with the imperative of "white" American republicanism.