“Well, Americans:
What, nothing better to do?
Why don’t you kick yourself out?
You’re an immigrant too.”
–The White Stripes, Icky Thump

I admire how Jack and Meg are making a point to oppose the status quo and Abercrombie & Fitch by proclaiming, “Hey, white isn’t always right. And American doesn’t mean white. Minorities aren’t any less American than any of you hypocritical blockheads.”

The above lyrics remind me of a scene in The Godfather: Part II, when Senator Pat Geary of Nevada vituperates Michael Corleone, an American citizen by birth (unbeknownst to him, Michael is the scariest thing to come around since squalid public restrooms to a germaphobe like myself):

“I don’t like your kind of people. I don’t like to see you come out to this clean country in your oily hair, dressed up in those silk suits and try to pass yourselves off as decent Americans. I’ll do business with you, but the fact is I despise your masquerade, the dishonest way you pose yourself, yourself and your whole fucking family.”

Being the offspring of immigrants, you can just imagine the warm fuzzies that that scene invokes within my soul.

Just 2 weeks after Columbus Day, 2007 music and 1974 film remind me of American imperialism and the emotional and physical carnage that Ol’ Glory inflicts upon countless people. How appropriate. Because God knows Columbus didn’t just sail the ocean blue in 1492. He also managed to completely miss America and squeeze in the decimation of the American Indian population. Watch out, we have a triple threat on our hands.

End scene.