Anti-Immigrant Sentiment Is Historic

And ignorant, against U.S. interests. Can we break with the past? A mini-course

New state laws restricting Chinese nationals from purchasing land, businesses, or housing recall not only the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, as historian Heather Cox Richardson eloquently explains, but anti-immigrant sentiment throughout American history. It’s nothing new and stabs at the heart of the country’s founding notion that all people are created equal.

At a Holocaust Remembrance, President Biden condemned “despicable” acts of anti-semitism amid a “ferocious” surge in the U.S. and around the world. Text. Just weeks earlier, he made a similar statement against Islamophobia. Donald Trump calls Biden “weak” on anti-semitism, ignoring his own rhetoric, involving “the language of Nazi Germany and plays on stereotypes of Jews,” the Associated Press reports.

For the most part, America as a mosaic of ethnicities or cultural quilt works. But there have been waves of bigotry, especially when fomented by demagogic politicians, intense foreign or domestic conflicts, or an influx of immigration. The Israel-Gaza war is currently stirring up both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic sentiments, especially on campuses.

History shows that no one is immune from being a target of cultural resentment due to an accident of birth. That’s why I’m offering a mini-course on immigration and ethnic bigotry for subscribers.

Send Them Back!

At Trump rallies, it’s not uncommon to hear chants against immigrants.