Xenophobia in America How we got here and whats at stake

[Music]

[Applause]

we need to talk

about xenophobia the fear

and hatred of foreigners it’s a fear

that’s so great we’re supposed to run

away

as fast as we can and do whatever is

necessary to protect ourselves from

those

dangerous foreigners it’s like it’s

about

us versus them and it’s more than just

prejudice or bigotry

in the united

our st and even the very definition

of who counts as an american

my family knows what it’s like to be

targeted as outsiders

this is a photograph of my grandparents

much-loved restaurant in brooklyn new

york

it’s where my mother and her sisters

would go every afternoon

to make egg rolls and to work the

cashier

my grandfather was a huge fan of can you

guess it president franklin

delano roosevelt he named his restaurant

the new deal the irony was

that he was a chinese immigrant and he

couldn’t vote for

fdr or anyone else because u.s laws

prohibited asian immigrants

from becoming naturalized citizens it’s

like america

thought my family were dangerous

outsiders who didn’t belong

and were unfit to become citizens

my family’s story echoes those of so

many immigrants

from across the united states we know

their experiences from their photographs

from their letters from their poems

but also from the stories that they’re

sharing today

i’m a historian and i know it’s so

important to connect these dots between

past and present because they help us

understand how we got here

what’s changed and what hasn’t

so let’s start with how we got here the

united states is known

as a nation of immigrants right

a country that has welcomed almost 80

million people

over the past 200 years people like my

family

and perhaps many of yours

but the united states is also a nation

of xenophobia

meaning that we have feared and even

hated almost every immigrant group

that’s come to the united states

u.s government records show that we have

actually removed over 57 million people

since 1882 that’s more than any other

nation so to say that our relationship

with immigration is

complicated that’s an understatement

this is because our immigration history

reflects

both america’s promise but also

its failures and let’s be clear

it’s also about race

from the very beginning of our country’s

history white america

defined native americans and african

americans

as others as outsiders and has

discriminated against them

the united states has waged war and

cultural genocide upon native americans

for

centuries it’s been 400 years

since the beginning of american slavery

but african-americans still remain

unequal citizens

targets of police brutality

discrimination and mass incarceration

how we’ve treated native americans and

african americans has influenced how

we’ve treated immigrants

this is because xenophobia is a form of

american racism

it identifies certain immigrants as the

good ones

you know who they are they’re the

non-threatening kind with the

fun accents who contribute to america

and then of course there’s the bad ones

these are the ones who don’t speak

english who don’t assimilate

who are a threat to the country we have

welcomed and even recruited the good

immigrants

we have banned and expelled the bad ones

it’s been a matter of national origin

and religion

class gender sexuality but especially

race this was true when our country was

first founded

and it’s true today

so let’s take a short walk through

history to see how this works

it’s the 1700s and germans are suffering

for months on crowded and filthy ships

they’re headed to the colonies they’re

looking for land and economic

opportunity

but when they arrive they’re labeled

swarms of swarthy aliens who

heard together who said this

none other than one of our founding

fathers benjamin

franklin samuel morse

you may know him as the inventor of the

telegraph

he actually wrote a book that called

catholic immigration

a foreign conspiracy against the united

states

there was a minister in boston named

theodore parker he called the irish the

most

ignorant and barbarian race these

immigrants were considered to be such a

threat that riots broke out in american

cities

one of the deadliest happened in

louisville kentucky in 1855

this is when 500 citizens tore through

the streets

attacking and killing foreigners

that day is still remembered as bloody

monday

the chinese were the next to come they

first came to try their luck as part of

the california gold rush

later they were recruited to build the

country’s first transcontinental

railroad

but when that work was done lawmakers

and labor leaders shouted that the

chinese must go

the threat was considered to be so great

that in 1882 the united states passed

the chinese exclusion act

this is where we see the difference that

race makes

the chinese exclusion act was the first

federal law

to single out an entire group for

exclusion based on their race and their

class

chinese were barred from becoming

naturalized citizens they were beaten

they were killed they were driven out of

cities and towns from across the u.s

west

and they were deported

chinese immigrants detained at the angel

island immigration station in san

francisco wrote poems

of frustration and despair on the prison

walls you can actually still

read this one at the museum there

it reads from now on i’m departing far

from this building

all of my fellow villagers are rejoicing

with me

don’t say that everything within is

western styled

even if it is built of jade it has

turned into

a cage the exclusion act was law of the

land

for 61 years by the 1930s all other

asians were also barred from the united

states and from becoming naturalized

citizens

soon immigrants from southern eastern

and central europe were coming

they were also looking for economic

opportunity or

like jewish families in russia freedom

from persecution

when asked why he was coming to america

one jewish refugee said

in america lies hope

that hope may prove futile he said

but here the fears are certainty

it was refugees and immigrants like him

that helped to inspire emma lazarus’s

poem the one that is inscribed at the

base of the statue of liberty

you know the one it starts give me your

tired

your poor your huddled masses yearning

to breathe free

but a growing number of americans

believe that these immigrants and

refugees were dangerous

a group calling itself the immigration

restriction league called italians the

most

ignorant race of europe national

magazines published stories on the

so-called

jewish invasion of america

and guess what the ku klux klan got

involved

they were busy organizing campaigns of

racial terror

and white supremacy targeting african

americans but they were also

anti-immigrant

and anti-semitic in the 1920s they

published this pamphlet calling for

a vigilant protection of america for

americans

against the flood of foreigners coming

to the united states

so we can see how white supremacy racism

and xenophobia work together in groups

like the kkk

but we can also see it in our

immigration policies

by the 1920s the united states is

leaving the doors open to immigrants

from northern and western europe

but we’re restricting immigration from

southern central

and eastern europe and we’re shutting

the door all together

to asians the us border patrol gets

established

pretty soon it becomes a crime to enter

the country without documentation

these laws last for decades

and by 1960 immigration is at a historic

low in the united states

but in 1965 something fabulous happens

the civil rights movement helps to usher

in a new law

one that reopens the united states to

new immigration

we have immigrants from asia latin

america and africa

coming to our country again transforming

our nation

their students their workers their

doctors and family members

and they’re also refugees fleeing

another war

one refugee described their plight i was

born in vietnam

into a world at war we

lived and breathed war we dreamt of

peace

eventually over one million refugees

from southeast asia

were resettled in the united states but

at the same time

other policies are making it even more

difficult

for immigrants especially those from

mexico to enter the country

so a growing number come without

documentation

an immigration backlash rises

with politicians like patrick buchanan

who describe mexican immigration as

an illegal invasion of the united states

the u.s begins its war on illegal

immigration

the u.s mexico border gets militarized

and growing numbers

of mexican and latinx immigrants are

arrested

detained and deported

and then comes 9 11 islamophobia the

fear

and hatred of muslims rises there are

some americans who blame all muslims for

the terrorist attacks

some politicians deliberately feel

islamophobia as a way to get voters to

the polls

the fbi reports that anti-muslim hate

crimes

rises by 1600 percent

today xenophobia is as strong

as it has ever been before current

policies under the trump administration

include the muslim ban the wall along

the u.s mexico border

and a near end to our refugee

resettlement program

during the current coronavirus pandemic

we’re actually demonizing the very

people who are keeping us safe

like public health care workers who

become victims of anti-asian hate crimes

or undocumented meat packers who lack

safe working conditions just to get food

on our tables we’re continuing a

tradition that has

deep roots history shows that xenophobia

has

been part of our country since the very

beginning it’s

one of the ways in which race and racism

works in america

and it’s not going to go away anytime

soon

but history also shows that xenophobia

hurts us all it is not just something

that happens to immigrants

it feeds division white supremacy white

nationalism it furthers

racial discrimination

the stakes could not be higher and we

must all take action we must

advocate for immigrants and refugees we

must

challenge ineffective and cruel laws and

yes we must

vote xenophobic politicians out of

office but in order to

fight hate we must do more so that’s

why i’m going to call on all of you to

do something

sometime today tomorrow this week

i want you to ask yourselves this

question

what am i doing to challenge xenophobia

and racism

in my job in my community in my family

let me share with you how i’ve answered

this question

i’m lucky i’m an educator

many of my students are first generation

immigrants

and refugees i know that their stories

are not yet part of the history books i

know

that there’s no archive that holds them

and preserves them for future

generations

i feel that it’s my job to change that

i need to help them tell their stories

because if they don’t do it who will

and if there’s no archive to hold them

then we need to

build it ourselves so that’s why i

created the immigrant stories digital

storytelling project with my colleagues

at the immigration history research

center

it helps anyone anywhere create

preserve and share their stories for

free

there are now over 350 stories in the

collection

some of them were created by my students

but most

by strangers from across the country

me share two of them with you

the first is tiago’s

tiago talks about what it was like to

grow up in this country as an

undocumented dreamer the hardships he

faced

the struggles he had but also

the joy that he felt when he finally

became a legal permanent resident

and got that driver’s license my

time is now he said

and then there’s liang ling describes

how this

super hip sony stereo she called it was

her family’s most

treasured possession while they were

living in a refugee camp in thailand

and how once in america they used that

stereo to send

audio letters back to relatives left

behind in laos

it’s been decades since her family came

to the united states

and that sony stereo is now sitting on a

shelf collecting dust

but it is still one of her family’s most

treasured possessions

these stories and the hundreds of others

like them have the power to change

the way we think about immigration and

challenge

xenophobia and racism they’re the

stories of

real people not stereotypes

they help us see what unites us

rather than what divides us we need more

creative solutions like these

that foster empathy solidarity and

justice

so do the work needed to help create

this change

we must all work together to build a

future

that is not about us

versus them but we

[Applause]

you