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