Immigration and Historical Honesty: We become what our ancestors had to overcome

America’s latest anti-immigration fad is nothing new. Nor is the denial many people have in America of the irony of this anti-immigration history in America. We have a long history as the anti-immigrant nation of immigrants.

When did your ancestors come to America? Personally, my great-grandparents and at least one grandparent were immigrants. Native Americans are the only non-immigrants to America. Otherwise we ALL are descendents of immigrants. So why the self-hatred?

Most of us had ancestors who faced similar hatred when they first came over. Italians, Irish, Jews, Catholics, Chinese, Japanese, etc. etc. all faced legal obstacles to immigration and faced sometimes armed and dangerous opposition from anti-immigrant groups. All of these groups have been viewed with the same disdain and fear as their descendents now pour upon more recent immigrants.

We have become what our ancestors had to overcome.

America has a short memory. This short memory makes it very difficult for us to intelligently discuss and consider complicated issues. Racism in America can never be faced and overcome as long as we are in denial of our past as a slave nation. We were founded with slavery written into our Constitution and as a large part of our economy. But we do our best to deny that past, underestimating the effect slavery had on the social structure of our nation and even denying that our Civil War was about slavery. In the lead up to the Civil War many debates in Congress, hotly contested elections and most controversial essays and literature focused on slavery. Why isn’t Cuba a state within the Union? Because of a fear that it would be added as another slave state, thus disturbing the delicate balance in Congress between free and slave states. Even after the Civil War we have a blind spot regarding slavery. We learn that the post-Civil War government was made up of “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” forced upon the poor South. In reality, the main targets of the early KKK were LOCAL politicians, white and black, who supported equal rights for freed slaves. But we can’t face the fact that America isn’t always good and righteous. We have to sugar coat our past. But the result for the present is we fail to face up to racial issues in this nation, perpetuating inequalities and hatreds that were formed because we were a nation built on slavery.

Immigration is another blind spot. No one becomes more anti-immigrant than those whose grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants. By the third generation we are Americans. We become so American that we see ourselves as “native” and look down on anyone who is first or second generation. We forget that we were once in the same position as those who are now being looked down upon.

The oddest thing about this is that it becomes racial even though it cuts across race in many ways. This is best illustrated in a graffito I once saw in a bathroom at NYU. One person wrote, “I hate white people.” The response was: “The go back to where you came from.”

Go back to where you came from…

This assumes that American identity is white identity and that anyone who isn’t white MUST be an immigrant!

Many Hispanic and black families, and all native American families have roots in American soil going back WAY before most American whites set foot here. There is no reason to assume that someone who isn’t white must be a more recent immigrant than a white person. The vast majority of Southern black families have been in America longer than my family.

There is a false connection with race that is often assumed by all sides. But immigration cuts across race. “Southern” blacks and Caribbean blacks are at odds over immigration. Even Mexican descended families and El Salvadoran families are at odds.

What is missing from the national debate about immigration is an honest admission that we are a nation of immigrants and ALWAYS HAVE BEEN. Immigrants built our railroads. Our agriculture has always been dependent on immigrants, from my German homesteading ancestors in Iowa to today’s migrant workers. Our labor movement was started mainly by immigrant, mainly Jewish, garment workers.

I am all for empowering Native Americans. But I remember that I am a grandchild of immigrants. And I know that many of those most fearful of immigrants today are probably second and third generation Americans. We cannot discuss the issue of immigration unless we are honest about our own immigrant past and the contributions immigrants have given to our society. Only when we face these historical facts can we honestly and objectively consider the role of immigration in our society today. Otherwise we just send out a mixed message:

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