Xenophobia Poisons Our Nation

by

John J. Dunphy

(Originally published in the 9–28–19 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL)

During a recent dialogue on Facebook, a Trump supporter declared that The Donald isn’t “as secretive or obnoxious as most politicians.” As though such a claim weren’t outlandish enough, this person’s post continued thus: “I DO cringe at what he says on occasion but he says what most of us reasonably intelligent humans are thinking.”

The first thing that came to mind was Trump’s infamous complaint about immigrants coming to the United States from “s**thole countries,” which he defined as countries with non-white majority populations. Trump then pandered to his hardcore followers by expressing a desire for immigrants from a nation such as Norway. I was about to post a reply affirming that xenophobia is reprehensible, especially when expressed by our nation’s sitting president. Instead, I decided to write this column.

My 9–21–19 column was titled “White supremacy permeates our nation.” So does xenophobia. An animosity toward immigrants, which played such a crucial role in placing Trump in our nation’s Oval Office, has a long, toxic history in the United States.

Just 22 years after we declared our independence from Britain, President John Adams signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts. Passed by the Federalist majority in Congress, these measures lengthened the residency requirement to become a U.S. citizen from five to fourteen years. As one Federalist politician put it, our nation should not “invite hordes of wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of the world” to seek new lives in the United States.

Nineteenth-century Irish families who fled famine, poverty and British oppression in their native land found hostility in America. Their Catholic religion marked them as outsiders among a population that was overwhelmingly Protestant. Discrimination was common. Signs posted in many businesses warned, “Dogs and Irish Keep Out!”

Catholic immigrants from other nations such as Germany were also victimized by bigoted, native-born Americans. Xenophobic voters flocked to the banner of the Know-Nothing party, which enjoyed electoral success in the northeastern states and even as far west as California. Its presidential candidate in 1856, former president Millard Fillmore, received 21 per cent of the popular vote.

In the Sept. 29, 1854 edition of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley denounced the Chinese as “uncivilized, unclean and filthy beyond all description.” Chinese men were “lustful and sensual” and every Chinese woman was a “prostitute of the basest order.” President Chester Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law in 1882. This measure banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. White miners in 1885 killed as many as fifty Chinese miners during the Rock Springs Massacre in Wyoming.

The Immigration Act of 1924 was even more reprehensible. It banned all immigration from Asia. It also severely limited the number of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who could enter the United States. Although white, these Europeans were regarded by American xenophobes as comprising inferior racial stock.

During the 1930s, as many as one million persons of Mexican descent were forced to leave the United States. In their book “Decade of Betrayal,” Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez state that as many as 60 percent of these victims were American citizens. “Wetback” is a derogatory term for a Mexican who entered the United States by crossing the Rio Grande. Incredibly, “Operation Wetback” was chosen as the official name for a federal program launched in 1954 to remove Mexican immigrants — many of whom were American citizens — from the United States.

Trump’s 2016 campaign that demonized Latin Americans and Muslims comprised the most recent chapter in our nation’s shameful history of xenophobia. It’s time for Americans of conscience to resolve that it was also the final chapter.

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John J. Dunphy’s books include “Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois”and “Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.” He is the Godfrey Fifteenth Precinct Democratic Committeeperson and serves as recording secretary for the Godfrey Democrats.