The phrase “nation of immigrants” (1883) is often applied to the United States, especially by its scholars, journalists, presidents and schoolteachers.
Last week, President Obama put it like this (on November 20th 2014):
“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebearers were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like or what our last names are, or how we worship.”
His words do not apply to about 40% of the nation:
- Not to Native Americans who were wiped out or driven west.
- Nor to Black Americans who were brought in chains.
- Nor to Chinese Americans who were killed or driven out of the western US in the late 1800s.
- Nor to Mexican Americans deported in the 1930s.
- Nor to the people whose lands the US took over: Native Americans, Northern Mexicans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Guamanians, Palauans, Eastern Samoans, Northern Mariana Islanders or Virgin Islanders.
- Nor, given the perpetual foreigner stereotype, to Asian Americans.
- Nor to most British or Dutch Americans, who were not immigrants (people who move to a foreign country) but colonists (people who create an offshoot of their mother country). Calling them “immigrants” would mean they joined Native American societies. They were conquerors and invaders, not “immigrants”.
In English the word “immigrant” only goes back to 1792. The phrase “nation of immigrants” does not appear in print till 1883, not in the New York Times till 1923. It was still a surprising idea at Harvard University in 1945, even for historian Oscar Handlin, who grew up in New York City as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. It did not take off till the 1960s, when President Kennedy wrote a book for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League called “A Nation of Immigrants” (1964).
So when Obama says, as he did in 2010, 2013 and 2014:
“We’ve always defined ourselves as a nation of immigrants.”
He is reading history backwards. It is an idea that did not catch on till the Third Enlargement of Whiteness, which took in southern and eastern Europeans.
Obama on Independence Day, 2012:
“We say it so often, we sometimes forget what it means – we are a nation of immigrants. Unless you are one of the first Americans, a Native American, we are all descended from folks who came from someplace else – whether they arrived on the Mayflower or on a slave ship, whether they came through Ellis Island or crossed the Rio Grande.”
The “nation of immigrants” thing colour-blinds US history as if it were not much affected by racism – genocide, slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism, etc – as if Italian and Jamaican immigrants are pretty much the same, or English colonists and African slaves, as if US institutions protect everyone’s rights regardless of race and the Bootstrap Myth is true.
Thanks to Kyle for suggesting this post.
See also:
Spot on!
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Does Obama believe this rewritten history, or is it just pandering to (mostly liberal) whites and the associated mythology?
part two of white (mostly liberal) mythology.
Part three.
Part four
Part Five.
Abagond, you should link your post
It fits in very nicely with this topic.
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More like we are FRAGMENTS of immigrants!
How can we be a “nation” when some citizens don’t see those who look a little different from them as fully human, fully citizens, too?
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All this is why I study the changing policies if (im)migration policy. In a country that preaches Freedom and Liberty, it has always been more freedom and more liberty for light skinned people.
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Just Me
How can we be a “nation” when some citizens don’t see those who look a little different from them as fully human, fully citizens, too?
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One way to resolve this problem is to base nationality on an idea instead of “blood” or ancestry; this is what the Aryan considers “Jewish thought” which they oppose and claim springs first from corruption of blood (race mixing).
Thought is much more difficult to police than behavior; if not impossible.
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@ Jefe
Added that link. Thanks.
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Mexicans should stay in Mexico. 1/3 of North America and 1/2 of South America are Hispanophone. Let us Anglophones keep our 1/2 of Norh America (1/6 is French Quebec) and our small bit of South America (Guiana).
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The most important task for the USA (like for every other non subsaharan African country, be it Norway, Bangladesh or Peru) is to prevent getting a subsaharan african population majority. So besides the huge migration pressure from subsaharan africa to the rest of the world – due to its unbelievable high TFR – the USA should say NO to immigration from subsaharan Africa. Immigration from middleamerica, southamerica, asia is not really a problem
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Too bad for you Erik, but the money changers and compound interest have decided otherwise.
People ARE money; they are the true source of value (demand) for those who own and control the wealth and means of production.
Please try again.
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George Ryder
immigrants have never been welcome in America.
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But their labor and demand (consumption) always is.
You sound like a broke white person?
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From 1700 to 1965, the USA Demographics were always within 5% of 85% White, 15% Black. That is the natural state of America, and the way it should be.
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George Ryder
i’m just stating the obvious.
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That you don’t own any wealth or means of production?
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George Ryder
what are the demographics now & what has caused the change?
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Bobby M is spending too much time on complaining about demographics and not enough time banging out white women.
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This is indeed spot on and brings home the point that the “nation of immigrants” theme is as much a national myth as Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”
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All that “Give Me Your tired and huddled masses” They (Americans) never wanted the tired and huddled masses then all those many years ago and they don’t want them now. The Speaker of The House is talking about suing the POTUS. And here in my state of Texas the new Governor elect Gregg Abbott is talking about suing the POTUS. They are angry about this immigration issue. When those young children were being brought to Texas by their parents from Central America and being put in detention centers. They were talking about why the POTUS hasn’t secured the borders to keep the illegals out. This is the ugly truth Americans don’t want immigrants here. I am sure i am not saying anything people don’t know already.
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@ Erik Sieven
The “white folks only” types such as yourself fail to mention that the African immigrants who come to America outperform you educationally & income wise like its nothing, overcome language barriers & start businesses & drive down rates of crime no matter where they move to, even in your perfect lily-white fantasy suburbs. If I had to take a guess I would say this is the real reason you don’t want so-called Sub-Saharan Africans (what a ridiculous term) to be the majority population. If it happens within your lifetime and all these black peoples are living around you with bigger houses, more wealth & education you wouldn’t even need to admit that white superiority is a myth, their presence alone would prove it.
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I just learned what an anchor baby was from watching an episode on Law and Order. Kids born in the U.S. secure their parents stay here in the U.S. the term is pretty self explanatory is suppose.
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‘Tis far better to be destitute in a monocultural country than to be affluent in a multicultural one.
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@ Bobby M
I’m sure the Native Americans loved the multiculturalism Europeans brought with them. Who wouldn’t love epidemics caused by disease, slavery, murder, rape, pillaging, being stripped of ones own language, religion, customs & forcibly made to follow another & overall 2nd class (at best) citizenry in ones own home.
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Lets also dispel the notion that the number of whites are dwindling. There numbers are still very substantial its just that many go by names like Alicia Keys, Maggie Q, Lenny Kravitz, Boris Kodjoe etc. The white supremacists never realized the one-drop rule would one day shoot them in the foot, irony at its finest.
Also counted statistically but not socially are people who originate from the Middle East & White Hispanics who because of differences in culture, religion, language or having the slightest tan thus making them unable to pass as white get expelled from the We-White-Colored-Haters-Club
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My ancestors came after the potato famine, Kiwi. And I never said anything about blacks, they have been here for hundreds of years, and are Anglophone. It is not even the educated Asians that concern me. It is the unassimilable Mexican Mestizoes.
And I would gladly see my cost of living go up if it meant the number of Mexicans in My countey went down.
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unassimilable (sic) Mexican Mestizoes (sic)
Ha-ha. Straight out of this post.
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/the-fourth-enlargement-of-american-whiteness/)
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@Bobby M
Irishmen and “swarthy” Italians and Spaniards were considered “unassimilable” by proper American society until they were finally inducted into the Hall of Whiteness. So what makes your kind any better than the “unassimilable” mestizos you whine about?
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Irishmen and Italians are not half Amerindian
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@Bobby M
So have Mexicans. There were “here” even before Blacks.
They are not even part European, for the most part.
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2nd-gen Asians are much richer than 2nd-gen Mestizoes.
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Bobby M, just take the L
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Mestizoes contribute a lot to our society: Gangs, Drugs, Killings, Rapes, Vandalism, etc
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The Prince of Wales is not Welsh?
HTF did that happen?
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We are a nation of wishful thinkers?
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Reblogged this on Mbeti's Blog.
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@ Bobby M
A great way to discredit a people is to paint them as unrepentant criminals for the benefit of a frightened (and, deep down, bloodthirsty) audience. Basically, stoke up that fear of The Other and attribute every bad thing you could think of about them.
Meanwhile, you paint your own ethnic group as saints and successes, regardless of the sordid past and reputations they’ve had to overcome just to get to that point. No dogs or Irish allowed.
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The debate is about how to treat Mexican, Central and South American people who come to the US in order to find usually badly exploited work. The irony is that they’re even called immigrants. Physically / genealogically they are Native American people. They’re the last people anyone should be calling immigrants on Turtle Island.
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Mexicans are on average 57% White, 39% Amerindian and 4% Black. And their Amerindian component is not US Amerindian (Cherokee, Sioux, Navaho, Choctaw, etc…), it is Mexico Amerindian (Aztec, Zapotec, Mayan, etc…). Saying that Mexicans have a right to live here because they are part Aztec is just as ridiculous as saying that someone who is 3/8 Greek automatically is qualified to live in Finland because they are both European.
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Re Bobby M’s claim
so how would having English, German, Scotch-Irish, Igbo or Korean ancestry make one more entitled to live in North America?
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Two can play that game Bobby:
Germans are on average 57% Dinaric, 39% Mongol and 4% Nordic. And their Central Europe component is not Alpine (Swiss, French, English, Dutch etc…), it is Baltic (Slovak,Slav, Turkiod etc…). Saying that Germans have a right to live in Denmark because they are part Nordic is just as ridiculous as saying that someone who is 3/8 Bosnian automatically is qualified to live in Saudi Arabia because they are both Arab.
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Except none of what you said is true. Germans are not 39% Mongol. You put up a strawman.
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I set your strawman on fire.
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Mexicans have contributed nothing to America.
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Mexicans are sweeping the nation.
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And ruining it
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If white people move to the moon they would have some cheese to go along with their whine.
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But America is MY country. Mexico is their country.
What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours, and what’s theirs is theirs.
It’s really not a difficult concept to grasp.
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Is the atmosphere yours too?
How bout the oceans?
All those nonwhites breathin up the white mans air and drinkin up his water…. using his sun light…
How dare they.
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Bobby M
Except what you believe is yours isn’t yours. Last I checked America is on loan from China.
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Bobby M
You’re forgetting that up until relatively recent history the Southwest, Southern California, Southern Utah, Colorado & Nevada were all part of Mexico and the Natives were forced south when America once again put their dirty paws on land that didn’t belong to them. So yes Jefe is correct, they were “here” long before you were.
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I swear this country has a long way to go. I mean is it any surprise why racism is still so prevalent? People just want to ignore it. I will admit that sometimes I hate talking about racism. It’s like we say the shame crap but stuff stays the same. Plus I feel almost sick just thinking about it sick with hopelessness.
Like my dad says oh ill encounter racism one day in college but i kinda mentally just dismiss it. Like i understand where hes coming from but its just so foreign to me living in New York. I’ve been around whites, blacks, Hispanics and now a generally more diverse area of Brooklyn and while things may have differed in the kind of insults people said to me, I still had the same loneliness lack of friendships where I went and that was not because of racism.
Not that there’s no racism here its just that I never had to deal with it. That’s why when Abagond says he encountered racism in NY and that most whites are racist it’s difficult for me to believe. Like my experience has been different at most I’ve dealt with ignorant comments from whites before but mainly Asians at my high school. Plus I am WAY younger than her is so that is definitely a factor.
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“Meanwhile, you paint your own ethnic group as saints and successes, regardless of the sordid past and reputations they’ve had to overcome just to get to that point. No dogs or Irish allowed.”
I found out something two days ago, It happened four years ago but I just found out about it. I was looking for any Roknić (grandma’s maiden name) who might still be kicking around in those ghost towns they’ve made of us. Any of those kooks who’d still be knocking around after you’ve gone from two million to not even 100,000. So, of course, you’re gonna find a noisy Roknić in that pile.
The story was about his wife, an unemployed attorney (Serbs in Croatia are 100% discriminated against.) She ran for deputy mayor and she WON. The day after she won they announced that the job was only part-time, and there was no pay. LOL. Why does this make me laugh?
Then later she goes on about the Serbian ghettoes. That’s not a loaner word from America. That’s a European term. They aren’t getting city services. No road maintenance, no public transportation. No running water. LOL Why is this making me laugh?
I have always enjoyed a good, insightful analysis of subtly veiled racism. But you could be dumb as a rock and thick as molasses and you’d still notice they’d shut off the water.
But we really are perfectly intelligent people, they could be significantly more subtle with us, but they aren’t. They don’t have to be. But the point is not that we’re down from two million to 100,000. It’s that we survived 350 years in a ghetto where we were being relentlessly forced to pass. But we wouldn’t. And now we’ve got this secret developed. We have figured out how to ingraine our culture into our DNA. it’s a Tesla in Serbian Heaven thing. {That’s the fiction, not the news article. I just drove 900 miles in two days and now i can’t stop writing science fiction, and I don’t even like science fiction..)
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@Curious
Both you and your Dad grew up in New York City? in Brooklyn?
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Mexicans have contributed nothing to America.
Besides posting lunacies on a blog, what have you done? Nothing so STFU.
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They are ruining America.
We should make a giant taco shell, throw them all in it, and send them all to the Yucatan, far away from us
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The Irish are Anglophone, and are not 39% Amerindian.
The natural state of America is
85% White
12% Black
3% Asian + Hispanic (mostly Puerto Rican and Cuban)
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No. Aztecs, Zapotecs, etc…, are not indigenous to the USA. Mexican Mestizoes are not descended from the same Amerindians that lived in the USA
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@ Bobby Martnen
That “natural” state was created by the US and governments: Indian removals and massacres, breaking Indian treaties, Homestead Acts, support for housing segregation, anti-Asian immigration law, deportation of Mexicans, anti-miscegenation laws, etc.
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@ Bobby Marten
The US south-west has been under Speaking-speaking rule much longer than English-speaking rule. So Spanish is more “natural” to it than English.
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It was barely populated for all of its time under Spain.
In fact, Mexico invited Anglos into Texas because very few Mexicans wanted to live there.
And Blacks are an essential and vital part of American culture, it wouldn’t be America without them.
As for Mexicans, it’s not America with them.
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And regarding the “anti-Asian immigration laws”, every nation has a right to decide who it allows to immigrate. That is an important part od sovereignity.
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Florida too.
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I’ve noticed that the people who are most aware of how their ancestors claimed and conquered North America are the most fanatical when it comes to ownership, like our friend Bobby M. It doesn’t matter how his ancestors took the land – it became theirs and now it’s his and he’s letting no one else even broach the idea of taking it back. Hence the vitriol against Mexicans. If the native Americans weren’t all either bred out or safely exiled away in reservations, he’d probably whine about them, too.
Amazing how these guys crow loudly about sovereignty, considering how this nation came to be in the first place.
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And Blacks are an essential and vital part of American culture, it wouldn’t be America without them.
Yes, you are so correct Bobby! Without the cullud you racist white folk wouldn’t have perpetual scapegoats to look down upon in order to maintain your false sense of superiority!
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@Kiwi – the Irish weren’t allowed to decide who could come into Ireland. Look how well that turned out for them. *sarcasm*
And I know that the Irish were brutalized by the British, But it was their knowledge of English language and culture that made them compatible with America in a way that Mexicans are not.
And I would love for everyone who is not at least part Irish by blood to by expelled from Ireland, and then for Ireland to be reunified, with a law that says you must be of Irish descent to immigrate to Ireland.
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@Herneith – I don’t look down on Black people at all. They have been a part of America for almost 4 centuries. They all speak English.
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So If we let hordes of Mexicans into the USA, the same thing will happen to us
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But they are not assimilating. And the Southwest was rightfully ours. In fact, the US should control all of this land:
http://bobbymartnen.deviantart.com/art/Truamerica-497181210
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Don’t worry Bobby, in the future when all the Anglo Saxons go the way of the Native Americans; you will still have places named “Washington” and “New Hampshire” to betray your ancient presence.
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Can someone explain Bobby M’s statement to me?
Is that why he says he doesn’t mind Asians in the USA?
And BTW, haven’t Mexicans and other Spanish descended peoples been in what is now the USA for 500 years?
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In very small numbers, yes Mexicans have. However, they have not been an integral part of our nation and culture in the way blacks have.
I challenge you to name one non-culinary* thing Mexicans have contributed to American society or culture.
Asians are usually relatively educated and affluent, and integrate into American society well.
And I don’t object to All Hispanics.
I love Cubans, because they came here fleeing communism for freedom. They have contributed so much to America, fought in our wars, generated $51 billion for our economy. I would repeal the wet feet, dry feet policy and give automatic US citizenship to any Cuban, except high-ranking Commie officials.
I love Porto Ricans* because they have been part of our country for 116 years, and are the most Americanized of all the Hispanic nations. They are all US citizens and have the right to live anywhere in America.
I love Argentines and Uruguyans because they have a lot in common with America. They are both predominantly populated by European Immigrants and their descendants, and are wealthier than the more Tropical Hispanic nations.
And I would welcome PhD educated people from other Hispanic nations.
I just don’t want the lazy, uneducated, unassimilable, irredentist, diseased Mexican underclass moving to America
*non-culinary because ethnic restaurants are the norm across the world. I’ve seen Mexican restaurants in Peking and Chinese restaurants in Cracow.
*not a misspelling – the proper English spelling, which for some reason has been largely superseded by the Spanish spelling “Puerto Rico”
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We should have renamed those cities St. Francis, Angel City, St. Joseph, and St. James. Las Vegas should have been renamed Meadow City, just like “La Nouvelle Orléans” became “New Orleans”. American cities should have American names.
And, sure, they built small settlements their, but those cities did not become important until Americans developed them.
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Bobby Martnen
I challenge you to name one non-culinary* thing Mexicans have contributed to American society or culture.
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Carlos Santana!
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Shicago, Illinoy I wholeheartedly support. Same with Arcansaw. Detroit is given an English pronunciation, so it is fine. Annahime would be a better spelling than Anaheim.
I would also support a law forcing immigrants to remove all diacritics from their name and translate given names to English equivalents, if they exist (Heinrich, Henri, Enrico, Enrique, and Hendrik would all become Henry, but Liang would be unchanged) so they can become Americans
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My full list of recommended state name changes:
Alaska -> Alasca
Arkansas -> Arcansaw
Connecticut -> Conneticut
Hawaii -> Owyhee
Illinois -> Illinoy
Kansas -> Cansas
Michigan -> Mishigan
Mississippi -> Mississippy
Missouri -> Mizurry
Nebraska -> Nebrasca
North Dakota -> North Dacota
Oklahoma -> Oclahoma
South Dakota -> South Dacota
Utah -> Utaw
All of these match the pronunciation better
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Bobby Martnen
I challenge you to name one non-culinary* thing Mexicans have contributed to American society or culture.
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For the benefit of Bobby and all those who do not believe Mexicans have contributed value to American society or culture;
I see your Starbucks and raise you one Carlos Santana with
Soul Sacrifice:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZceAQSJvc)
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When America becomes 40% Mexican, as it probably will by 2085, it will cease to be America. Sure, the name will proabably stay the same, but it will be indistinguishable from Mexico in most other ways.
We will all speak Spanish instead of English, and Mestizoes will control everything.
American culture will be gone, replaced by Mexican culture.
Mexico will probably try to steal the southwest, an integral part of AMERICA.
The world already has a Mexico, and it does not need another. It needs an America.
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@ Bobby M
Oh please. Your precious Amerikkka that the world so NEEDS, according to you, will have no trouble being the sad, sick game it has always been. It has no trouble brainwashing people of different religions and languages into becoming Good Amerikkkans.
Your nativist whining about how immigrants are going to destroy the US is as old as the country itself, going back to at least Ben Franklin complaining about Germans:
and:
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@ Bobby Martnen
Here are six:
1. California
2. Nevada
3. Utah
4. Arizona
5. New Mexico
6. Texas
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@abagond
Like you said in your post “Mulatto Nation”, America is a fusion of European (predominantly British) and West African cultures. I never advocated for an allwhite America. Blacks are a very important part of the country. Black music is the basis of all modern pop, rock, and RnB music. Blacks invented Jazz, the first truly American musical style.
America would be so much culturally poorer without blacks, who also are responsible for much of this nations wealth.
Mexico, however, is a fusion of Spanish and Mesoamerican culture. And the states you mentioned were settled and developed mostly by Anglos. Sure, Mexico owned them for 15 (Texas) or 27 (others) years, but they didn’t really settle or develop them.
Mexico already is big enough, they don’t need more land.
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Personally (I’m British), I think it is best for each country to maintain it’s own ethnic composition.
But if the Americans choose to allow Mexicans to enter their country, who am I to judge?
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A lot of much needed labor, and artisanry which has contributed greatly in the U.S labor market.
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American culture will be gone, replaced by Mexican culture.
I love Mexican cuisine so I’m okay with that. How’s the shopping down there?
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@Leo, re:
So, are you saying, if a country invades and overtakes control of another country, they should expel or exterminate all of the residents who do not conform to the ethnic composition of the conquerors?
For example, when the USA took control of Hawaii, should they have expelled all the people of Hawaiian descent as well as all the Asians there and move a large group of white Anglo Americans there to replace them?
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All of these Mexicans over here should all go back to Mexico. I’m sorry, but ALOT of those people (especially the ones fresh out of Mexico) are truly disrespectful and make America seem like a different country. They need to learn how to speak ENGLISH. Everywhere you go its Spanish. I feel like I’m living in another country and this is not America anymore. Blacks were force to speak English…and so should they… and any other immigrant coming here or already over here. As the years go by American is going to be a third world country. Its beginning to look like that now. Why can’t these people stay in there own country? I don’t get it. Why can’t their government be like America and keep their own people instead of drugs and gang violence? They need freedom there too and MORE jobs so they can feed their own people and stop jumping the fence coming to America.
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@ChameleonOfmoods – I Agree 100%
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Many of the POTUS detractors still think he is an immigrant and not a U.S. citizen with a fake birth certificate.
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Mexican immigrants have a great work ethic they work in inclement weather or dangerous hot temperatures in the summer, they do all the jobs that many people don’t want to do. I have great admiration and respect for that. They are about achieving the American dream.
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Is that Everywhere? or mostly limited to the parts of the US that were part of Mexico or Spain (and thus have always been Spanish speaking since the 1500s)?
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Wow I guess a lot of people don’t really know that America actually only use to considered South America.
That Pilgrims and Puritans didn’t mix, so much that Pilgrims had a policy of shooting on site a Puritan they met. However, in such a meeting it was usually avoided because women were there. That even recently as 5 years ago some places in Australia were trying to ban Irish tourist from coming around. Calming that they were loud and violent.
That the whole concept of white brotherhood was not solidify until around the 50’s. Hence you still had very ethnic Italian, Irish, Russian, Swedish, neighborhoods that were discriminated against each other. My goodness I wish people would just go to the local museum and find out a little history. Or that American history classes would stop teaching false kumbaya history. Most of early colonial history is fighting with the French and Spain. Should also tell how much the state of LA lost economically when being bought into this countries hegemony.
This country is a mess but not because of immigration but because of the uncheck greed of many corporation.
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@KOT,
Indeed, it is amazing how ethnic whites (ie, not really Americans) became simply “whites” in the time period since WWII.
I suppose we can find the causes:
– fighting together in WWII
– raising their baby boomer kids together in non-ethnic, but white neighborhoods.
– their neighborhoods were often the ones blockbusted – in the 50s-60s, ethnic white neighborhoods got split apart by urban renewal (ie, highway construction) and blockbusting. They fled to the suburbs and lived next door to the WASPs who accepted them as at least non-black. Their kids were raised to identify with the Pilgrims and the melting pot and bootstrap myths. The next generation intermarried with each other so that the ethnic identities have basically been lost.
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[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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From Clutch:
More:
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2015/11/students-answers-to-slavery-assignment-will-leave-you-questioning-americas-school-system/
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[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]
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