When Fear Controls Us

It happens sometimes that topics just leap out at us and demand that we have to have some type of reasonable discourse.  The current climate of fear surrounding the issue of immigration is one of those, as some Americans choose to place blame and point the finger of their life frustrations on those coming to our country.  When fear and ignorance combine to overtake reason and logic, as they may have in the recent election, we are all the worse for it.  My late grandfather used to say, tongue-in-cheek, “My mind’s made up.  Don’t confuse me with facts.”

We have all come across individuals in our lives that strive to feel better about themselves by denigrating others.  I’ve known a few in my life.  In the past, we called it “assertive”.  Now we know that these people for what they are –  bullies.  Their inadequacies, individually or collectively, have become someone else’s fault. Some surprisingly high profile people have been speaking out, and they’re saying that immigrants are the cause of lost jobs, violence, high crime rates, and of course we all should know they’re directly responsible for drugs in America.  That caravan heading north is more than likely just a huge smuggling operation.  Next, we’ll be told that identity theft and the spread of socially transmitted diseases, along with the rampant popularity of salsa, are a large part of immigration too.  Folks coming in from Central and South America are somehow weakening the fabric of American society, or at least white American society. Those immigrating from the Middle East and Africa are probably terrorists.  To hear the current White House occupant tell it, the only really safe immigrants are Norwegians – they look like “us” and are highly trained.

Ironically, there was a time when we brought Africans in chains to America, and designated them as three fifths of a person for census purposes.  They weren’t taking jobs away from white Americans – quite the opposite. There was a need for workers and this was the least expensive solution.  We somehow convinced ourselves that forced servitude as a philosophy was the natural order of things – an extension of indenture.  While we think that as Americans we’ve made some significant strides and improved our multicultural outlook, many continue to marginalize not just African Americans but anyone who looks different or projects a difference.  We heap suspicion on people with a darker skin color or who speak English with a non-European accent.  And if they don’t speak English at all, well then, what does that tell us?

It wasn’t that long ago that Americans hung out signs reading, “Whites only” and “Irish need not apply”.  This was very much a part of my Irish-American heritage, when my ancestors were escaping the Potato Famine in the 1800’s. They were not welcomed any more at that time than the Caravan refugees are today. Many Americans are not aware of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, another sad period representing the worst of America’s exclusive tendencies.  This shut the borders to Chinese immigrants and prohibited Chinese Americans from obtaining US citizenship through naturalization. Sound familiar?  All because Chinese workers were “taking jobs away from Americans”.  Of course, the Chinese population, primarily on the West Coast, only made up .002% of the population, and at the same time, corporate America was arranging a land grab for Hawaii, eliminating its government and taking control of its people.  We weren’t afraid of native Hawaiians, as some are today about Puerto Ricans, because they weren’t coming here. The Exclusion Act, one of blatant discrimination, continued for sixty years, and wasn’t repealed until the 1940’s, by which time it had become part of the American psyche. At that time, we could begin directing our fear and paranoia at Communists, who as we now know were hiding under every bed in America.  Perhaps that plaque on the State of Liberty, which arrived about the same time as the Chinese Exclusion Act was being promulgated, should have read, “Give me your tired, your poor, your gun-toting, English-speaking huddled masses that are able to blend in, work below minimum wage, and Make white Americans look Great.”

This most recent round of elections has brought out some of the best and definitely the worst in many parts of the country.  Just when we thought we were taking a few steps forward, it becomes painfully obvious that some are still moving firmly and steadily backward.  Of course, these are typically the same people that think coal will bounce back as a major fuel source.  To quote Archie and Edith Bunker, “Gee our old LaSalle ran great.” Constantly looking back. We’re hearing again, “Build the Wall”.   How well did that work out in China?  Did the Great Wall keep out the Mongolians centuries ago? I’m thinking . . . . no, if history is to be believed.  Walls can be scaled, moats and rivers can be crossed, and drawbridges will eventually come down.  Children love treehouses because they feel invincible – until someone new climbs the ladder.

Fear and suspicion are powerful motivations, and if history is anything to go by, probably the most destructive. It’s right up there with religious zealotry, and the two seem to blend well into a toxic mix. I should point out that fear is becoming a Western epidemic, not just here in the United States.  It was immigration more than economics that drove many British to vote for an exit from the European Union.  But let’s be honest here.  Most incidents of violence in America, like the recent tragedy at a Synagogue in Pittsburgh or church shootings in South Carolina and Texas, are perpetrated by crazy white people, not by people that entered this country either legally or illegally.  This is misplaced hate and a misguided sense of entitlement, of “taking back”.  Everywhere one looks, there are hate websites, hate speeches, and rants about “racial purity” that would have made Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels take a deep breath.

Let’s attempt a more honest look at this situation.  Immigrants from all parts of the globe have for generations, for centuries now, made a huge positive, multifaceted impact on our society and our culture.  It’s terribly short-sighted of us to overlook or deny that impact, and because of that denial, to fear where diversity might lead us.  The numbers and percentages of Nobel Prize winners from the United States jump out at us, but a significant number were not born here.  Some of our greatest entrepreneurs and influential figures in all areas came here from other places – first, second, and third world countries, because the opportunities for success were here.  “If that cofounder of Google hadn’t been an immigrant, I, a white, law-abiding American could have done that.”  Except you couldn’t.  Skills and imagination – brainpower –  usually take the lead over ethnicity. European countries are finding, albeit slowly, that many of the immigrants from the Middle East, particularly Syria, are some of the most skilled professionals – engineers, scientists, artists, people that could potentially replace a workforce depleted by declining birth rates. The United States has always been stronger because of its immigrant populations as a source of divergent cultural traditions as well as workers, ideas, and innovations.  To believe that one race has an intellectual advantage over others is, of course, preposterous, and yet some persist.  Some continue to think that by slamming the doors shut, pulling up the drawbridges, and building walls high enough, we’ll be safer, happier, and somehow more productive. Like the people living in and supporting the Confederate States of America, followers of ISIS, or citizens of the Thousand-Year Reich, border-closing, wall-building racial purists are clearly on the wrong side of history.