Nativism, xenophobia, and racism are often considered delicate topics to bring up. These three problems have always been in the US, and will continue for years. I think these three things are huge problems that need solving. People die because of racism, xenophobia, and nativism. Occasionally, the murderer is defended by many, and doesn’t end up in the prison system.
Nativism is defined as 1) a policy of favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants, or 2) the revival or perpetuation of an indigenous culture especially in opposition to acculturation. Nativism started with the beginning of our country in the mid-1850’s. There was a political party called the Know Nothings who based everything they did off of nativism. They started out as a secret society but grew into the political party we primarily know them as today. Their goal was to stop immigrants from coming in and continue their American traditions and culture, or lack of thereof. During the time, the people coming to the US were mostly from Britain, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia, and other places in Northern Europe. There was nativism in the 1800’s because people believed that the new immigrants from other countries were taking their jobs. In the late 1800’s Nativism became even more prominent. The immigrants at the time were referred to as new immigrants. They were mostlt from South Eastern Europe and places like Asia and the Middle East. Nativism has been in the US for a long time.
The definition of xenophobia is a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries. Xenophobia is very similar to nativism. In today’s society, xenophobia is very present. The amount of it has skyrocketed since Covid-19 first came around. People have been discriminating against people of Chinese or Asian descent. Xenophobia has been devastating to Asain-Americans for the past year and a half, though they have been discriminated against for the past who-knows-how-long. Xenophobia also happens constantly at the Mexican-US border. There is a program called the ICE that keeps people in cages. It was originally started by former president Barack Obama, to solve the overpopulation problem. Former president Donald Trump expanded on the ICE and has turned it into a series of what are often referred to as concentration camps. Innocent children are kept in cages for years and sexually harassed and raped. Doctors are paid to perform hysterectomies on women who do not consent to the surgeries, and often don’t even understand what the surgery is. All of this simply because some people refuse to let people from other countries make a life here. People of colour are often told to, “go back to your country,” even if they were born on American soil. Xenophobia is still insanely present in the US and it’s sad how many people have died because of it.
Racism is often defined as a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Racism is everywhere. Racism is often a product of stereotypes. The sexualization of Asiain women is one of many forms of racism. People often stereotype black people to dangerous people who you should avoid. That’s often the reason for the murder of black people who should not have been killed by police. Asian men are often stereotyped as smart, putting pressure on them to do better than everyone else in their grade as tenagers. Because of these stereotypes, we lean towards thinking every person who looks like that must be like this one person who also looked like that. These racist stereotypes harm everyone, including white people. They harm us because many of us are now wrongfully stereotyped into being one of those racist people who don’t try to understand where liberals and democrats are coming from. We often connect race to country and assume everyone who isn’t white must be born in a different country. This is often what causes us to think racism and nationalism are one-in-the-same.
These problems are relevant in the USA society and they are very harmful to people. Nativism, xenophobia, and racism have been problems since the start of our country. There have been times where xenophobia has been more present, and times when it has been less. There have been many nativist organizations with more power than they should have.
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Authour Diary & Tags
Acakbecause I need to rant abt random stuff. Also tags Diary chapters are not written like a story, usually written like a rant with better grammer. Also also: beware, this book does include some things that might trigger some in the diary chapters.
