# Default Yes Immigration

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/default-yes-immigration/806975>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 19, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/default-yes-immigration/806975 "2018-01-19T16:00:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 79

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**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/default-yes-immigration/806975/79 "2018-01-24T18:19:41Z")

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> [@k9bfriender](#):
>
> Really, you claim that we are not a nation of immigrants? That we didn’t come from all over the world? You know nothing of our country’s history, if that is the case.
> 
> Now, I realize that you don’t want to be branded a racist, but everything you said in that paragraph after your “disclaimer” was in fact, racist. Claiming that selective immigration from europe is what made us successful is historical revisionism that does the service of promoting white supremacy. You ARE claiming that northern europeans are superior to other cultures and ethnicities.
> 
> You are simply factually wrong on this. I would not say that you are a racist, but wherever you got your information from most certainly is.
> 
> Hmmm, who are you leaving out here?
> 
> Did anyone come from Africa pre-1920? Anyone at all that you can think of?
> 
> How about china? 12 million came here in the 30 years after the civil war.

> **[Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_demographics_of_the_United_States)**
>
> The racial and ethnic demographics of the United States have changed dramatically throughout its history.
> During the American colonial period, British colonial officials conducted censuses in some of the Thirteen Colonies that included enumerations by race. In addition, tax lists and other reports provided additional data and information about the racial demographics of the Thirteen Colonies during this time period.
> People have been enumerated by race in every United States census since the fir...

As you can see, the evidence does not support your post at all. America was 84% white people in 1930. The primary minority was black people. Other groups were negligible.

That’s not a very diverse racial mix. It stayed that way for decades after that.

To be totally frank, if you actually try to measure whole populations for “superiority\*”, Asians usually come out on top. I’m hardly a white supremacist. (and if you must know, I am not asian myself) All _I’ve_ been saying is :

a. The facts are, our ancestors didn’t in reality let just anyone in pre-1920. I don’t know where the 12 million Chinese workers went, they aren’t there in the census data.

b. Some people are probably better than others as individuals, regardless of race. We should go by merit instead of having just “no limits, anyone and everyone”. Also if our merit system happens to favor people who happen to be from some races more than others, we should still use it, so long as the system is in fact race blind. There is an argument for affirmative action to make up for past wrongs towards our own citizens, but I do not think this should apply to immigration policy.

\*metrics like crime rate, higher education completion, how hard someone works, intelligence, child geniuses, it’s mostly asians winning the competition by large margins.

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