If an individual comminicates an imporantance of their ethnicity to me in some form, then i will be sure to respect that heritage. If I am having someone over as a guest in my home who happens to be a Muslim who follows the customs of their heritage by, in part, wearing a head scarf (i forget the proper name), then by all means i will respect that choice. But that is because i respect this person as an individual with full agency and autonomy, it has nothing to do with ethnicity or heritage. I’d be just as respectful of a person in my home whose beliefs dictate any sort of custom, ritual, clothing choice or anything, just as long as those beliefs don’t intrude into my life , my home, in a tangible, negative way.
When kids study American history, I don’t see a lot about how the Irish and Italians were viewed. It always seemed positive in high school texts, so kids of different heritages don’t imagine that their ancestors were hated.
My history courses certainly included “No Irish Need Apply”.
Huh. Rough school.
You’re wrong. There has been immigration in France for a while. And like in the USA, those immigrants were despised when they came first, then integrated and began despising the new batch of immigrants. There were the Poles, then the Italians, then the Spaniards and Portuguese. French people with a name with a lot of consonants and ending in “sky” feel perfectly comfortable with complaining about immigration even though their great-grandfather was considered the lowest of the low one century ago. Of course, you can’t tell if someone ancestor was a Polish immigrant coming in 1910, while you can if he was a Malian immigrant coming in 1960. Which, seemingly, makes all the difference in the world.
Even though it’s less obvious than in the case of the USA where almost everybody is the descendant of some category of immigrant or another, the phenomenon described by the OP isn’t unique to the USA.
You’re wrong. There has been immigration in France for a while. And like in the USA, those immigrants were despised when they came first, then integrated and began despising the new batch of immigrants. There were the Poles, then the Italians, then the Spaniards and Portuguese. French people with a name with a lot of consonants and ending in “sky” feel perfectly comfortable with complaining about immigration even though their great-grandfather was considered the lowest of the low one century ago. Of course, you can’t tell if someone grand father was a Polish immigrant, while you can if he was a Malian immigrant. Which, seemingly, makes all the difference in the world.
The US has its own ideology that must be shoved down the throats of all incoming groups.
They throttled the identity of the enslaved workers. After the Civil War, the Yankees set up indoctrination camps for the enslaved Africans. They wanted to mold them into good Protestants. They sent the Indians to indoctrination centers for many decades.
The Protestant pietists of the 19th century did not appreciate the influx of Catholics and high Lutherans. The immigrants drank beer on sundays and started their own schools. The pietists started to demand state schools so they could indoctrinate the Catholics. These are the proto-progressives here who believed every soul needed to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Over time they dropped the religiosity.
The dirty Catholics had large, extended families. The pietists hated this about them, and instead fetishized the American nuclear family. The first generation Americans were shamed into confirming to this mode of family, breaking centuries of traditional family bonds.
Of course the progressives had adopted the Prussian method of instruction. The early progressives were the intellectuals. There were little PhD opportunities in US at this time so they studied in Europe. They came home with this method designed to create soldiers and factory workers. It was a strictly regimented system complete with conditioning with a bell or whistle. These were part of some of the most recent advances in human psychology, although it seems quite haunting to think of it today. They used the system to impose their version of Americanism on the youth of the entire country, decimating ethnic traditions. The system functions to this day.
Post WWII things really got kicked into high gear. Look at the militancy exhibited in 1950s classrooms. Schools churned out Americans like a modern factory. Later came another blow to social cohesion, tradition, and in many cases the family. It came in the form of social programs.
This is what America is all about. Conformance to State Puritanism.
I didn’t say what they tell themselves is true. When has bigotry ever needed to be rational? But anti-immigrant bigots in Europe can at least pretend that their ancestors have been around forever.
Pretty much every American knows that their ancestors came from another county and only a few generations ago.
“I’m an American, honey. Our names don’t mean shit.”
I’m almost tempted to subscribe to your newsletter but on second thought, I’m going to pass.
Except if you were Jewish, eh?
I definitely remember reading about the poor treatment of the Irish. In history classes in high school, we learned about anti-Irish sentiment in the late 1800s, saw cartoons and pamphlets that were distributed at the time…the Irish were definitely hated very much, at least as much as the current immigrants from Latin America by American nativists - possibly even worse. They really hated the Irish. They were portrayed as looking like pigs or evil goblins in all the popular political propaganda…the Catholicism was almost secondary to it, it was like they thought of the Irish as truly a lesser species.
I don’t really remember learning about anything comparable regarding Italian immigrants. The most I can recall is that there was an association between Italians and anarchist movements.
As a side anecdote- a former housemate’s Mum, who was Chinese Malay and immigrated to the UK, was a BNP voter.
Cognitive dissonance is an amazing thing.
Maybe they read this on FB or elsewhere :
https://rense.com//general77/ted.htm
**My niece shared it on her FB page…the same niece who grew up bilingual, whose mom is from El Salvador and whose maternal grandma speaks mostly Spanish because it’s hard to learn another language when you’re older.
I do not nor do I care to know my “ethnic” heritage. I will say that while I don’t recall getting an particular benefit, I qualify for white privilege
That being said, I think that the real reason is what some of the other folks here have pointed out, there is almost always a tribal connection. Most humans seem to cling to small ( relatively ) groups who gravitate towards those most familiar to or at least similar to themselves. Anyone else is viewed with suspicion and, until they assimilate, will be ostracized.
This can be seen in the factionalism that grows up among virtually any topic on the web. People on one or another side break down into “warring” factions very easily
Can’t think things weren’t all that different in the Paleolithic, it has been the case with every new immigrant to the USA since virtually the beginning of colonisation and is really not much different now than any other period
I suspect this is true every where humans interact