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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Boblaban. Here in no period of American history, not

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Speaker 1: in its founding, nor at the height of its most

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Speaker 1: soaring successes, during none of its many wars, nor in

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Speaker 1: the often brief years of peace in between, has xenophobia

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Speaker 1: not been a problem. This fear and hatred of people

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Speaker 1: perceived as foreign or other isn't always blatant. Xenophobia even

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Speaker 1: appears at times to be on the decline, say after

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Speaker 1: the signing of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four.

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Speaker 1: But other times it seems to spew with fury and

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Speaker 1: venom unapologetically from the mouths of common citizens and former

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Speaker 1: presidents alike. It's a fact of American life, never easy

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Speaker 1: to face, and never ever pretty. For the article this

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Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Erica Lee,

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Speaker 1: a history professor and the director of the Immigration History

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Speaker 1: Research Center at the University of Minnesota. She's also the

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Speaker 1: author of the book America for Americans, A History of

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Speaker 1: Xenophobia in the United States. She said to me, when

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Speaker 1: I see xenophobia throughout history, I see it as changing, morphing, adapting,

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Speaker 1: but not necessarily going away. It's very common to be

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Speaker 1: swept up in some of these moments. The concept of

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Speaker 1: xenophobia is often muddled with isms like racism, which is

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Speaker 1: the belief that our race determines our traits and that

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Speaker 1: a particular race is inherently superior, or nativism, which is

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Speaker 1: favoring current inhabitants over new immigrants, And to be sure,

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Speaker 1: xenophobia goes hand in hand with both. It's sometimes hard

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Speaker 1: to tell them apart, but all of these root from mistrust,

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Speaker 1: moving into fear and hatred of people who are not

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Speaker 1: us or not from here, which of course raises all

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Speaker 1: sorts of questions like who exactly are we and who

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Speaker 1: is from here? It's a riddle that's especially pertinent in

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Speaker 1: the United States, which is a nation of immigrants and

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Speaker 1: is supposedly, if not always factually welcoming of them. It's

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Speaker 1: important to note, though, that xenophobia is alive and thriving

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Speaker 1: in many parts of the globe and has been forever.

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Speaker 1: But it's because of America's self billing as a haven

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Speaker 1: for immigrants that we have some splainin to do when

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Speaker 1: it comes to our deeply embedded history of xenophobia from

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Speaker 1: the very beginning. Many who came to America, even if

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Speaker 1: that immigrated only recently themselves, cast a squorely eye on newcomers,

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Speaker 1: a meaning those newcomers have battled discrimination and worse. A

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Speaker 1: German and Irish Catholics the mid eighteen hundreds were shunned

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Speaker 1: and even killed. Campaigns against them claimed that they couldn't

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Speaker 1: be good citizens because that only vote the way of

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Speaker 1: their priests. Through the eighteen hundreds, Chinese immigrants were said

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Speaker 1: to be cheap laborers taking away jobs from real Americans.

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Speaker 1: In the early nineteen hundreds, Italians were branded criminals. During

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Speaker 1: the Great Depression, twenty percent of Mexican Americans were deported,

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Speaker 1: more than half of whom were American citizens by birth.

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Speaker 1: Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. Today, Muslim

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Speaker 1: and Middle Eastern Americans are branded terrorists. Many of these groups,

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Speaker 1: even long after they've woven themselves into the fabric of

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Speaker 1: American society, but after generations still grapple was xenophobia. Lee

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Speaker 1: explained that it's at the crux of a uniquely American dichotomy.

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Speaker 1: No other country has allowed more immigrants to settle and

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Speaker 1: more refugees of safe haven than America. Today, about twenty

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Speaker 1: eight percent of Americans are immigrants or US born children

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Speaker 1: of immigrants, some ninety million people. Yet no country has

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Speaker 1: deported more immigrants some fifty seven million since the late

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Lisaid it points to a contradiction that is

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Speaker 1: as old as the United States. We have these very

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Speaker 1: conflicting notions about who an American could be. There were

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Speaker 1: very romantic proclamations that an American is someone who chooses

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Speaker 1: to be an American as long as you had it

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Speaker 1: in your heart to accept the ideals and the values

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Speaker 1: of the United States. Than we unlike countries that were

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Speaker 1: based on a monarchy or hereditary citizenship, but we had

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Speaker 1: this much more inclusive definition of American citizenship. And in

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Speaker 1: many ways that was true, but in many other ways

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Speaker 1: it was very narrow. For example, the first law about

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Speaker 1: naturalization was passed in seventeen ninety, and it was relatively open.

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Speaker 1: It said that quote any alien being a free white

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Speaker 1: person end quote could apply for citizenship as long as

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Speaker 1: they lived in the United States for at least two years.

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Speaker 1: But that law, of course excluded enslaved people from Africa,

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Speaker 1: Native Americans, and others. Even when the US has taken

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Speaker 1: steps that would seem anti xenophobic. There have been stumbles

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Speaker 1: and pushbacks. For example, the Immigration Act of nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: five overturned immigration quotas that were based on national origins.

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Speaker 1: Originally designed to favor immigrants from European countries, the law

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Speaker 1: paved the way for millions of legal immigrants from Latin

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Speaker 1: America and beyond, and for an increase in illegal immigration

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Speaker 1: as well, and all of that spurred some xenophobic reaction.

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Speaker 1: The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute wrote about this in twenty

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Speaker 1: fifteen a quote. The law's proponents see it as a

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Speaker 1: historic success and assert that the estimated fifty nine million

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Speaker 1: immigrants who have come to the United States since its

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Speaker 1: passage as of twenty fifteen have made the younger, infused

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Speaker 1: it with diversity and talent, and generated prosperity and economic growth.

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Speaker 1: Critics contend that high admission levels of diverse groups of

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Speaker 1: immigrants have created more competition for low skilled US workers

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Speaker 1: and shattered the country's cultural homogeneity. Lie said, the connection

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Speaker 1: with racism is really powerful, So what's wrong with racism?

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Speaker 1: It treats people unequally, it demonizes entire groups, is dangerous

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Speaker 1: and threatening. Either because they're racially different, or they practice

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Speaker 1: a different faith, or that they're just thought of as

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Speaker 1: inherently dangerous, and we treat them as a group rather

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Speaker 1: than treating them as individuals. On top of all of that,

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Speaker 1: our government is made up of people, and sometimes people

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Speaker 1: codify those ways of thinking into law. It's hardly the

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Speaker 1: self evident truth etched forever into the Declaration of Independence

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Speaker 1: that all men are created equal, but it's undeniable at

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Speaker 1: this point. America, again, like many other countries, has asenophobia problem.

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Speaker 1: It's deep rooted and insidious and it won't be cured

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Speaker 1: anytime soon. But that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do.

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Speaker 1: From our interactions and our daily lives to our voices

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Speaker 1: in the government, we can all fight against hate and discrimination.

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Speaker 1: The first step may come from within, learning to identify

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Speaker 1: hateful rhetoric wrapped in the guise of national pride or

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Speaker 1: personal gain, and to think critically about why people would

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Speaker 1: promote that hate and fear. What do they have to

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Speaker 1: gain from making you afraid of your neighbors instead of

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Speaker 1: talking about the systemic institutional problems that are making both

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Speaker 1: your and your neighbors lives harder. On a community level,

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Speaker 1: you can provide practical support to the diverse cultures that

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Speaker 1: add so much to our lives by supporting the local

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Speaker 1: businesses like restaurants run by immigrants, and by supporting local

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Speaker 1: events from international artists like cultural festivals, theater concerts, and

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Speaker 1: film screenings. Online and in three dimensions, you can call

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Speaker 1: out hate speech and bigotry. Let the people you're acquainted

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Speaker 1: with know that dehumanizing stereotypes are never funny. On the

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Speaker 1: flip side, it can be better to not interact with

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Speaker 1: people online who you don't know, and sometimes feeding the

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Speaker 1: trolls can only further their spread on social media. Also,

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Speaker 1: if it's safe for you to do so, stand up

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Speaker 1: to real life bullies by calmly making your presence known,

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Speaker 1: asking the victim of the harassment if they'd like your support,

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Speaker 1: and then, if so, de escalating the situation by remaining

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Speaker 1: calm and being attentive and empathetic while attempting to remove

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Speaker 1: people from the location or situation. Finally, vote in national

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Speaker 1: and local elections. Your vote is mutual aid. There are

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Speaker 1: lots of resources online for how to help fight hate

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Speaker 1: like xenophobia. The United Nations has a bunch of great material.

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Speaker 1: It's scary out there, but after all, we're all just

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Speaker 1: human people in this together. Today's episode is based on

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Speaker 1: the article why Zenophobia Thrives in Troubled Times on how

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Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks

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Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.