Nativism

Why We are Still Debating Birthright Citizenship

by Martha S. Jones

Opposition to birthright citizenship has, historically and today, reflected opposition to the idea of equal membership in the political community of the nation and has been inextricable from the idea that white Americans should be privileged citizens, argues the leading historian of the subject. 

Does Germany's Holocaust Education Give Cover to Nativism?

The anti-antisemitism of German Holocaust education is based on the implicit premise that immigrants will identify with a sense of shame held by ethnic Germans. If those immigrants ask instead whether contemporary nativism could result in their own persecution, it is seen as a sign of their non-Germanness. 

Violence and the Unmaking of Asian-American Exceptionalism

by Gaiutra Bahadur

A series of violent anti-Asian attacks in the author's community during the 1990s underscores the debt Asian Americans owe to the African American movements for emancipation and civil rights, and the need for cross-racial solidarity in the face of racist oppression. 

Los Angeles to Memorialize 1871 Anti-Chinese Massacre

Architect Annie Chu describes the task of using design and space to evoke an emotional connection to the victims of mass violence whose identities and stories have been largely lost. 

It's Not Trump's GOP, it's Pat Buchanan's

by Nicole Hemmer

Republicans have come around to Pat Buchanan's vision of a hard-right, pessimistic and grievance-driven party. The question now is whether they will soften that vision in pursuit of a majority of voters, or try to keep power as a minority party. 

Nicole Hemmer on the Fall of the Republican Party

by Kim Phillips-Fein

The seeds of today's hard right populism, nativism and conspiratorialism were present in the GOP for decades, argues historian Kim Phillips-Fein. 

The COVID Era is the Latest Episode of Medical Scapegoating of Asian Immigrants

by Catherine Ceniza Choy

From smallpox to COVID, Asian Americans have been blamed and attacked for supposedly causing disease, while their contributions to American health have been ignored. This medical scapegoating and the violence that often follow it demonstrate the need to teach more Asian American history. 

How Disinformation Powers Vigilantism

Right wing misinformation has linked the nation's borders with race war discourse that encourages vigilantism, according to historian Carly Goodman. 

The Dangerous “Patriotism” of the January 6 Insurrection

by Ben Railton

The participants in the attack on the Capitol a year ago reflected a "mythic patriotism" founded on the belief in an authentic, white, Christian nation under attack by enemies dangerous enough to justify any measures in opposition. 

The Trump-Bannon Feud Sheds Light on the Direction of the Far Right

Nicole Hemmer explains to Post columnist Greg Sargent that Bannon represents an explicitly anti-democratic strain of nationalism that is separate from the political allegiance of many conservatives to Donald Trump. 

150 Years Ago, a Mob Attacked Los Angeles's Chinese Community

by Reece Jones

It's essential to understand white supremacy as a national phenomenon that defended the color line against multiple groups and linked white identity to the nation's borders. 

“Some of Our Superpatriots are Simply Going Crazy”: America's Response to the Fall of France

by Michael S. Neiberg

The fall of France in 1940 disrupted Americans' understandings of their stable and secure place in the world. One response was intense nativism and paranoia about spies and subversives that resonate with today's pandemic response.

Racist "Replacement" Theory Goes Mainstream

"White replacement theory" posits the existence of a plot to change America's racial composition by methodically enacting policies that reduce white Americans' political power. It's moved from the fringes of the hard right to the mainstream of conservative media and some Republican politicians. 

Politicians, not Migrants, are Fueling the Pandemic's Resurgence

by Randa Tawil

At the height of colonialism, European governments rejected calls for quarantine to keep global commerce humming, and blamed supposedly unsanitary local populations for the inevitable spread of cholera. Governors in some US states are repeating this mistake today. 

70 Years after the UN Refugee Convention, the US Needs to Commit to Helping Displaced People

by Linda K. Kerber

The UN Refugee Convention does not impose any real obligations on any nation to offer asylum. The United States must lead the way in recognition of the deeply interconnected world created in large part by American power.

Both the Right and Left Need to Remember Demography is Not Destiny

by Adam Serwer

The 2020 Census has fueled optimism on the left and panic on the right about American demographics. But past periods of ethnic change have shown the fluidity of racial categories defies expectations.

America Once was Eager for Chinese Immigration. Mae Ngai's Book Explains What Happened

The first wave of the California Gold Rush was "a nettlesome experiment in multiracial democracy that had little precedent in the country's history," but resulted in the development of institutionalized anti-Asian nativism as a political force.

Nativism Has Thwarted American Refugee Resettlement Before

by E. Kyle Romero

Political hostility toward the Bolshevik revolution and anti-Asian racism were among the factors that prevented the resettlement of World War I refugees in the United States, leaving their care to Eurpoean nations wracked by war. 

Bigler's Gambit: How the California Gold Fields Gave Rise to Global Anti-Chinese Politics

by Mae Ngai

The Chinese Question and Chinese exclusion policies that circumnavigated the Anglo-American world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries grew in local soils, and shifted and evolved as it crossed the Pacific world and supported the consolidation of British and American power over global emigration and trade."

GOP Revives Old Tactic: Blame Outsiders for Disease

by Jonathan Zimmerman

"The coronavirus is spreading most rapidly in places with low vaccination rates, not high immigration."