My sixteen-year-old Chilean nephew was curious about what’s going on with ICE.
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I could see he was curious, but I knew he had no interest in lengthy history lessons, so I said, “I can do it in 15 minutes. I can give you a 15-minute history lesson that will explain ICE and our current politics.”
“Can I use a timer?” he asked.
I said certainly.
I prepared the lesson, and my nephew started the timer.
For what I told him, click here: https://terikanefield.com/let-my-people-in/
@Teri_Kanefield Fantastic article! Thank you for sharing.
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See what happens when you visit Aunt Teri?
@Teri_Kanefield Thanks for the summary. Sometimes when WASPs get a DNA test, some are not happy when the results are not so pure. And because many anglos are less bigoted than they were before 1964, when I lived out on the prairie in the 80s, There were a lot of traditional anglo farmers whose children married hispanics. In the more bigoted past that would not have been OK.
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See what happens when you visit Aunt Teri?
@Teri_Kanefield Thank you. Well done.
Only question at the moment is whether each of those successive immigration and naturalization acts supplemented or replaced the previous one. Or was it mixed?
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@Teri_Kanefield Thank you. Well done.
Only question at the moment is whether each of those successive immigration and naturalization acts supplemented or replaced the previous one. Or was it mixed?
@Bodling 1965 overturned the others.
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See what happens when you visit Aunt Teri?
I was born in 1965. Trump's generation were young adults. So I lived through this demographic shift, but TBH I didn't realize it. It actually helps me to understand why people my generation or older are so weird about this, not that that's good news.
How much of the drop in white population as a percentage is down to birth rates?
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Thank you so much!
I would make one alteration:
Evolutionary biologists tell us that SOME humans are hardwired to distrust “others.”
@NilaJones @Teri_Kanefield
Actually, No. Xenophobia is a survival trait - it helped people to survive in an anarchic and lawless world. However, this xenophobia is covered by layers of civilization in most people living in a secure society. But it is nearer the surface in SOME humans, particularly those with low self-esteem, or living in precarious circumstances, and is easily evoked by unscrupulous leaders. -
@NilaJones @Teri_Kanefield
Actually, No. Xenophobia is a survival trait - it helped people to survive in an anarchic and lawless world. However, this xenophobia is covered by layers of civilization in most people living in a secure society. But it is nearer the surface in SOME humans, particularly those with low self-esteem, or living in precarious circumstances, and is easily evoked by unscrupulous leaders.Perhaps another way to look at it is that some humans are able to consider all other humans to be 'us' and not 'other'
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My sixteen-year-old Chilean nephew was curious about what’s going on with ICE.
In Chile, the word “conservative” is associated with capitalism, and the word “liberal” is associated with communism. He observed that Donald Trump says he’s a capitalist but doesn’t act like one.
I told him things are different here and labels have different meanings because we have a different history.
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@Teri_Kanefield
I live in California where all of the largest cities and many small ones have Spanish names. I have a Black brother-in-law, and a Chinese brother-in-law. My doctor is Mexican-American. My accountant is Chinese American. I can't even imagine living in an all white society. Look at all the horrific and cruel things white people do to their neighbors, their employees, their tenants. Diversity is our greatest and least acknowledged strength. My Iranian neighbors are deeply concerned that the president is going to unleash nuclear terror on their relatives back home. My gay niece is terrified that religious zealots with badges will take away her child. They are both wonderful open hearted people who I love. You miss so much that is wonderful about humanity when you write off whole categories of "others" because they don't look like you or talk like you or think like you or love like you. And turning hate loose with guns and great unconstitutional powers is making this a worse place to live, not in any way a better place. -
See what happens when you visit Aunt Teri?
@Teri_Kanefield Thanks for writing this.
The demographics are skewed by "one drop" theory (any non-white ancestor -> you're not white). So those numbers reflect, at least in part, mixed marriages producing children defined by society as "not-white".
A "white" couple we know had a baby with distinctly negro features. Huge uproar, accusations of infidelity. DNA tests showed it *was* his, and she had an African ancestor from a century or so ago.
DNA isn't a paint pot.
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@NilaJones @Teri_Kanefield
Actually, No. Xenophobia is a survival trait - it helped people to survive in an anarchic and lawless world. However, this xenophobia is covered by layers of civilization in most people living in a secure society. But it is nearer the surface in SOME humans, particularly those with low self-esteem, or living in precarious circumstances, and is easily evoked by unscrupulous leaders.@AndyKotlarz @NilaJones @Teri_Kanefield Whilst evolutionary biology is an important framework for understanding human behaviour, behaviour doesn't fossilise. This makes it very hard to test any particular prediction it makes, including this one. Stephen J Gould criticised it for encouraging "just so stories" like this. The evolutionary story of xenophobia is certainly plausible, and IMO probably largely correct. But it's not a proven fact, and likely not that simple.
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See what happens when you visit Aunt Teri?
@Teri_Kanefield I don't know if this was a factor in anti-Irish sentiment in America, but in Northern Ireland the Protestant majority has long entertained a theory that Catholics are intent on out-breeding the Protestants, and that Catholic prohibition of birth control is part of that. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/claim-that-protestants-are-being-outbred-is-a-myth-1.83911
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@Teri_Kanefield I don't know if this was a factor in anti-Irish sentiment in America, but in Northern Ireland the Protestant majority has long entertained a theory that Catholics are intent on out-breeding the Protestants, and that Catholic prohibition of birth control is part of that. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/claim-that-protestants-are-being-outbred-is-a-myth-1.83911
@Teri_Kanefield Meanwhile in India, Hindu nationalists belive that Muslims are intent on doing the same. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/30/the-truth-behind-indian-extremists-anti-muslim-great-replacement-theory
It seems that the Great Replacement is a standard conspiracy theory which crops up as part of any ethno-nationalist program, regardless of the facts.
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I could see he was curious, but I knew he had no interest in lengthy history lessons, so I said, “I can do it in 15 minutes. I can give you a 15-minute history lesson that will explain ICE and our current politics.”
“Can I use a timer?” he asked.
I said certainly.
I prepared the lesson, and my nephew started the timer.
For what I told him, click here: https://terikanefield.com/let-my-people-in/
@Teri_Kanefield
An important detail about the 1790 census where it says 80% of the people were from European descent (mostly white protestants).
At that time, the United States territory was just the Eastern states up to the Mississippi river. It did not include Florida, Alabama and all the Midwest.
Let's not forget that most of those states were colonized by Spanish and French. So, we can say that 2/3 of what's today the US territory was mainly catholic and Spanish and French speakers. -
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