Immigration and “White” Replacement
Established groups in America have always feared immigrants; but should they?
I grew up in New York City, so I was around people who didn’t look like me since I was a child. I never thought anything of it. After all, I grew up not too far from the Statue of Liberty. I grew up knowing that the United States was a nation of immigrants since my classmates in grade school came from all over the world. My best friends were from Pakistan, Columbia, and Greece. Or, their parents were.
However, some people who grew up in a mostly white America are feeling threatened by the increased numbers of Hispanic and Asian Americans. Once upon a time, most immigrants to the United States seemed to come from Europe. That has changed.
Of course, when the majority of our immigrants were coming from places like Ireland and Italy, those ethnic groups were treated pretty badly.
There were signs posted about “no dogs or Irish” and there were cartoons featuring the Irish as distinctly simian. When John F. Kennedy was elected as president, it was a really big deal, partly because he was a Catholic.
