The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. discussed race, politics and his family story during an address in Sarasota Thursday.
“He is the host of ‘Finding Your Roots,’ a popular PBS series in which celebrities learn about their genealogy.
“It gives me such an enormous amount of pleasure to be the host of this series at a time when our country is so divided,” said Gates, who is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University. . .
“His series, he noted, reminds people that America is a ‘nation of immigrants.’
“And right now, when forces are trying to exploit anxieties about xenophobia, we have to be reminded this is a nation that welcomes the immigrant and welcomes the stranger. . . . – Henry Louis Gates Jr. Tells Sarasota Crowd That America Is a “Nation of Immigrants.” Anne Snabes, Sarasoota Herald-Tribune, 2/6/22 [Link
Fact Check of Above Quote: American have no need to be “reminded” of the nation of immigrants slogan. We can hardly forget it because the corporate media endlessly repeat it. Perhaps the slogan served a legitimate purpose at one time, to remind us of our genuine heritage of immigration. But today it serves as a tool of falsehood and manipulation. Those who employ it imply that the heritage of immigration trumps every other aspect of what America is, and they further use it to silence any meaningful discussion of immigration policy.
Saying we’re a nation of immigrants gives us no guidance as to how many immigrants or what kind of immigrants are beneficial to our national interest. The promoters of the slogan don’t care because they don’t want any discussion about downsides of mass immigration. They just want it to continue forever and ever. And if you disagree, they’ll call you a “xenophobe” and other unpleasant names to silence you.
Even so, some people aren’t intimidated by this kind of verbal bullying. They ask reasonable questions such as the following: Does it make sense in the 21st century, when we are a fully developed country, to have huge level of immigration more befitting our needs in the 19th century when we were a wide-open and sparely populated country? Replying that “We’re a nation of immigrants” doesn’t answer this question; it’s just a manipulative tactic to evade it.
Other reasonable questioners might inquire as to how national unity could suffer from immigration levels causing divisive diversity. One might also inquire as to how mass immigration might harm us as a nation of wage-earners. A questioner could also foresee the danger that rapid population growth from immigration could pose to a nation with environmental concerns.
If we should have any slogan which trumps all others it should be “nation of Americans.” We should be a nation of immigrants only to the extent that it serves the American nation.