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Politics

La cruzada de Trump para que Estados Unidos vuelva a ser blanco

Jan 16, 2018 James Q. Whitman

NEW HAVEN – Veamos si pueden adivinar quién es el autor de esta cita: "La Unión Americana siente que es un estado nórdico-germano y de ninguna manera una mescolanza internacional de pueblos. Esto queda demostrado por sus cuotas de inmigración… a escandinavos… luego ingleses y finalmente alemanes se les ha concedido el mayor continente".

Esas palabras fueron escritas por Adolf Hitler en 1928, en un elogio a las leyes de inmigración estadounidenses de ese momento. Sin duda, no deberían invocarse a la ligera las referencias a Hitler. A pesar de todas las cosas desagradables que genera la Casa Blanca del presidente Donald Trump, especialmente su denigración de Haití, El Salvador y los estados africanos como "agujeros de mierda", Estados Unidos sigue estando muy lejos de asemejarse a la Alemania nazi.

Trump es un autoritario irreflexivo y una involución a los viejos días de la supremacía blanca en Estados Unidos, pero muchos más controles institucionales tendrían que fallar antes de que pudiera provocar el fin de la democracia norteamericana. E inclusive con respecto a la política de inmigración, existe una profunda diferencia entre las deportaciones masivas de la administración Trump, por más crueles y estúpidas que sean, y los asesinatos en masa.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 27 Comments on this article

Peter Schaeffer Jan 22, 2018

A famous Jewish immigrant to America had an opinion about cheap labor exploiters (or racial special interests or both) such as Whitman. I quote from Samuel Gompers.

“America must not be overwhelmed.

“Every effort to enact immigration legislation must expect to meet a number of hostile forces and, in particular, two hostile forces of considerable strength.

“One of these is composed of corporation employers who desire to employ physical strength (broad backs) at the lowest possible wage and who prefer a rapidly revolving labor supply at low wages to a regular supply of American wage earners at fair wages.

“The other is composed of racial groups in the United States who oppose all restrictive legislation because they want the doors left open for an influx of their countrymen regardless of the menace to the people of their adopted country.’
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Allan Gross Jan 22, 2018

Sir, your obsession with Hitler and his support of the 1924 law as the basis for a sordid transference to Trump is childish and indicative of your Trump hate and inability to countenance any other logical explanations for his policy positions. How about economics? How about the recently enduring wage stagnation? How about cheap labor? How about added welfare burdens? How about the truth about the sad conditions in the countries mentioned? A truthful examination of these and I'm sure other issues that might be affecting Trump policy would have gone a long way toward at least making your article (and the one last November) certainly more informative rather than the totally PC correct stuff that came out of your computer. To you from me and my Jewish ancestors.
- Francesco D'Allessandro Jan 23, 2018
  
  Very well spoken Mr. Gross.
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Peter Schaeffer Jan 22, 2018

A law professor should (we would hope) know something about the actual law. The immigration act of 1924 set quotas for many countries. The total Scandinavian quota was 19,374 (for Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland combined). The quota for Ireland alone was 28,567. It would appear that Hitler and Whitman don't have their facts correct about the 1924 law.
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Janos Nagy Jan 22, 2018

It is interesting that if the immigration quotas for more whites is racist if want more of the other colors it's not racist.
The bottom line is what the color of the people has to do with immigration policies?
It should be only the merits of the need of a country.
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Peter Schaeffer Jan 21, 2018

The battle over immigration is not a new one. Many years ago, a writer by the name of Emma Lazarus wrote a poem in favor of Open Borders ("The New Colossus"). She was also a low wage labor exploiter whose highest goal appears to have been cheap labor. A few quotes from her should make this clear.

“the wretched quality of work performed by the vast majority of American mechanics and domestic servants”

“false sense of pride that revolted at the very name of servant, as derogatory to the freeborn American”

When she (Emma Lazarus) wrote these words, American mechanics were already world renown for their excellence (and high wages). Of course, Emma did have well developed sense of entitlement when it came to cheap servants (typical of her class at the time).

A few years (decades) later an American labor leader (Samuel Gompers) offered the following observations.

“America must not be overwhelmed.

“Every effort to enact immigration legislation must expect to meet a number of hostile forces and, in particular, two hostile forces of considerable strength.

“One of these is composed of corporation employers who desire to employ physical strength (broad backs) at the lowest possible wage and who prefer a rapidly revolving labor supply at low wages to a regular supply of American wage earners at fair wages.

“The other is composed of racial groups in the United States who oppose all restrictive legislation because they want the doors left open for an influx of their countrymen regardless of the menace to the people of their adopted country.’

Now we have same alliance of racial special interest groups and corporate exploiters that Gompers denounced almost a century ago. Which faction does Whitman represent? Probably both.
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Peter Schaeffer Jan 21, 2018

The 1920 and 1924 immigration laws produced a stable, middle-class country. After the 1924 immigration law was passed, the "Great Wave" immigrants were able to assimilate into the middle-class and join the American mainstream. Note the clear connections. Restriction helped to make America a middle-class nation and facilitated assimilation. Since roughly 1970, the U.S. has abandoned immigration controls. Predictably, inequality has soared and American society has become every more polarized. Open Borders means the death of the middle-class. Of course, the SJW types crave for Open Borders, as does the "cheap labor is god" types on the far right. Sensible folks recognize that a stable nation requires tough restrictions on immigration.
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Ian Maitland Jan 21, 2018

Aargh! Some people would find a way to convict a hot fudge sundae of racism! Today's McCarthyism consists in looking for racists under every bed.

Two things. First, the US is no slouch when it comes to immigration -- most of it non-white. Almost 30 percent of immigrants in the United States came from Mexico. Immigrants from the top five countries of origin - Mexico, India, the Philippines, China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan), and Vietnam - accounted for 45.3 percent of all of the foreign born in the United States. Silicon Valley's workforce is 30% Asian. Bias? Really? Where?

Second, Trump. Oh come on. Trump is an equal opportunity jerk. Can't you see the difference between racism -- and boorishness, coarseness, vulgarity? Trump finds something vile to say about everybody. Haven't you learned not to take seriously anything he says?

In any case, why not take Trump's election promises at face value? He promised to make America great again. He promised to favor businesses that retained jobs in the US. He promised to crack down on unfair foreign trade practices. He promised to restore US sovereignty over its borders. Trump's plan for points-based immigration is entirely consistent with this philosophy. As Laplace replied to Napoleon when Napoleon said that there was no mention of the Creator in his work on the system of the universe, "I had no need for that hypothesis." The hypothesis that Trump is motivated by racism is equally superfluous.

I disagree with much of Trump's program (especially on trade and immigration), and I didn't vote for the man. But I am getting more than a little tired with how everything gets reduced to bias. I suggest that opinion writers get fined $100 for every time they accuse anyone of racism. We could close the federal deficit in no time.
- Francesco D'Allessandro Jan 23, 2018
  
  Fellow blogger right on the dot. Kudos.
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Peter Schaeffer Jan 21, 2018

Typical BS. Trump has specifically advocated race-neutral immigration policies that would favor highly educated immigrants such as S. Koreans. The statement "Make America White Again" is simply a PC lie. Of course, Trump's real crime is telling the truth. Until a few weeks ago, the Democrats were telling us how Haiti and El Salvador were such terrible places that sending people back would be unthinkable. Trump says the same thing (in more colorful language) and he is a "racist". Why aren't the Democrats just as racist for making the same point(s). The truth is that Trump's real crime is blasphemy. He has blasphemed against the dominant PC religion of our time and must be subject to ritual hatred.
- Francesco D'Allessandro Jan 23, 2018
  
  Mr. Schaeffer great comment¡
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tampammm Jan 21, 2018

This is an incredibly racist and extremely ignorant article.

The facts say there are roughly 50 Million people on a welfare program and that the country is roughly $20 Trillion in debt. It's blatantly obvious the USA is in dire straits and in danger of an implosion.

An urgent fix requires immediate changes to the immigration policy. Either shut it down completely for several decades so we can attempt to digest the massive loads of immigrants that have bloated our once healthy country, or selectively cherrypick immigrants who can actually contribute to our society.

Those are the facts. Has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with survival.
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Can Calhan Jan 20, 2018

I am convinced that we spend less time on understanding the cause of situation in which land. We rather spend more time on outcome(s) and represent outcome(s) as a cause of the situation. Donald Trump is the outcome of political culture has been generated by the political system, institutions and politicians. In this sense, he is not the cause of current situation. Blaming on outcome is not going to produce any solution. Instead of spending our resources by criticising, getting anger with Trump, We should take the outcome as an opportunity to find out the cause generated the outcome. It is obvious that as long as the cause remains, the outcome is going to be the same.
- Francesco D'Allessandro Jan 23, 2018
  
  Very well defined.
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j. von Hettlingen Jan 19, 2018

James Q. Whitman condemns Trump for his racist statements last week, proposing to bar people from "shithole countries" emigrating to the US, which "hark back to a period in history when Hitler found inspiration" in the US 1924 US Immigration Act. That should "prompt all Americans to remember that Hitler and his fellow Nazis were once big fans of America."
In 1927 Hitler expressed his admiration: “The American Union feels itself to be a Nordic-German state and by no means an international porridge of peoples. This is revealed by its immigration quotas ... Scandinavians … then Englishmen and finally Germans have been accorded the largest contingent.”
The author says, "Trump is a kneejerk authoritarian and a throwback to the old days of white supremacy in America." Indeed, Trump's 2016 election has been widely seen as a factor in the re-energisation of activists and groups in America that celebrate white supremacy. The most infamous racist group - the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) - claims a surge in membership and cross burnings in the Deep South. Some rural areas see high concentrations of extreme race-hate groups with historical links to KKK.
White supremacists reject the social inclusion as endorsed by mainstream political leaders, because they don't want ethnic minorities in America feel valued and important. They rallied behind Trump's anti-immigration agenda during his campaign, after he painted a dark picture of a nation overrun by undocumented immigrants. He wants migrants be chosen upon "merit, skill, and proficiency". And they will also be subject to "ideological certification" to ensure that they love America and its values.
KKK had its roots in the South in 1865. Most of its hate had been towards African-Americans, but it also attacked Catholics, Jews and immigrants. But already "back in 1790, the US Congress revealed its racist outlook by offering naturalization to 'any alien, being a free white person.'” Seeking to boost "white power", KKK often resorted to violence. The first group broke up and does not exist anymore. However, it has regenerated several times in the past 150 years, with other groups formed, bearing the same name and embracing the same ideas. It is the expansion in the 1920s – broadly between the red scare of 1919 to the Immigration Act of 1924 – that provides the most constructive point of comparison with today.
The author says, despite Trump's "denigration of Haiti, El Salvador, and African states as 'shithole' countries," the US is "still a long way from resembling Nazi Germany." But one should not forget that the Nazis' extermination of ethnic groups they deemed inferior, was carried out in the name of eugenics. The Germans were by no means the only advocates of racial purification. Scientists came to the conclusion that Hitler's race hatred was underpinned by the work of American eugenicists. From the turn of the century, German eugenicists formed academic and personal relationships with their American counterparts.
There was deadly violence at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last August. Hundreds of white nationalists called to protest against the removal of a statue of a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the Civil War. A woman was killed by a car that was rammed into a crowd protesting the march. The White House defended Trump's reaction after he failed to explicitly condemn far-right groups, that are almost entirely white and male. They put their arms up in Nazi salutes and cheered on the former Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke.
The author says: "Looking back, it is important to remember that it was not until the 1965 US Immigration and Nationality Act that the US began to separate itself from the worst aspects of its racist past." Indeed the "Freedom Summer" that saw the killing by the KKK in Mississippi in 1964 of three civil rights workers - who had been working on a project to register African-Americans to vote - shocked the nation and might have helped change America for good. Yet, "as Trump’s presidency makes clear, that past has yet to be permanently overcome."
It would be wrong to take "comfort in the idea that American democracy has not yet been fatally undermined" under Trump. In fact "Americans who love their country should feel sorrow when reading what Hitler said about it in 1928." There is nothing to be proud of having a racist, bigot and know-nothing as president, who doesn't consider anyone non-white and critical of him as his citizens.
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Francesco D'Allessandro Jan 18, 2018

Whether the president uttered those words or not one will truly never know. There is so much distortion for political reasons that it is hard to decipher reality. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: all human beings whether they are politicians, housewives, business executives, laborers, military personnel and the clergy express statements that spout from emotions. I have many Haitian friends who state that their country is the epitome of failure. They see how rampant corruption among the political elite, indifference to the suffering of their fellowmen, profiting from natural disasters, stealing aid and all other malaises stemming from Pandora's chest is the order of the day. As such even though they are Haitians themselves they curse and vituperate what they perceive as a constant catastrophe.

Now fellow bloggers look yourselves in the mirror. Have you ever made outrageous assertions about a race? A gender? A country? I sure have countless of times...and everyone that I have had the pleasure (or displeasure) of meeting in my existence has made disparaging remarks at one time or another about a certain topic that many will feel uncomfortable or perhaps agree with them

Take racism. The media always bombards us with bigotry stemming from whites to blacks but hardly the subject is touched of the way millions of black express themselves against whites, latinos, asians or about lighter shades of blacks. Immigrants the same; xenophobia against asylum seekers but how does the refugees articulate about those citizens who offer them sanctuary?

It is obvious President Trump is not a politically correct chap but at the end of the day all these remarks create debate (even though in most occasions a biased one sided discussion). If all civilizations are to progress in the 21st century is it vital that the masks of political correctness are taken off once and for all, and a open discourse on vital themes are dissected rather than a continuation of the inadequate colloquies and essays that have permeated our daily lives for the past decades.
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Steve Hurst Jan 17, 2018

More people want to leave Haiti, El Salv and some African countries than move there. Are they racists?
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John Landrum Jan 16, 2018

Two Senators, Tom Cotton and David Perdue, in that meeting have said that Trump never made that comment.
- Paul Ross Jan 16, 2018
  
  Yes, they appear to agree the term was "shithouse". I see the difference.
  - Steve Hurst Jan 17, 2018
    
    A house is definitely a step up from a hole. Whitehouse sounds better than Whitehole; perhaps it was slurred speech and he meant Whitehouse countries, or it could have just been a slur.
    - P. Kamath Jan 17, 2018
      
      SH: You say ,'slur' ! President Trump does not drink. Once he stated that his sibling who turned an alcoholic, died of alcoholism. That made him refrain from drinks!
      - Steve Hurst Jan 18, 2018
        
        PK Have you looked up the cognitive test level Trump is claimed to have passed to give us all assurance he is fit, its kiddie level stuff. Anyway, 'slurred' is a speech condition, whilst 'slur' is an allegation. There are some strange things going on in this incident and in the response to it, and Trump's idea of being a POTUS is getting stranger.
        
        P. Kamath Jan 19, 2018
        
        SH: I know what MOCA tests are! A friend of mine ,a prof.of Psychiatry from Queens Univ. Kingston Canada told me that a smart sociopath or psychopath can easily pass the tests!
        Anyway, it seems that Trump simply bullied the the doctor who administered the tests, to tutor him!!
        
        If you are suffreing from Trump fatigue read the colomn by Robert Fulford in National post, Canada for good laugh!
        
        http://nationalpost.com/opinion/robert-fulford-trump-knows-how-to-entertain-us-he-even-saved-alec-baldwin#comments-area
        
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P. Kamath Jan 16, 2018

The irony is President Trump won't be occupying the Whit House (WH) beyond the next 7 years. But it nevertheless will bolden the will of nearly fifty percent of voters who catapulted him into the high office! Can you imagine Republican senators ( of family value and church going fame) and congress persons who attended the WH meeting either denied or claimed that didn't hear the notorious and ugly racist words hurled by Trump. I think great number of Americans are afraid of this imaginary " browning of America ".

I wonder where it will stop!
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Shawn Sean Jan 16, 2018

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach" .. Aldous Huxley. ... Sadly he is being proven correct again
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