• originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    10 months ago

    i remember as a kid it being banged into my head how america was great because it was a giant melting pot… bring us your poor, tired, etc. the numbers bear out that first generation immigrants work harder, cause less crime than ‘natural’ citizens.

    and its true, immigrants made this country. it is a country of immigrants… cuz, ya know, mass native population genocide and all.

    but here we are… these conservative fuckwads have somehow convinced everyone the opposite is true.

    if youre anti-immigration, youre just racist. thats it.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It changed around 2002. It’s interesting to me because that was when my “free thinking” parents changed their views.

      • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No it didn’t. The US barred Asians from entering for multiple decades. This country has been anti immigrant(anti anyone not white moving here) since it’s inception

        • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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          10 months ago

          This country has been anti immigrant(anti anyone not white moving here) since it’s inception

          Nah, until 1882, there was literally no restrictions for anyone moving to the US. If you could afford the journey or even successfully stow away on a ship or train or whatever, they’d let you in and let you stay.

          When it came to CITIZENSHIP, though, you’re right about the criteria being super racist from day one.

          • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I went to the museum at Ellis island last year. It was surreal because here was a purpose built facility for processing immigrants, meanwhile Venezuelans were lined up on the streets in Manhattan waiting to be processed. There were a number of exhibits showing the racist attitudes of the Americans in the 1870s to 1880s demanding a curb on immigration. Was an educational experience.

            • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
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              10 months ago

              Those were originally citizenship restrictions only.

              Until 1882, there was no law to keep people of color (or white people, of course) out of the country, even as they were met with tons of discrimination and abuse and no rights.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      It’s wild how different it is now. Even the people who raised me with those same values (in this case, my parents) are now Trump supporters. Like what the fuck happened to you? YOU MADE MY LIKE THIS!

      It’s a massive bummer.

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        Honestly, this is a reason that I am glad, in a fucked up kind of way, that my father died when I was young. He was intelligent but I’ve seen a lot of intelligent people go off the rails in the last decade as well as from a very religious family. I don’t know that I’d have coped as well as folks like yourself.

        I hope that your parents come to their senses and own up to their mistakes.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      What first world country isn’t the country of immigrants? Look at any successful country in Europe. UK and Ireland especially, would sink to the bottom if not for the cheap labour it got in the 2000s.

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      From where I’m sitting, the USA was always a massive piece of shit on racial and gender prejudice issues. I guess some of us must have been more fortunate with the Independent School District Lottery.

      • Kepabar@startrek.website
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        10 months ago

        I’m around your same age and have always been told immigrants generally good.

        That’s not a generational view you have there. I’m willing to bet that immigrant is a synonym for ‘not white’ by whoever in your past has said this.

        • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The people in my past who have said this have been the exact same politicians who are saying it now. This has been a major republican talking point all my life. Nothing has changed among them.

          And then yes I’ve heard immigration bad from people as well of course.

      • Odigo2020@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        I’m 37 and was generally raised with the melting pot mentality, but I grew up in Washington state. Out of curiosity, not judgment, did you grow up in a Red state?

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I am very close to your age and I was taught that. That’s literally the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Sounds like someone tried to brainwash you.

        The inscription on the Statue of Liberty is the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. Written in 1883, it was mounted on a bronze plaque inside the statue’s pedestal in 1903. The most famous lines from the poem are:

        “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

    • Brad Pitt @lemmus.org
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      10 months ago

      racist: Someone who believes that their race makes them better, more intelligent, more moral, etc. than people of other races and who does or says unfair or harmful things as a result:

      • Two of the killers are known to be racists.
      • She cannot understand how her husband could be branded a racist.