Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Jeffersons Ghost

Jeffersons Ghost's Journal
Jeffersons Ghost's Journal
July 16, 2019

In a phone call from a racist, defending Trump, an inarguable point was made:

I asked, "Who should go back to their "own country" and then added, "white people invaded and desecrated holy land of Native Americans." His meager response was to point out that some tribes - particularly the Apache and Comanche - were at war with other tribes.

I replied that "other large tribes fought each other, just like European nations did." For example:
From 1716 to 1718, Blackbeard and his 40-gun flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, prowled the West Indies and the Atlantic coast of North America, preying on ships heading back to Spain laden with gold, silver and other treasures, looted from natives in Mexico and South America. French "privateers" also raided the gold-laden, Spanish galleons.

The long, sordid history behind Trump’s ‘go back’ to your country comments
By Zoe Greenberg Globe Staff,July 15, 2019, 8:22 p.m

Although his comments may be some of the most hurtful and inflammatory ones made by an American president in recent memory, historians and scholars point out that they are also part of a long history of actions by Americans and their government to draw the boundaries of citizenship so that they exclude people of color.

These comments are part of a much bigger picture. The first naturalization law of the republic in 1790 defined the privilege of citizenship as the provenance of “free white” people.

Instead of granting citizenship, many white leaders came up with another solution: a “return” to Africa, an idea popularized by the American Colonization Society.

The 14th Amendment solved the issue of freed slaves, enacting a kind of retroactive acknowledgment that anyone born in the United States was a citizen, according to Jones. But even that did not settle the question of whether all nonwhite people could become citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for example, prevented Chinese people from becoming American citizens or immigrating here.

The rallying cry against the Chinese and against Mexicans in the late 1800s was a blunt one: “This is a white man’s country!”

The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act, for example, formally made Native Americans citizens, though they had lived on US land much longer than its original citizens.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/07/15/the-long-sordid-history-behind-trump-back-your-country-comments/GCYy2gQp5juFl1BbbDReiN/story.html?et_rid=827336609&s_campaign=todayinpolitics:newsletter


After, I made the inarguable point that white people (and Hispanics) invaded America and destroyed Native populations, with little or no provocation, the racist said "don't ever call me;" but I didn't call him in the first place.

Profile Information

Name: Patrick not (Jefferson's Ghost 3, 5/7 etc))
Gender: Male
Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Home country: USA
Current location: New Mexico
Member since: Thu Dec 22, 2005, 12:31 PM
Number of posts: 15,235

About Jeffersons Ghost

Working to keep NM a solid Blue State
Latest Discussions»Jeffersons Ghost's Journal