“A Nation of Immigrants” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., speaking of Nikki Haley’s delusional response to the State of the Union address, in which she said, “When you’ve got immigrants who are coming here legally, we’ve never in the history of this country passed any laws or done anything based on race or religion.” Here’s a list from his article:
The Naturalization Act of 1790, which extended citizenship to “any alien, being a free white person … “?
Or the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, whose title and intent are self-explanatory?
Or the Immigration Act of 1917, which banned immigrants from East Asia and the Pacific?
Or Ozawa v. U.S., the 1922 Supreme Court decision which declared that Japanese immigrants could not be naturalized?
Or U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the 1923 high court ruling which said people from India – like Haley’s parents – could not become naturalized citizens?
One more time: The history of American immigration laws is a narrative of canonizing racism, and the lies Americans tell themselves does not change that. The willingness of Americans to gainsay their history, though, says much about the human desire capacity for denying reality.
