In her latest book, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion, world-renowned scholar and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes, “The United States has never been ‘a nation of immigrants.’ It has always been a settler state with a core of descendents from the original colonial settlers, that is, primarily Anglo-Saxons, Scots Irish, and German. The vortex of settler colonialism sucked immigrants through a kind of seasoning process of Americanization, not as rigid and organized as the ‘seasoning’ of Africans, which rendered them into human commodities, but effective nonetheless.”
The mythology of the United States as “a nation of immigrants” has a complex political history. And studying the history of how and why this mythology emerged can actually tell us a lot more about America than the myth itself. In this extensive and wide-ranging conversation, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Dunbar-Ortiz trace the history of this particular national mythology and the political functions it serves in the larger project of US settler colonialism, economic domination, and military imperialism.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than 4 decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. She is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, and she has authored and edited many books, including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, which won the 2015 American Book Award, and Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment.
Read the transcript of this interview: https://therealnews.com/a-dangerous-myth-the-us-has-never-been-a-nation-of-immigrants
Pre-Production/Studio/Post Production: Cameron Granadino
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
I learned a lot of this in 11th grade US history at a school in Mississippi, possibly yeah little kids don't learn this stuff and they don't get better history or any history because their school sucks, but in a place you would think had the highest level of whitewashing we learned about a large majority of this
7:21 Van Buren and the two Roosevelts were of Dutch descent, not Anglo or Scots-Irish🤨!
The earth is the Lord Jesus Christ's, and he only brings liberty, life, and joy.
Gaslighting at it's best.
Thank you very much again for a soothing sanity-based discussion.
It actually has. Immigrant created the country. Last I checked Native Americans didnt establish it as a country first.
LOVE YOUR PROGRAMS SIR. IRANIAN AMERICAN.
Always ready to listen to author of companion book (Indigenous Ppl History) to her peer Zinn’s. Will buy asap for my tribal enrolled Alaskan Native son who is 22 and just earned his BA in history. Her Loaded book came out at a bad time and needed more press. Was it the Parkland shooting time?
She said "I feel privileged in that sense that I didn't become prejudiced, 'anti-black racism is another thing' but I didn't think badly of immigrants".
So she was raised Anti Black. The Title of the book: We Are Not A Nation Of Immigrants, is cultural misappropriation – this what Black Americans say whenever someone says we're a nation of immigrants.
Black Americans know everyone immigrated here except them and the Native Americans.
These open borders just allow in more anti black racism. Just see how blacks are treated In Their home countries.
Your statement is inaccurate
An Italian named Amerigo Vespucci discovered the Americas, both North and South.
The man has two (2) continents named after him.
Mexico was built by Mexicans. America was built by white men.
Why don't the proud Mexicans want to live in the country that they created?
An awesome scholar! I wont be suprised when mothers protest her books to keep them out of schools.
Native Americans that wish to revert back to the ways of their ancestors should be provided some method to do that, the rest of them are owed nothing. And they are the only non-Whites with any grievance that can be taken seriously as the other non-White groups are here voluntarily and owe farrrrr more than they are owed
America is a nation of ILLEGAL immigrants. Unless you're native American. The rest of us are anchor babies.
White people will always deny colonialism until it happens to them. Religion has helped them succeed in stealing indigenous lands.
This entire country is immigrants except for the indians….how can folks be so ignorant not to realize that?
So excited to read this book. I must get my hands on a copy asap!
Do you realize mass machine automation and A.I. in the workplace will completely obviate the need for continued immigration?
As the need for cheap labor fuels current immigration policies.
As companies are now racing toward streamlining and hyper-automating the workplace.
Cheaper, more efficient machine labor will effectively eliminate the need for cheap migrant labor for pennies on the dollar.
This was the plan all along.
Immigration was used as a stopgap for cheap labor until the time technology catches up as a real substitute. Now that the time is nearly upon us. Those immigrants have served their purpose and will be discarded. Expect record deportations and stricter border controls no matter what political party is in charge.
The New Machine Age is at hand.
Since it's all occupied land and settler colonialism … What can we call the immigrants ??? Pioneers 💩🕳️⚰️🕳️💩🕳️⚰️🕳️💩