How Does Xenophobia Work?

The fear and hatred of people who seem 'foreign' or 'other' can sadly pop up anywhere. Learn about xenophobia and how to fight it in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/xenophobia.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Boblaban. Here in no period of American history, not
in its founding, nor at the height of its most
soaring successes, during none of its many wars, nor in
the often brief years of peace in between, has xenophobia

(00:24):
not been a problem. This fear and hatred of people
perceived as foreign or other isn't always blatant. Xenophobia even
appears at times to be on the decline, say after
the signing of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four.
But other times it seems to spew with fury and

(00:47):
venom unapologetically from the mouths of common citizens and former
presidents alike. It's a fact of American life, never easy
to face, and never ever pretty. For the article this
episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Erica Lee,
a history professor and the director of the Immigration History

(01:09):
Research Center at the University of Minnesota. She's also the
author of the book America for Americans, A History of
Xenophobia in the United States. She said to me, when
I see xenophobia throughout history, I see it as changing, morphing, adapting,
but not necessarily going away. It's very common to be

(01:30):
swept up in some of these moments. The concept of
xenophobia is often muddled with isms like racism, which is
the belief that our race determines our traits and that
a particular race is inherently superior, or nativism, which is
favoring current inhabitants over new immigrants, And to be sure,

(01:53):
xenophobia goes hand in hand with both. It's sometimes hard
to tell them apart, but all of these root from mistrust,
moving into fear and hatred of people who are not
us or not from here, which of course raises all
sorts of questions like who exactly are we and who

(02:14):
is from here? It's a riddle that's especially pertinent in
the United States, which is a nation of immigrants and
is supposedly, if not always factually welcoming of them. It's
important to note, though, that xenophobia is alive and thriving
in many parts of the globe and has been forever.

(02:34):
But it's because of America's self billing as a haven
for immigrants that we have some splainin to do when
it comes to our deeply embedded history of xenophobia from
the very beginning. Many who came to America, even if
that immigrated only recently themselves, cast a squorely eye on newcomers,
a meaning those newcomers have battled discrimination and worse. A

(02:58):
German and Irish Catholics the mid eighteen hundreds were shunned
and even killed. Campaigns against them claimed that they couldn't
be good citizens because that only vote the way of
their priests. Through the eighteen hundreds, Chinese immigrants were said
to be cheap laborers taking away jobs from real Americans.
In the early nineteen hundreds, Italians were branded criminals. During

(03:21):
the Great Depression, twenty percent of Mexican Americans were deported,
more than half of whom were American citizens by birth.
Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. Today, Muslim
and Middle Eastern Americans are branded terrorists. Many of these groups,
even long after they've woven themselves into the fabric of

(03:41):
American society, but after generations still grapple was xenophobia. Lee
explained that it's at the crux of a uniquely American dichotomy.
No other country has allowed more immigrants to settle and
more refugees of safe haven than America. Today, about twenty
eight percent of Americans are immigrants or US born children

(04:02):
of immigrants, some ninety million people. Yet no country has
deported more immigrants some fifty seven million since the late
eighteen hundreds. Lisaid it points to a contradiction that is
as old as the United States. We have these very
conflicting notions about who an American could be. There were
very romantic proclamations that an American is someone who chooses

(04:25):
to be an American as long as you had it
in your heart to accept the ideals and the values
of the United States. Than we unlike countries that were
based on a monarchy or hereditary citizenship, but we had
this much more inclusive definition of American citizenship. And in
many ways that was true, but in many other ways
it was very narrow. For example, the first law about

(04:49):
naturalization was passed in seventeen ninety, and it was relatively open.
It said that quote any alien being a free white
person end quote could apply for citizenship as long as
they lived in the United States for at least two years.
But that law, of course excluded enslaved people from Africa,
Native Americans, and others. Even when the US has taken

(05:14):
steps that would seem anti xenophobic. There have been stumbles
and pushbacks. For example, the Immigration Act of nineteen sixty
five overturned immigration quotas that were based on national origins.
Originally designed to favor immigrants from European countries, the law
paved the way for millions of legal immigrants from Latin
America and beyond, and for an increase in illegal immigration

(05:37):
as well, and all of that spurred some xenophobic reaction.
The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute wrote about this in twenty
fifteen a quote. The law's proponents see it as a
historic success and assert that the estimated fifty nine million
immigrants who have come to the United States since its
passage as of twenty fifteen have made the younger, infused

(06:01):
it with diversity and talent, and generated prosperity and economic growth.
Critics contend that high admission levels of diverse groups of
immigrants have created more competition for low skilled US workers
and shattered the country's cultural homogeneity. Lie said, the connection
with racism is really powerful, So what's wrong with racism?

(06:24):
It treats people unequally, it demonizes entire groups, is dangerous
and threatening. Either because they're racially different, or they practice
a different faith, or that they're just thought of as
inherently dangerous, and we treat them as a group rather
than treating them as individuals. On top of all of that,

(06:45):
our government is made up of people, and sometimes people
codify those ways of thinking into law. It's hardly the
self evident truth etched forever into the Declaration of Independence
that all men are created equal, but it's undeniable at
this point. America, again, like many other countries, has asenophobia problem.

(07:09):
It's deep rooted and insidious and it won't be cured
anytime soon. But that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do.
From our interactions and our daily lives to our voices
in the government, we can all fight against hate and discrimination.
The first step may come from within, learning to identify

(07:29):
hateful rhetoric wrapped in the guise of national pride or
personal gain, and to think critically about why people would
promote that hate and fear. What do they have to
gain from making you afraid of your neighbors instead of
talking about the systemic institutional problems that are making both
your and your neighbors lives harder. On a community level,

(07:54):
you can provide practical support to the diverse cultures that
add so much to our lives by supporting the local
businesses like restaurants run by immigrants, and by supporting local
events from international artists like cultural festivals, theater concerts, and
film screenings. Online and in three dimensions, you can call
out hate speech and bigotry. Let the people you're acquainted

(08:17):
with know that dehumanizing stereotypes are never funny. On the
flip side, it can be better to not interact with
people online who you don't know, and sometimes feeding the
trolls can only further their spread on social media. Also,
if it's safe for you to do so, stand up
to real life bullies by calmly making your presence known,

(08:38):
asking the victim of the harassment if they'd like your support,
and then, if so, de escalating the situation by remaining
calm and being attentive and empathetic while attempting to remove
people from the location or situation. Finally, vote in national
and local elections. Your vote is mutual aid. There are

(09:01):
lots of resources online for how to help fight hate
like xenophobia. The United Nations has a bunch of great material.
It's scary out there, but after all, we're all just
human people in this together. Today's episode is based on

(09:22):
the article why Zenophobia Thrives in Troubled Times on how
Stuffworks dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is
production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks
dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
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