My grandparents loved America and the opportunity they created here for future generations of their family. How did we go from a “country of immigrants” to a place where people feel emboldened to scream on a street corner for others to “go back to their country”?
This week in Austin, TX a video went viral of a 30 year old small business owner who was in the face of some people on 6th Street saying all kinds of hateful and racist comments. He screamed with pride “I am a racist”. I am not going to link to the video, but I was horrified by this young man’s words and nasty aggressiveness towards people. But I started to read the comments on Instagram and Threads, and it was worse to see how many people defended his actions.
Interesting, he pulled down all his social media within hours, and his company has removed him from the website, etc… My guess is this will haunt him and his company for the rest of his life. But he does not seem like the type of person who will learn why what he did was so gross.
My grandfather was an immigrant in 1900 (my grandmother came as a child ten years earlier). He arrived from Ireland as a teenager after his parents died and he had to care for his three younger siblings, the youngest being his 4 year old sister.. This was a time when the Irish were called less human that others. Being Irish was being at the bottom of society.
But this racist guy on the sidewalk also is the descendent of immigrants (he certainly did not look Native American), and shame on his family for not teaching him that. Also, dumbass racist guy might scream out “well my forefathers came legally”. But was it the same? No. It was the 1920s before we started to see stronger laws. When my grandfather arrived it was not a big deal. It was 1924 before you had to get a visa before traveling. So this is not apples to apples. (The street corner guy was accusing the other people of having a lower IQ than him, but clearly he isn’t educated).
I normally do not write about such things on my blog, but the anti-immigrant rants happening all over the United States are concerning. I see them on the internet, television, and I hear people make snarky comments in other settings. I have spent a lot of time learning about why my grandfather came here at 16-years-old. The struggles he faced for being Irish. The way he got educated, and went on to be a captain in a fire department. And how he had 10 kids, 26 grandchildren, and over 50 great grandchildren (many of whom went to the top colleges in the United States). I was raised that this was called “The American Dream”.
Immigrants built our country. It doesn’t take much find the stories of people who came here and built companies. People who made discoveries. And people who did the work to build the infrastructure. To not see we want and need this cycle to continue is to undermine the future of our country.
And this is not just a problem in the United States. Other countries are filled with anti-immigration feelings. The Australian Hotel Association put out THIS VIDEO that tells the story of why their country needs the immigrants (and it is the same in America). The video shows how much work is done my those who are coming to their shores.
I understand people get scared and it is easy to blame others, and it is common for politicians to play on the lack of understanding and education to get people riled up. But Immigrants matter and racism is dumb. “Go back to your country” is a horrible thing for some punk on a street corner in Austin to shout at those from somewhere else. His great grandparents probably heard similar things from jerks, and they would be sad to know their family lineage is now made up of ass-hats.
The people who defend this type of behavior make me sad. I am a believer in the good in people. I get excited when I meet immigrants, as they are always among the most entrepreneurial risk takers I encounter. Where it is a young woman from Latin America or an MIT graduate from Africa… they matter and should not be dismissed or ignored. They are the future.