Immigration to the United States is a tricky thing, because American politicians historically have hated non-white immigrants. Born in the USA: The Story of Immigration and Belonging sheds light on the centuries of hatred and the ever-changing definition of “white” in politics.
Lawrence Goldstone manages to weave a tale from slavery through the Chinese Exclusion to San Francisco trying to ban Japanese people to European Jews being denied entry at the beginning of World War III to Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Act passing.
A few years ago I read One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 from Jia Lynn Yang which goes into a lot more detail surrounding the events in that time frame. That’s a great look into but just what laws were passing but also who were passing them. It’s a great companion piece to this if you want to go more in depth into the subject
I remember 20 years ago when the movie Gangs of New York came out. I was in high school at the time and wasn’t fully able to grasp the whole racism from one group of white people against another group of white people.
As I grew older, it made a lot more sense as I learned more about history and events. “Whites” in America only consisted of northern Europeans and British. Then, they expanded to include the Irish. Then, they expanded to include southern Europeans. Then, they expanded to include eastern Europeans.
All in search of keeping out the “other”.
It didn’t matter whether that was eastern Asians (Chinese and Japanese), southern Asian (Indians), Middle Eastern, Africans (except they lived their white South Africans), or people from Central and South America.
The art from James Otis Smith is played well with the story, letting you feel the emotion on the page.
I really liked this book, and I think more people should check it out. If you have a kid in middle or high school, it’s a fantastic book for them to learn more about America’s racism in an easily digestible format.
Thank you Netgalley and First Second Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
