In an interview with talk show host Laura Ingraham, Rand Paul decided to singlehandedly change history. “I think assimilation is an amazing thing,” Senator Paul stated. “A good example of how, even in our country, assimilation didn’t happen—and it has been a disaster for the people—has been the Native American population on the reservations. If they were assimilated, within a decade they’d probably be doing as well as the rest of us.”
Ignoring the fact that one of the biggest disasters in American history was the forced resettlement of Native American land, Senator Paul repeats a mindset that has become ingrained in American politics: that assimilation is the best policy to ensure a more perfect union. This policy has manifested throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. In the second Republican debate, Donald Trump remarked, “We have a country, where, to assimilate, you have to speak English.” In effect, some right-wing politicians are advocating for the washing away of cultural identity in favor of a unique, “American” heritage.
The current outpouring of anti-immigrant and pro-American rhetoric is not new. The basis of the surge in nativist thought arose in the mid-nineteenth century, when the “Know Nothing” Party emerged, ushering in a wave of nativism and Anglo-Saxon superiority that continues to this day. What is occurring right now is not an anomaly, but the continuation of a Know Nothing legacy. It is our responsibility to recognize the past, lest we repeat the mistakes we have tried to forget.
The Know Nothing Party: A Brief History
The year was 1849. The country had just emerged from an aggressive expansionary war with Mexico, and patriotic spirit ran high: America had become a force to be reckoned with in international politics. But a fear had crept over the country that Irish-Catholic immigrants would take over American jobs and government positions while keeping a papal allegiance. Just a few years earlier, Anti-Catholic groups in Philadelphia had burned down several churches in one of the worst race riots in American history.
It was in this environment that the Order of the Star Spangled Banner was born. Its mission was political: members would “vote for no one except native-born Protestants for public office,” and prefer nativist candidates. Within a year, the order quickly grew from a small brotherhood to an organization of over 50,000. Its secret nature led members to say they “knew nothing” about the Order when asked. Colloquially, the group became known as the Know Nothings.
By 1855, the group, now referred to as the American Party, had taken control of the Massachusetts legislature, and passed numerous bills to curb the influence of Irish immigrants. This, combined with authorized spying on nunneries, and required reading of the King James Bible in schools, made for an oppressive environment for those who were not perceived as American. The American Party had also made significant inroads elsewhere; other states, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland, enacted legislation that limited naturalization and restricted voter registration to those who could speak English. Nationally, the party emerged as one of the most successful third parties in the presidential election of 1856, with 21.6 percent of the popular vote.
The American Party was not without its critics; while the party consistently believed in native superiority over immigrants, it was split on the issue of slavery. Detractors contended that the party did not accurately address the main issue of the time, and this proved to be its downfall. The party soon split amongst geographic lines, and by 1860 ceased to be a major force in electoral politics.
Though the Know Nothings soon faded from the minds of many, they ushered in a new age of nativist sentiment, and created an intensely hostile atmosphere for immigrants and non-white inhabitants of the country. The party and its ideals were one of the founding blocks of the new American imperialistic mentality that emphasized the superiority of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism over other cultures. As John Higham noted in his book Strangers in the Land, many foundational aspects of American patriotism, from the schoolhouse flag movement, to the Pledge of Allegiance, to the start of the Memorial Day holiday, were a response to the fears of nativists who feared the influence of foreign customs. The influence of nativism continued well into the 1920s with the passage of the Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924, which severely restricted the immigration of European and Asian immigrants.
A New Know Nothing Atmosphere
Try as society might to forget the ugly history of nativism, whether through apology or redress, the tendencies of the past continue today. Take Bobby Jindal, once regarded as a golden child for Indian-American politics—a shining example that anyone, regardless of ethnicity, could scale the summits of American government. Yet Jindal has, in effect, rejected Indian heritage, choosing instead to assimilate into American culture. On Face the Nation, he told John Dickerson that “the United States need[s] to insist upon assimilation. Immigration without assimilation is invasion…that can weaken our country,” and in a First in the Nation summit in New Hampshire, remarked, “I don’t know about you, I’m tired of the hyphenated Americans.”
Jindal’s remarks are not unique amongst Republican presidential contenders. In an Iowa dinner, Jeb Bush argued that the United States was in danger of separating into “multicultural” factions, preventing assimilation, and during the second 2016 Republican presidential debate numerous Republican candidates referred to the threat of an America where English and Spanish were spoken together.
The anti-foreign sentiment in the 2016 election has reached new heights, far surpassing the comments on assimilation. Ben Carson has said he would advocate against electing a Muslim president, and Donald Trump has become infamous for his statement that “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … they’re bringing crime … they’re rapists.” And people are listening to every word: Ben Carson and Donald Trump are the top contenders in the primaries.
When Donald Trump proposes a wall to separate Mexican immigrants who presumably are rapists and criminals, he echoes the Know Nothing Party’s belief that immigrants are dangerous to the United States, and should be contained in their home countries. And when Bobby Jindal dismisses the concerns of Muslim immigrants, stating instead that “right now, the biggest discrimination going on is against Christian business owners and individuals who believe in traditional forms of marriage,” he reinforces the nativist idea that the concerns of immigrants are small in comparison to the struggles of those “meant” to be here.
Violence against émigrés has experienced a resurgence arguably not seen since World War II against Japanese and German immigrants, and yet too few seem to consider them as issues of importance. The recent shooting in Chapel Hill was dismissed as a case of aggravated murder instead of a racially motivated hate crime, and in 2012, the indiscriminate shooting at a gurudwara, a Sikh place of worship, was quickly brushed over, with the news soon reverting to reporting on the happenings of celebrities or political gaffes.
Many immigrants now experience the same terrible fear that plagued the Germans and Irish during the nineteenth century. Women are harassed for wearing the hijab in their office spaces, and Khalid Hamideh, lawyer and activist, stated in a PBS interview that “the reality is anytime something like that happens, we, as Muslims, living in America, feel that we immediately become the usual suspects.” Immigrants are afraid of expressing their own culture, their identity, in the country that has been renowned for its acceptance. For many, the options seem bleak: assimilate into American culture and forego age-old values, or remain unrecognized as a member of the society they have left everything behind for.
History repeats itself. The same vein of thought circles and spins around those who do not wish it to repeat. The Know Nothing Party has survived in America. Its continued influence can be seen in rhetoric and action, in infamous rhetoric and xenophobic public demonstrations. But there are terrible mistakes that ought not to be repeated, and steps must be taken to ensure that that they are not.
Image Credits: Flickr/Gage Skidmore