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It’s not just Trump. Many whites view people of color as less American.

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President Trump is facing strong backlash for telling four progressive Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to where they “originally came from.” The presidential tweet sparked a storm of controversy for appearing to question the nationality and patriotism of these nonwhite members of Congress — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) — three of whom were born in the United States.

Trump’s comments were immediately criticized by Democrats (and some Republicans) for evoking long-standing racist tropes that treat racial and ethnic minorities as less authentically American than whites. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted:

Of course, this isn’t the first time the president has questioned the Americanness of people of color. Trump first became popular among Republicans by publicly questioning Barack Obama’s citizenship. Since then, he has dismissed a federal judge born in Indiana as “a Mexican”; expressed a strong preference for white immigrants from Norway over those from “shithole” African countries; and said to African American athletes protesting racial injustice, “Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”

But Trump isn’t alone in seeing people of color as less American. Indeed, for many whites, being American is often equated with being white.

Race and Americanness

As I noted in an earlier Monkey Cage post, within the social-science literature on intergroup relations, Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto’s theory of social dominance argues that politically dominant groups, such as whites in the United States, effectively claim “ownership of the nation.” According to this influential theory, “Nationality and ethnicity are complementary because their power has enabled whites to successfully define the prototypical American in their own image.”

Consistent with that contention, social-psychology research shows that “to be American is implicitly synonymous with being white.” Those studies show that many whites subconsciously see both African and Asian Americans as less associated with the national category “American” than whites.

Moreover, whites who feel solidarity with other members of their racial group have stronger attachments to America and to such patriotic symbolsas the national anthem and the American flag. They’re also more likely to hold views of Americanness that restrict membership, such as believing that being white and Christian are important to being “truly American.”

The figure below shows an even more direct link between whiteness and American patriotism.

The bars on the left show results from a June 1995 NBC Poll that asked respondents, “When you hear about someone being ‘patriotic,’ do you think of a white man, a white woman, a black man or a black woman?” The results again suggest that whites’ image of the prototypical American patriot is far more likely to be white than black.

Similarly, the bars on the right show that few whites thought African Americans were particularly patriotic in a February 2012 American National Election Study Survey. Only 28 percent of white respondents thought that the word “patriotic” described most blacks very or extremely well, compared with 51 percent who thought most whites are patriots.

Patriotism is often closely mixed with racial resentment

This view that African Americans are insufficiently patriotic fits well with classic conceptions of modern prejudice, which argue that contemporary racial resentment is characterized by “moral feelings that blacks violate … traditional American values.” In fact, one of the questions that Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher used to measure racial resentment for the Obama campaign in 2008 was: “I often feel that African Americans aren’t as proud and patriotic about this country as I am.”

[Republicans used to agree with Democrats that using the 'n-word' is always wrong. Not any more.]

The widespread belief that people of color are insufficiently American and patriotic also helps explain why some individuals — and not others — have their nationality and patriotism questioned if they criticize U.S. government policies. Trump said that those four members of Congress “hate our country” and should leave if they’re “not happy” with his administration.

But when Trump was writing about “Crippled America” and speaking of American carnage, no one called for him to go back to his ancestral homelands in Scotland or Germany.

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Germinator
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We find this Donald Trump of yours very interesting.

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SonsOfOdin
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As a white man, am I chinese if I was born in China? Am I african if I was in Somalia?

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josh avatar
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@sonsofodin

Actually there are Russian whites in China.

Surprise! Surprise!

 

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SonsOfOdin
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according to the refugee muslim somalian senator, we should profile all white men.  🤬 

In a couple of decades, God will be replaced with ''allah''

 

 

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@sonsofodin

I just saw the full video. the media edited out/cut off a very few important words..

the interviewer asked to how will she response to the rise of islamphobia who fear jihadists

'''she said that ''FEAR'' is the driving force of policy change, well if that were the case then we should be profiling white men( meaning there is fear that will drive into radicalization.'''

not sure what exaactly what she meant.

I think she was making point about ''double standards'' of islamphobia linking terrorists/jihadists with ordinary muslims.

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SonsOfOdin
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@josh

she got me fooled right there

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mingle avatar
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To be honest, the majority of non-white people here identify with their country of origin first and then with America. They support their home country against America in sports matches and would support their home country against America in a war.  The exceptions are Black Americans that have are descended from local slaves (as opposed to those that recently migrated from the Caribbean or Africa). On the other hand, Western European-Americans see themselves as nothing but American, unless they're recent migrants. The vast majority of them see ancestral components such as "German" or "English" as part of their heritage but not part of their identity and they don't care about the politics in that country.

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@mingle

Puerto ricans, Native Americans, polynesians, Legal -mexicans seem to be loyal to USA. American Jews dont seem to care about israel from my experience. 

The blacks and whites have been here for 200-400 years. The mexicans are native to the south west, native-americans are native. Puerto ricans,cubans, Polynesian like samoa are american nationals. 

 

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@josh

Puerto Rico is part of USA so that makes sense. I never meet any Polynesians or natives so I can't comment on that. I agree about Jews. But Asians (including Middle Easterners), Africans (recent migrants) and Latin Americans (even legal ones) don't seem to strongly identify with America. There are some that do, but they're a minority.

Many of these people that don't identify with America much (such as Koreans or Indians) tend to be peaceful, but they identify with their homeland more so its understandable why a White American may view them as less American. There are even a few Italians and Irish that see themselves as Italian or Irish first but they're less common.

By the way, there's a footballer that was born in USA but plays for Mexico despite living his whole life in USA and playing for American youth teams.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Gonz%C3%A1lez_(footballer,_born_1999)

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@mingle

most of those people you mention dont have history or roots in america.. 

most of them just migrated no later than 40 years ago. it might take them 50-100 years before they forged a history or bond in the american history.

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@josh

Yeah, so that's why I think Trump is partly right. Most non-Whites haven't lived in America for over 50 years and don't identify with America as much, which supports what Trump is saying.

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@mingle

BTW did you get my pvt msg???

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SonsOfOdin
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@mingle

The answer is very simple.

We humans have a tribal nature denying this will put the next generation into harm's way. 

 

 

 

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Its hard for white/black americans people in general seeing buddhist/hindu/Muslim/sikhs/voodoo/confucious/taoist/whatever or communist, facists, authorian, china,Russia supporter as more american than them. 

 

 

 

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SonsOfOdin
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@josh

It will be easy soon when they have socially engineered us into leftism. 

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@sonsofodin

nahhh, there is always a counter balance. you guys will eventually lose your tolerance and fight back

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