Do Americans (USA) forget sometimes that our country was founded on....

1. 92

   peeplesposted 11 years ago

   Do Americans (USA) forget sometimes that our country was founded on....
   
   Foreigners coming to a land where they didn't speak the language? Do we sometimes forget that we weren't the first people here?

   replyreport
2. 77

   flacoinohioposted 11 years ago

   We forget more than sometimes, it does goes prove that white Anglo-Saxon people have felt entitled to what other people have or something they have not earned for way longer than the last few generations though.

   replyreport
3. 76

   Steven Disonposted 11 years ago

   Yep, a lot seem to forget that. Reminds me of a lyric in a White Stripes song, Icky Thump:
   
   "White Americans, what, nothin' better to do?
   Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant too"

   replyreport
   1. 62

      xanzacowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      love it... so true.

      replyreport
   2. 92

      peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Love that song.

      replyreport
4. 62

   windygreenposted 11 years ago

   I do think we forget.   I think its crazy because we were all imagrants... All of us but Native Americans.

   replyreport
   1. 60

      Shellie Wyndhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Us Native Americans also came from someplace else, just way further back in history so you make a valid point.  Maybe a better question is whether people feel justified in cultural intolerance.

      replyreport
5. 58

   Marcus99posted 11 years ago

   The entire planet was founded by immigrants. Every nation was founded by peoples' migrations from everywhere. The U.S. is just another example of this ever-moving Human wave...

   replyreport
   1. 60

      BigBlue54posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      True with one except. Africa, where we all originated from.

      replyreport
6. 92

   mactaversposted 11 years ago

   Americans would do well to remember that Native peoples were in America first and what has happened to them in American history is a crime. However, I do think that all countries have requirements for immigrants and visitors.  The two countries (outside the USA) that I have visited most often are Canada and Mexico, and both Canada and Mexico have very definite laws regarding immigration, who can own land and what rights citizens of other countries have if they break foreign laws, and how long visitors are permitted to stay and an official language or in Canada 2 languages.  Perhaps I am very ignorant about international laws, but I can't think of any countries where immigrants can walk across the borders and obtain work or go to school without having the proper documents and sometimes Americans aren't treated well if they don't speak the proper language of the country they visit either.  If there are countries with no immigration laws I hope someone writes a Hub and has good information so that those seeking political refuge would have a safe country to immigrate to regardless of where they came from or what language they speak.

   replyreport
   1. 92

      peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I am Hispanic/white, legal, and have still found once people find out they treat me different and I was born here almost 30 yrs ago. Laws are great but many Americans assume all non white/blacks are illegal or came from illegal parents.

      replyreport
7. 78

   MickeySrposted 11 years ago

   I don't think so . . . I mean, there are always a few 'whatever' to anything, there are some White European decent Americans, I'm sure, who think of America as always and only their land, but that is not the common or widespread disposition of Americans anymore - I think what that idea actually is, is the left's preference for what the right is like. I think it serves the liberals well to (I'm suggesting many here, I am generalizing and certainly not asserting that all liberals . . .) imagine and cast conservatives as narrow-minded racists who dismiss the more indigenous people (Native Americans) and disparage the later immigrants (ethnic minorities), it makes them feel good about themselves, just as casting conservatives as ignorant and fearful buffoons who 'cling to their guns and religion' makes (some) liberals feel good about themselves.
   
   If every conservative around is a little John Wayne, that cartoonish persona is easier for liberals to mock and disregard than say, JFK (who's administration was far more conservative than today's liberals would like to admit) . . . the trouble with that is, if you actually watch those old John Wayne movies, he was nearly always fully behind the cause of the Indians and giving voice to their grievance. Long before today's liberals began patting themselves on the back for 'getting' the wrong American has done, their 'conservatives are simple-minded brutes'  poster boy was educating and admonishing us on the mistreatment the Native Americans received from the White man.
   
   I think now, today, everyone easily understands that we cheated the Native Americans, brutalized African slaves, and abused minorities . . . I think that just about only ever comes-up anymore as some try to promote themselves as smarter & bolder & more caring by asserting others just don't 'get' how evil all that historic activity was - it's become a tool to cast yourself (I don't mean you personally, but whoever) as morally superior to those on the political right. It's become a battle cry of 'we're the good guys because we know how wrong we've been and you don't' - except, everybody does know, everybody 'gets' it.

   replyreport
8. 68

   LandmarkWealthposted 11 years ago

   I don't think Americans have forgotten that at all.  However, the difference is when there was a mass migration of imigrants from places like Italy, Ireland, Poland and various other places around the world at the turn of the 20th century, they did a better job of assimiliating.  When my grandfather immigrated from Sicily, he refused to allow Italian to be spoken around the dinner table.  He felt that he was so happy to be in America that it was important to adapt to American culture.  He understood that if he didn't adapt it would limit his upward economic mobility.  While he lived in an Italian neighborhood, he always considered himself an American first.  Today we allow people to come to this country and not assimiliate.  In fact we encourage it by offering them services in different languages.  Why should you adapt when you're not forced to.  Now we have neighborhoods in NYC were people are born in the USA and still don't speak english.  Or it is their second language.  It is bad for everyone.  Immigrants have less economic mobility and it creates hostility among races when people come to a foreign land and choose not to adapt to the culture.

   replyreport
9. 60

   fpherj48posted 11 years ago

   peeples....I've not ever considered myself all-knowing enough to imagine what people forget or remember...and certainly, as I look around, I can't begin to imagine what they're "thinking."
   Looking from our own perspective and position.....it can seem that "Americans," basically fight within their own minds....some follow like sheep, some lead the pack.....and others are in a state of confusion.  I don't for one moment think that most people have enough foresight or memory to focus hard enough on an issue to hold a firm, personal belief.....about how or why or  WHAT our country was founded on.
   Personally, I'm consciously and fully aware that both my maternal and paternal grandparents immigrated from their respective European countries.   I know they saw this as a blessing and enormous opportunity to become Americans, learn the language and the laws and the American way....they worked hard, raised and educated their children, and made the country a better place for all of us.

   replyreport
10. 60

    BigBlue54posted 11 years ago

    Mactavers asked if there is any country where immigrants can walk across the border and obtain work without any documentation. We in Great Britain have long had a policy whereby people from the Republic of Ireland can come here and work and to the best of my knowledge without any paperwork. After WW2 many Irishmen came here to help rebuild my country after the Germans bombed us and then with other major infrastructure project after that.

    replyreport
11. 60

    Shellie Wyndhamposted 11 years ago

    As a person of Native American ancestry, I would have to say that too often the answer to your question is yes.  Of course, as a minority, I might have a different view due to my own experiences.  It’s difficult to express my feelings at being treated like an outsider in my own country sometimes, by people whose ancestors came long after mine did. 
    I once had a minister come to my house to bring me into his “flock”.  We spoke at great length about works and the state of our eternal souls; then he explained to me how the missionaries did my people such a great service by enlightening so many, and how taking our children to live in boarding schools so that they could learn to be good Christians was a service provided out of the kindness of their religion and that they “saved” so many souls from damnation in this way…I politely invited him to leave and never return.  That happened over twenty years ago and still, it makes me angry to think of it.
    Not everyone is like this; some people are genuinely interested in allowing and even celebrating cultural diversity.  Others tell me that I should be return to the reservation.  Funny, I was born far from the reservation, in Charleston, South Carolina.  Not all Native Americans were contained on reservations; many ran away to live in the wilder areas like the swamps and the high mountains.  Not all of them are practicing Native Americans and their culture reflects Americanized standards more so than any other.  I have no issue with that as long as they are being themselves and not what the majority thinks that they should be.

    replyreport
    1. 92

       peeplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for the answer and we were both born in the same city.

       replyreport