* Of course it never really was “White”. Whatever “white” means. There is no such thing as race, and our most cherished American ideals, what makes America great, including freedom of religion and individual liberty, are partly inherited from American Indians.
Many here and across the country have been trying to understand the Trump administration’s immigration policy. For example, the restrictions on travel by permanent residents (green card holders) were believed by many to be the result of the Trump administration’s ignorance of the law. That is not the case.
The driving force behind the Bannon-sponsored immigration orders is a desire to reverse the demographic trends that have turned America into a more diverse nation.
This is about making America White Again. Very literally. A related objective is to Make America Christian Again. To do that, they intend to reverse the projected demographics illustrated on the right. They want it to look like a sharp V, with the proportion of brown and black people in the US falling dramatically.
No other goal is as important to the Bannon/Trump administration as reversing the declining proportion of White Americans. Every one of their policies is directly related to stopping brown and black people from landing in America, and getting rid of as many who are already here as possible.
Bannon and Trump both view brown and black citizens in the USA as a threat to “western culture”. They do not outwardly espouse racial superiority as the KKK or Nazis of old. Instead, they present “western culture” as a high achievement that is threatened by a browner and blacker America. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone since it is discussed quite openly by Bannon/Trump’s closest allies.
[...] the rise of Donald Trump, perhaps the first truly cultural candidate for President since Buchanan, suggests grassroots appetite for more robust protection of the western European and American way of life. [...]
Halting, or drastically slowing, immigration is a major priority for the alt-right. While eschewing bigotry on a personal level, the movement is frightened by the prospect of demographic displacement represented by immigration. [...]
The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race. The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved. A Mosque next to an English street full of houses bearing the flag of St. George, according to alt-righters, is neither an English street nor a Muslim street — separation is necessary for distinctiveness. — Breitbart
Their goal, to “halt, or drastically slow” immigration and bend our current demographic trend requires overturning the LBJ administration’s landmark 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. Prior to this act, immigration to the USA was controlled by either thinly-veiled or blatantly racial quotas.
Race-based immigration quotas were instituted within years of this nation’s founding. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited immigration to "free white persons of good character" (Southern or Eastern Europeans need not apply). The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 largely accomplished its stated intent. The National Origins Formula of 1921 mandated immigration be based on the existing ethnic makeup of the US. The Immigration Act of 1924, was passed to stop immigration from Africa and southern/eastern Europe. It was also known (correctly) as the Asian Exclusion Act. It changed the basis for racial quotas on the census of 1890 (rather than more recent ones). That skewed the quotas towards Northern Europe. Perhaps most damingly, this country systematically denied American Indians the rights and privileges of US citizenship till the Snyder Act in 1924.
The alt-right wants a separation of races and religions, that cannot be achieved while non-white people continue to immigrate to the US. From their perspective, both documented and undocumented immigrants are as unwanted. They have consumed Bannon’s films, which contain this message:
Western Civilization as we know it is under attack by forces that are demonic or foreign—the difference between those is blurry—and people in far-distant power centers are looking to screw you. What’s worse, Christianity and freedom are on the wane.
Their solution is to take away the “demonic or foreign” people among them and have found their champions in Bannon and Trump. Their most cherished goal is to gut the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Everything else is secondary.
In a sense, their vision is derived from Jim Crow, “separate an equal”, except it takes a global form where all races are separated by national borders. To assuage the queasy, they won’t claim racial superiority. But all of them believe western “culture” is superior. Since culture equals race in their view, this is a distinction without a difference. They are both cultural and racial supremacists, but will dance around race, fully aware of how unacceptable naked racism is in America today.
This is difficult for many American progressives to fathom since we are more familiar with a form of racism that posits a racial hierarchy. Bannon/Trump racism does not lean primarily on eugenics. It’s more akin to the fears and ethno-nationalism that led to several episodes of ethnic cleansing across Europe and Asia in the inter-war and post-war years as the diverse/multi-cultural Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and British empires collapsed.
Last week, a security pretext was used to halt all inbound immigration and travel from seven countries. The White House has claimed that the president has absolute power to control the entry of persons at our borders. This is similar to their claim during the campaign, that the president can ban any class of persons. This is their opening salvo in their attempt to destroy the 1965 immigration act.
That these security “concerns” are a fig-leaf that apply only to non-whites is abundantly clear. If there was any question, the Bannon/Trump administration’s announcement that white supremacist groups cannot be considered terrorists, even when they commit murderous acts of terrorism should erase it. Incidentally, this implies foreign white-supremacists will not be branded as terrorist groups either. They are welcome to visit America.
Nor does the Bannon-Trump administration worry unduly about the impact their policies will have on our safety. Counter-terrorism officials have argued the alienation of immigrants can make these communities less inclined to cooperate with law enforcement. This argument will carry no weight with the Bannon-Trump administration. If an attack does occur, it will be used as a pretext to extend the ban to additional countries. Of course, this would apply only to non-whites. White-supremacist Canadians or Norwegians who murder multiple people should not worry their actions will lead to travel bans under the Bannon-Trump administration.
To achieve their ethno-nationalist dream of a “purer”, whiter America, the Bannon-Trump administration will push the envelope at every opportunity. The next time we have an infectious disease scare, expect to see inbound travel severely curtailed and immigration halted. During the campaign, Bannon-Trump advocated refusing American citizens exposed to Ebola entry. There is no reason to believe a self-confessed germaphobe President Bannon-Trump will not institute such a policy if SARS (for example) resurges. The Bannon-Trump administration is willing to use every form of scare-mongering to curtail the entry of non-whites into this country. This includes drumming up fears of terrorism, sexual assault, crime and disease. Behind all of them is their unstated view that non-whites do not belong in a white, christian nation, a bulwark of “western culture”.
Needless to say, the smug forecast of “permanent Democratic majorities” is worth less than nothing if they succeed.
EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE TRADED AWAY
Observers have misdiagnosed the true objectives of the Bannon-Trump administration for over a year. The Atlantic, wrote in August that Bannon wants to “destroy the left” and Trump is a vehicle to do this. Not so. Bannon-Trump want to destroy diversity in our society, taking down the left is simply a means to that end.
Since their primary concern is preserving the purity of white culture/race, traditional “conservative” issues such as anti-abortion legislation, reducing the size of government, free trade, or social conservatism are secondary to the Bannon-Trump administration. These are policy chips to be traded away in pursuit of their larger ethno-nationalist goal. An America where “western culture is restored” by removing as many brown/black people as possible. Note that “race” and “culture” are synonyms in their view.
Once you understand this, you can begin to see how it informs Bannon/Trump policies:
- Building a wall is both a metaphorical and physical barrier to keep Mexican/Hispanic people from diluting your cherished culture (race).
- Undermining the right of brown citizens or green card holders to stay in the US is a core objective, so you include them in your travel bans and suggest they could lose permanent residency if they ever end up on state support.
- Trade means travel. Travel means some resettlement, including by brown or black people you’d rather not have. So you see trade through a skeptical lens.
- Alliances with far-right parties in Europe and Asia are considered appropriate since they are ideological allies who ascribe to the same theory of the demographic “threat” from Muslim, African, Asian immigration. Parties like Modi’s BJP in India share similar views about their own culture/religion/race.
- The Bannon/Trump administration has unlikely fellow-travelers among the Israeli right who believe some anti-semitism in the US would encourage a mass emigration of American Jews. This would then solve their own “demographic” imbalance with Palestinians and facilitate the annexation of both Jerusalem and the West Bank while maintaining Israel’s “Jewish character”.
- Similarly, they see Russia (and Putin) as a fellow ethno-nationalist state. One that is dealing with it’s own “threat” from Muslim and Asian nations on its borders. This allows them to overcome whatever concerns they might have about crony capitalism in Russia. To quote Bannon: “However, we the Judeo-Christian West really have to look at what he’s [Putin] talking about as far as traditionalism goes — particularly the sense of where it supports the underpinnings of nationalism”.
- The Bannon/Trump administration would prefer to stop the H-1B program entirely. This policy would be marketed as returning jobs to American workers.
- Students (F-1) and exchange (J-1) visas were covered in the recent executive order because Bannon/Trump consider those programs a gateway to immigration and cultural/racial dilution.
- The family-based immigration program will eventually be a target, though it might be replaced by a “grandmother clause” along the lines of those in certain European nations to allow white immigrants.
- Using every opportunity to paint Muslims (a convenient stand-in for all non-western cultures/races) as dangerous, backward people who pose a threat to “western” values of tolerance and freedom.
Successfully deploying these policies also requires a propaganda campaign against the “cosmopolitan elite” in a “handful of our larger cities” who represent “globalization”. Many observers believes these are code-words that refer to Jewish people. This is certainly true of some alt-righters. But when considering the Bannon-Trump administration, we should read these words literally. For Bannon-Trump, our cities are dens of race-mixing that stain the purity of “western culture”. Since in their view, culture equals race, a cosmopolitan, mixed culture holds as much appeal for them as mixed-race couples did for the KKK. This stance leads to an alliance with religious conservatives, who suspect our cities are dens of abortion, sexual promiscuity and homosexuality. This may turn out to be a more stable alliance than that between fiscal and social conservatives.
A brief note for my fellow Asian-Americans. The stereotype of Asians as a “model minority” is not going to win you a pass from the Bannon-Trump administration. In fact, they find the relative material success enjoyed by some Asians in America especially galling. Bannon believes it threatens “civic society”. The “civic society” he refers to is one that reserves seats at the top for those who belong to the right culture/race. In his remarks at the Vatican, Bannon spoke extensively about his belief that “Judeo-Christian civilization” is critical to capitalism. Asians (few of whom are Judeo-Christians) are okay as long as they’re doing your laundry or laying railroad tracks, not when they are CEOs running large enterprises.
WHITE CITIZENS
Bannon and Sessions both advocate removing “birthright citizenship”, or Jus Soli. This is the legal principle which grants US citizenship to any human being born within the borders of the USA.
Jus Soli is uncommon outside of the western hemisphere. It was adopted by much of the Americas to facilitate European settler-colonialism and as a practical matter since parental citizenship was often unknown or undetermined. In several instances, it served to increase the number of citizens and win the demographic race against competing nations (French, Spanish, English and American Indian in our case).
As with most things American, birthright citizenship was conferred unequally. Black residents in many these United States did not get citizenship at birth till the 14th amendment was passed after the Civil War.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. — 14th amendment to the US constitution. Section 1
It took a Civil War to grant these rights to all. Bannon/Trump want to drive a stake through the 14th amendment, denying the children of both documented and undocumented immigrants citizenship at birth. They want to tear down this law, which is part of our continuing, halting effort “to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Many of the arguments being brandished against the immigration executive orders are destined to have no effect on the Bannon-Trump administration. Especially the one about it being unconstitutional. Bannon/Trump know that to achieve their objectives, they need to overturn the 14th amendment. They will take what they can get before that, pushing the agencies and courts as far as they will go. They count as a victory, every brown/black person who chooses not to come to the US or is denied citizenship.
Running the numbers
Some of you will protest that Bannon/Trump won’t succeed in ethnically cleansing the USA. That we are already too diverse a society. Roughly 35% of the US population is identified as non-white or Hispanic. That’s over 100 million people. The remaining 200 million residents identify as non-Hispanic White. However, roughly 40-45 million Hispanic residents also identify as white. That leaves between 50 and 60 million people who identify as Black, Asian, or other non-white. The number of non-citizens among them dilutes their political power further.
Imagine a situation where the Bannon/Trump administration enters into a shooting war with a major Asian country. This could easily translate into interment of Asian-Americans, certainly non-citizens, but possibly citizens as well. The Bannon/Trump administration will claim they are following in FDR’s footsteps. This is a war of attrition, and such an action might encourage several hundred thousand, or even several million legal immigrants to “self-deport”. The Bannon-Trump administration would count very percentage reduction in the non-white population (especially non-white citizens) as a victory. Among certain sections of the far-right, maintaining a token presence of other races (as long as they are “well behaved”) may be considered advantageous.
So what should we do?
How do we combat these anti-immigrant, anti-minority policies? Well, first and foremost we should improve participation among immigrant communities. Voter registration and turnout among immigrants lags the general population. This is why the non-white share of the electorate is roughly 30%, while they are 35% of the population.
Another goal must be to encourage all 13 million green card holders to apply for citizenship. In a Bannon/Trump administration, green card holders have targets on their backs and should expect residency to be revoked or rescinded at the slightest pretext. The incentive for green-card holders to naturalize are apparent once the Bannon-Trump administration’s views towards them are understood clearly. We need to ensure immigrant communities are informed. Doubtless, the Bannon-Trump administration will scramble to change the naturalization process, slow it down and reject as many applicants as possible. We will have to combat that slowdown.
By all means, we should fight them in the courts, and we should fight them at the agencies. But first and foremost, this is a political fight and a messaging fight. If we lose the political fight, if they manage to weaken the 14th amendment through legislation, we lose. If they destroy the carefully cultivated view of America as an immigrant nation welcoming to all, we lose. If they weaken the rights enjoyed by legal permanent residents, foreign students and others, we will have lost. The dream of a more equal America, a more welcoming America, will have been shattered by the mailed fist of ethno-nationalism.
Will they succeed in smashing decades of progressive victories that so many before us bled for? Yes, it is possible. If we don’t know the enemy or misunderstand the battle we are fighting.
“If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory you will also endure a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will be defeated in every battle.” — Some Chinese guy, what does he know.