248 – Not a ‘Nation of Immigrants’ (w/ Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

We are joined by historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz to discuss her new book, why America is not ‘a nation of immigrants’, and how this feel-good liberal mythos, created by JFK and exemplified in the musical ‘Hamilton’, obscures America’s settler colonial history

Theme Song by Brain Tan: https://braintan.bandcamp.com/

Support the show! http://patreon.com/srslywrong

Links/Further Reading:
‘This is no ‘nation of immigrants’’ – (article) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz : https://www.uuworld.org/articles/no-nation-immigrants
“Not a Nation of Immigrants” book (Beacon Press): http://www.beacon.org/Not-A-Nation-of-Immigrants-P1641.aspx
‘‘Hamilton’ ignores the statesman’s strategy to fund genocidal warfare against Indigenous Peoples’ by Mark Meuwese: https://theconversation.com/hamilton-ignores-the-statesmans-strategy-to-fund-genocidal-warfare-against-indigenous-peoples-142616
‘New Research Suggests Alexander Hamilton Was a Slave Owner’ by David Kindy (Smithsonian Magazine): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-research-alexander-hamilton-slave-owner-180976260/
“I’m Alexander Hamilton’s Descendant. And He Wasn’t As Perfect As You Think.” by Ariel Clay Schuyler Hamilton Ehrlich: https://medium.com/@AriEhrlich/im-alexander-hamilton-s-direct-descendant-and-he-wasn-t-as-perfect-as-you-think-dbe61f6aab7
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘All the criticisms are valid’ tweet: https://twitter.com/lin_manuel/status/1280120414279290881?lang=en
‘How Hitler found his blueprint for a German empire by looking to the American West’ by David Carroll Cochran : https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/10/hitler-found-blueprint-german-empire-in-the-american-west/
‘The Savage Constitution’ by Gregory Ablavsky: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3412&context=dlj
‘The Transit of Empire’ by Jodie Byrd: https://learningcriticalrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/First-peoples_-New-Directions-in-Indigenous-Studies-Byrd-Jodi-A.-The-transit-of-empire-_-indigenous-critiques-of-colonialism-2011-University-of-Minnesota-Press-libgen.lc_.pdf
“Nothing Ever Dies” by Viet Nguyen (Book Review / Overview): https://usso.uk/book-review-nothing-ever-dies-vietnam-and-the-memory-of-war-by-viet-thanh-nguyen/

CORRECTION: In the episode we call the 1881 Chinese Exclusion Act the first Immigration Law in the US. But there is an earlier law, the 1875 Page Act, which restricted immigration of “prostitutes”, and in practice banned the immigration of Chinese women. More on this subject can be found here: https://www.history.com/news/chinese-immigration-page-act-women