"Why do we want all these people from 'shithole
countries' coming here?"
Donald Trump, January 12, 2018
My great-great grandfather came from a shithole country.
It was the 1840s. There was a famine. At least one million
people died in that famine. He and about 1.5 million other Irish men, women,
and children did what they felt they had to do to survive. They came to
America. They weren’t welcome. They encountered signs telling them “Irish and
dogs not welcome here.” He eventually settled in Chicago, fought for the Union
in the Civil War, married and had children, some of whom settled in Missouri’s
Lead Belt—probably taking jobs there as miners.
When our president made the statement about shithole countries
I was reading Linda Gordon’s The Second
Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political
Tradition, and I was amazed at how President Trump’s sentiments echoed
those of Klan members in the 1920s.
The 1920s have always intrigued me. I majored in history
and did several papers on the social, cultural, and economic issues people
faced during that decade. I must confess my previous understanding of the Ku
Klux Klan of that era was off according to Ms. Gordon.
I always thought Klan members were probably rural
know-nothings. That would make me wrong. It seems many were urban (including a
large membership in New York City and on Long Island). The 1920s Klan had most
of its members in the Midwest and west, and this was before much of the Great
Migration of African Americans from the south to the urban centers of the North
had taken place, so in the areas where the Klan had most of its members, there
weren’t enough blacks to be perceived as a threat, so the 1920s Klan focused
more on immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. In the west the focus was also on
people of Mexican and Asian heritage. It was kind of an
anti-(fill-in-the-blank) organization.
The Klan, in other words, was flexible. In some areas, for
example, German Jews were OK, but the Jews coming from shithole countries in
Eastern Europe and Russia were beyond the Pale (pun intended). In other areas,
some Catholics were acceptable and even joined the Klan. In the South, of
course, blacks were the primary focus of Klan activity.
Immigrants from shithole countries—especially Catholic and
Orthodox shithole countries (Italy, Greece, and the like) were Klan targets.
Dealing with Klan targets was also flexible. In some
communities economic boycotts were successful; in other communities, homes and
businesses were burned. In extreme cases targets were killed.
In some areas, the Klan served as a moral police
force—outing and shaming those who committed sexual offenses (sleeping around,
having affairs with others’ spouses, etc.) or drank alcohol, which had been
outlawed by Prohibition.
The Klan’s reasons for targeting immigrants sounds like
they were snatched out of today’s conservative political talking points: crime,
stealing jobs from “true” Americans, etc., which were probably as dubious then
as now.
Another of the many things I didn’t know about the Klan is
it was a financial pyramid scheme. There was a great deal of emphasis on recruiting
members at least in part because dues were subject to commissions on the way to
the national organization. In addition to dues, members were required to buy
their uniforms, which were quite pricy. Somehow all these expenses made
reminded me of Amway.
The Klan became a powerful political force. Many state and
local offices (especially in Oregon and Indiana) were close to 100% Klan
members. The Klan even influenced the nomination of the 1924 Democratic
presidential candidate. The Klan also became a powerful social and economic
force. In many communities businesspeople almost had to join in order to stay
in business. Once they joined, they got a sign to put in their windows
advertising that they were “one of us.”
In 1924 congressmen who were Klan members were instrumental
in passing immigration “reform.” Immigration quotas were assigned based on the
ethnic makeup of the country at that time. Seventy percent of immigrants could
come from the UK, Germany, and the shithole country my great-great grandfather
came from, Ireland. Jews from eastern Europe and Russia were radically
restricted, and Chinese, Japanese, and South Asians were excluded. These quotas
stayed in effect until 1965.
The Klan may well have remained a force to be reckoned with
had it not been a pyramid scheme. People on the lower end of the pyramid got
fed up with the financial arrangements. Since there was an awful lot of money
involved, there was also a lot of embezzlement. But the straw that broke the
camel’s back turned out to involve one of the most powerful members of the
Klan, Indiana Grand Dragon David Stephenson. Stephenson was known to be a
sexual predator whose powerful position always kept him from being prosecuted,
but he went too far. He kidnapped, raped, and injured his secretary who,
believing herself “ruined,” committed suicide. Stephenson was convicted of
murder. The 1920s were a decade of sensationalist newspaper reporting. The
publicity decimated membership and dues.
President Trump’s outburst and this book caused me to do
some thinking about immigration. We’re a nation of immigrants. If we go back
far enough into history, we are all immigrants. Even Native Americans came here
from somewhere else—most likely Asia.
Most of our ancestors came here because things were so bad
where they were living they were willing to take a chance on a new country. I’d
think few people who were happy and prospering where they were would leave. So,
in some respects, all our ancestors came from shithole countries or at least
shithole situations. They left their shithole countries in search of a better
life, and they didn’t go back.
I’ve been very fortunate
in that I’ve been able to see much of the world. What I’ve seen has been
interesting, but never tempting. I’m glad my ancestors left their shithole
countries, how about you?
I’m not going to pretend
that I have any answers on immigration, but I will say it’s not, as some people
would like to say, as simple as “illegal is illegal.”
If things were that
simple, we’d all be in jail for speeding.
Just as I was about to
post this, I came across a CNN article that emphasizes how we—including some
modern-day immigration hawks—are all descendants of people who came here from
shithole countries.
Here’s the link:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/immigration-resistance-genealogy-jennifer-mendelsohn-trnd/index.html
©
2018 Larry Roth
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