RE: Forcing immigrants to bathe?
Michael > November 11th, 2023, 12:39 PM
Unfortunately, yes. The United States has a long and brutal history of racism toward people of African, Native America, Asian, and Hispanic descent. And the Irish. And Catholics (although that's not racism, that's just religious bigotry).
Racisim and bigotry are nothing new. They tend to arise in every society of every ethnic grouping. I'm not suggesting it's okay for any reason. I hate it. But it's a consequence of any one group of people gaining power in a region and feeling threatened (whether for good reason or not) by another people.
Virtually every one of us is descended from slaves and slaveowners if you go back far enough. We're all probably descended from ethnic cleansers. Certainly we're all descended from colonizers. Nearly every ethnic group on the planet is descended from people who moved into a territory and took it away from others.
There are few tribes (maybe a few hundred) who have lived alone in isolated parts of the planet for so long that they have no traditions of their ancestors having invaded someone else's lands, or conquering other peoples. And a few native populations in South America, Africa, and Australia may have been in their lands so long that whatever conflicts their ancestors had would be buried by time beyond the reach even of archaeologists.
But for 98% of the people on Earth, we're all descended from people who invaded, colonized, enslaved, and brutalized someone else along the way.
We don't treat each other well. I wish we did.