New Delhi: Francis Fukuyama in his book 'Identity' in 2018 argued that 'immigration has largely displaced class and race as the chief reasons why Americans vote for Republicans.' He cited data by political scientists Hajnal and Abrajano.
"The incorporation of African-Americans into the Democratic Party following the civil rights movement of the 1960s is widely credited for driving the South into the arms of the Republican Party; today immigration is playing a similar role. Opposition to Mexican and Muslim Immigration figured centrally in Donald Trump’s election campaign and subsequent rise to the Presidency."
Fukuyama writes in the book. (P. 132)
Today, as Trump seeks re-election in the upcoming November polls both immigration and issues of race are at the heart of the electoral debate. On the first night of the Republican Nation Convention, it was Nikki Haley, the former US Ambassador to the UN and former Governor of South Carolina, who took on the first black woman Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Both Haley and Harris are born to immigrant parents and have Indian heritage.
"In much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country.This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants," said Haley reminding the delegates that her father wore a turban and her mother wore a sari.
"America is a story that's a work in progress. Now is the time to build on that progress, and make America even freer, fairer, and better for everyone. That's why it's tragic to see so much of the Democratic Party turn a blind eye toward riots and rag," Haley added.
Read: Will US Vote On Issue Of Racism?
So is America racist? And is systemic racism driving the social and political narrative in 2020? Senior Journalist Smita Sharma discussed the race issue in the second episode of #BattlegroundUSA2020 with two prominent panelists in the United States.
Sociology Professor, hate crime researcher and novelist Dr. Randal Blazak says that there is a national reckoning underway in US with regards to issues of race. "We have had a very poor job in dealing with race in America. There has been no reconciliation for hundreds of years of institutionalised racism. So the conversation really shifted in 2020 and maybe the pandemic has played a role. But the really forefront of the conversation on racism is finally happening. And it is happening by White people who are trying to figure out how do we actually confront this," said Dr. Blazak speaking from Portland in Oregon which has a history of white supremacy.
While Nikki Haley was arguing that America is not racist, National Security Guards were patrolling the streets in Kenosha in Wisconsin to bring arson and violence under control. The current unrest was triggered off by the shooting of a 29-year-old black man Jacob Blake in front of his three young children by white police officers who were later sent off to administrative leave. Blake has survived the gunshots but the incident has provided fresh impetus to the #BlackLivesMatter protests triggered off nationwide after the choking to death of Black man George Floyd in Minneapolis by a white police officer barely three months ago.
Read: Immigration has benefitted US, turning inwards wrong, says USIBC chief
Race issues and Black killings have been a part of political conversations and campaigns in many previous election cycles in the past. But this time it is about a national conversation on systemic racism argues Farahnaz Ispahani, a Senior Research Fellow with Religious Freedom Institute and the Wilson Centre.
Joining the conversation from Washington DC, Ms. Ispahani said, "Race we have talked about going back. Whether it was the Constitution, Slavery or Civil Rights Movement or Martin Luther King. It is not that in America we have never talked about race. And not talked about it in a serious way. And it is not that many many people have not been shot before by the police. But systemic racism has been brought in for the first time as being part and parcel of America's history, geography and who America is today and who America has always been. And that I think is what is different."
"For the first time a major American political party (Democrats) has talked about systemic racism and it is today something that in political circles you can deny or accept it but through the political circles, politicians, media and the American people it is spread through America. People are having to have an opinion on it, come out one side or the other but they have to deal with it," added Ms. Ispahani further.
Read: Decoding the Kamala Harris connect and why Indian-Americans matter in US Polls
However, the Republicans in their campaigns have targeted Democrats as ultra left, radical and the black lives activists and protestors as violent lynching mobs, asking voters to drain the 'DC swamp'. So in this discussion, Smita Sharma asked if the national conversation on systemic race could polarise Americans further? Will it lead to consolidation of White conservative Americans? Is there something substantively different that team Biden-Harris bring to the table to address the issues of racism compared to Trump-Pence combine?
"What we saw with the Republican National Convention this week is a real dichotomy. There is a party of fear and there is a party of reflection. America is a changing place. We are becoming a more brown nation. We are not going to stop that from happening. So either we are going to be involved in the pushback against that. Tweets from the President that 'suburban housewives are going to vote for me because I am going to keep those people out of your neighbourhoods' is something from the 1950s. So there is a real difference in not just policy but how we think about ourselves in this moment," says Dr. Blazak.
Asked if older and younger Americans are divided on racial injustice issues, Dr. Blazak replied, "We see a real generational difference. The US census bureau predicted that by the year 2050 percentage of the American pie - the white will be smaller than the non-white pie. So it will be a majority-minority country. That is seen as a source of excitement by a lot of people including young people. And there is source of terror for some older White folks who feel their country, which they think they created here in 1776, is somehow being taken away from them. They are in a very defensive position to build a wall, create immigration bans or somehow turn back the hands of time and go back to some mythical past when it was straight white male country and that was not being challenged by transgender people or immigrants or Muslims or any of the other populations that you see challenging the White majority."
Read: Kamala Harris: The South Asian American immigrant dream
"The America I came to almost 35 years ago when I was 18 years old was a very different America. Very welcoming of immigrants. But most of us who came at that time, came to study or came from educated families etcetera. So the pattern of immigration has also changed and therefore the reception has changed also. But what you see generationally is very stark. You see older people who are very frightened of losing their way of life, their God, their churches, their land, their right to bear arms and cannot cope with this changing landscape. And a lot of those people voted for Donald Trump.So it was not necessarily a positive vote," said Farahnaz Ispahani recalling her own experience as an immigrant whose roots lie in Pakistan.
