Not A Nation Of Immigrants - Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, And A History Of Erasure And Exclusion

Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is
proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more
complex and honest history of the United States Whether in political
debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many
Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a
nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask
and diminish the US’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white
supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still
grapple with today. She explains that the idea that we are living in a land
of opportunity—founded and built by immigrants—was a convenient response by
the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for
decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover,
Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good—but inaccurate—story promotes a
benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in
violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. While
some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are
descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those
who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of
those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm
shifting new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous
Peoples’ History of the United States charges that we need to stop
believing and perpetuating this simplistic and a historical idea and
embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States.