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RedditIt's easy to chalk up the nativist frenzy in Tennessee entirely to the usual suspects: gut-level racism, bigotry, ignorance, NIMBYism, right-wing radio hosts. But what's eating Tennesseans, and hundreds of thousands of other Middle American nativists, is also something deeper, subtler--and likely to outlast the current debates over immigration policy. "This is not just about immigrants and immigration," says Devin Burghart. "It's something much greater--the nexus of race, national identity, who we are and who we want to be."
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Research support for this issue's articles on the new American nativism was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute. The fund provides research and travel grants for investigative reporting in the independent press.
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Juan Crow in Georgia
Roberto Lovato: Immigrant Latinos live under a matrix of oppressive laws, customs and institutions.
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Gimme Shelter
Sasha Abramsky: Immigrants facing deportation find shelter with the religious New Sanctuary Movement.
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Divided States
Peter Schrag: A patchwork of local laws reflects the complicated, contradictory national debate over immigration policy.
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Showdown at the DMV
The debate in New York State over driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants became a proxy for the unsettled issue of immigration reform.
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Israel Turns its Back on Sudanese Refugees
Ben Lynfield: Abandoning Israel's longstanding commitment to those fleeing persecution, the Olmert government is deporting refugees back to Sudan, where they may face torture and death.
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Fukú Americanus
William Deresiewicz: Junot Díaz's masterful new novel maps the ambiguities in the modern immigrant experience in America.
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Unseen Victims of California Fires
Amanda Martinez: Undocumented immigrants who have survived for years living along San Diego's hillsides and canyons now find themselves left out of relief efforts in the Southern California fires.
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Mill Hill Populism
Bob Moser: Meet the new face of economic politics in post-NAFTA North Carolina.
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Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Bob Moser: The new evangelicals are rejecting the religious right and embracing a broader social gospel.
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Purple Obama
Bob Moser: While Obama was winning over Virginians he was not supposed to have a prayer with, McCain was losing some voters he must have.
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South Carolina: Inside the 'Black Primary'
Bob Moser: As Clinton and Obama square off in South Carolina, a window opens on the fractured state of black politics. It's been an extended soul search. And it ain't over yet.
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Fumbling Florida
Bob Moser: Have Democrats already blown the biggest swing state?
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Blue Tide In Kentucky--and Virginia
Bob Moser: Democrats gained steam in Tuesday's off-year elections, making it even more obvious that two significant Southern states are up for grabs in 2008.
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The New GOP Means Business
Bob Moser: Forget Values Voters. With Bushism discredited and mainstream Republicans looking for candidates with business savvy and competence, Democrats may be facing far more formidable foes than they imagined.
You can hear those broader anxieties, in very different terms, from Carol Swain. A black conservative who studies white nationalism and teaches at Vanderbilt University, Swain believes that by "not thinking deeply about our immigration policies, we have created the conditions for long-term racial unrest." As the day when white Americans constitute a minority of the population grows nearer, Swain predicts, "white people will increasingly see themselves as under attack. And it makes sense. If I were white, I would be feeling a lot of fear and uncertainty. I'd want to talk about it openly, too. But you can't talk about it. That's a big reason the lure of white nationalism is strong right now. As we dance around the real issues, ordinary people will find answers where they can."
When I ask Swain why she is an immigration restrictionist herself, she ponders a while, then puts a new spin on the deep-seated frustrations that simmer beneath the surface of the new nativism. "I'd feel better about it if I believed in this country," she says. "When I see how poor black and white people are treated--and have been treated--I can't hold out any hope that millions of working-poor Hispanic people are going to receive better treatment. Things are not fluid in America. The system is not fair. Immigrants will learn that after a while. The American Dream promises a lot, but delivers very little."
"Now, you be careful," the director of Tennessee's Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is telling me over the phone. "Don't drive too fast. Take your time. Be safe."
