One set of grandparents came from Sicily and had to pass through Ellis Island which was overburdened, processed around 6,000 immigrants a day for decades like so much cattle and if there was any indication of disease of mental disturbance, back they went. Nonno Giuseppe and Nonna Maria passed, too bad his great-grandfather didn’t.
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Reminds me of this classic PSA:
My father was born and raised in Hawaii. In the run-up to WWII the German-American Bund sent a speaker to Honolulu to drum up support for Germany and Hitler (and the “white race”). Since the population of Hawaii at the time was decidedly non-European (like better than 90%), this was definitely a case of really bad (like tRump WH level bad) advance work. The guy got off the ship, went to give his first speech, and found the hall packed with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Samoan attendees. A very few very brown white guys too (even a Scotsman like me can get a really good tan in a couple of decades - only to lose it in about 6 weeks on the mainland…). The Bund guy was smart enough to realize the whole racial purity thing was probably not going to go over well.
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You know, when the poem was written, there were those who didn’t consider the newer immigrants, those from southern and eastern Europe, to be properly European, or even fully “white”. All those newcomers with foreign ways, strange languages, alien sounding names (like Lewandowski or Cuccinelli)… and pssst a lot of them were papists, too…
“We determine who is Jewish European.”
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Trump’s version of the Statue of Liberty poem:
I got mine; sucks to be you.
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Just think of all the immigrants who came here virtually penniless and went on to found businesses and be outstanding members of their community. This Cuccinelli creature is robbing us of our lifeblood.
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It’s not clear the Bund was the biggest problem, pre-war. [Don’t know either way.] But there were plenty of “Americans” already favorably disposed, shall we say, toward the Nazis. [Lookin’ at you, Prescott Bush and Charles Lindbergh.]
And, frankly, this Maladministration has already gone far beyond the Bund, in terms of policies and practical results.
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There were lots of Neo-Nazi and outright Nazi groups in the US in the 1920’s and 30’s. The American Bund was just the largest of them and the most organized, even building and maintaining “Summer Camps” for the “education” of the American Aryans, and hijacking the Image and Ideals of George Washington (of all people) while twisting him into a Hitlerian figure to promote and explain the racist Nazi ideals they were trying to advance in America.
They had substantial financial support from the German Nazi Party because Hitler desperately wanted to avoid conflict with America. He viewed the American Antebellum South as a paragon of Nazi Ideals and greatly admired America, and the British Empire for that matter for their subjugation of the “mud people” under their rule and opposition to Communism.
Once the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 Hitler reluctantly declared War on the US in support of the Japanese, who he had a mutual-defense pact with, giving FDR the excuse he needed to then Declare War upon Germany in return. Then FDR could openly support the British (which he had been doing surreptitiously since 1938) in the War in Europe. Originally FDR and the US Congress had only declared War upon Japan. Once Hitler went first, we then reciprocated.
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Pisses me off that an experienced and, from what I gather, generally respected public servant like Albright needs to even comment on the words of a legal-weasel-rightwing hack like the Cucc here. She is lessened by the interaction, and he is legitimized.
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Conversely, if EVERY SINGLE respected public servant spoke out against Trump and those working for him maybe it would have an effect.
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Cuccinelli’s maternal line is Irish. Another group that wasn’t welcomed in the US.
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Emma Lazarus came from a line of Portuguese Jews. SCJ Benjamin Cardozo was part of her family. Do they qualify?
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My great, great whatever arrived in what is now Delaware in 1682 with Wm. Penn. The previously arrived Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers were not best pleased. I assume the indigenous residents would have liked to throw them all back into the sea. It would be nice if as a nation we had evolved some in the last 338 years.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Penn-English-Quaker-leader-and-colonist/media/1/449992/218308
Wm. Penn
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In George Washington’s era, immigrants from what is now Italy and Greece were considered ‘colored’.
Albright has standing to make this well-taken observation in response to a simple-minded administration official who used his national stage to repeat something he read on the internets (we can check his Facebook and Twitter feeds because this guy is stupid and stupid people lack creativity).
How about a shout out to Emma Lazarus, the person whose sonnet verse Cuccinelli is helpfully suggesting be revised?
“Born on July 22, 1849 in New York City to a wealthy sugar refining family of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent whose roots extended to the very early days of New York City as a British colonial city, Emma Lazarus was the poet who wrote "The New Colossus . " Aside from writing, Lazarus was also involved in charitable work for refugees. At Ward’s Island, she worked as an aide for Jewish immigrants who had been detained by Castle Garden immigration officials. She was deeply moved by the plight of the Russian Jews she met there and these experiences influenced her writing.”
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The greatest thing about America is that by the third generation, descendants of immigrants are all but universally not dicks about how poorly their ancestors were treated. I don’t get why Rumpublicans are trying so hard to reverse this great human success story.
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I came across this doc on Amazon streaming just last night, and I think I’m still saddened and only a little heartened that at one time immigrants were welcome but also a good number were deported because they were thought to be unfit to be Americans. I saw my four grandparents coming from impoverished homelands and being admitted at last.
@csurz420 FYI
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Which means he was just a little bit smarter than today’s Rethugs - especially Trump.
In George Washington’s era anyone NOT of Anglo-Saxon or Saxon descent - according to ol’ Ben Franklin himself - was not “white” - as noted in The Washington Post. Odd that the Normans were also not considered white, given their kicking of Anglo-Saxon ass back in 1066 and taking over the reigns of power… (Norman is derived from North Men - as in Vikings, BTW.) I heard but have not confirmed that Ben later decided that Danes qualified. But with my Scots/Irish/Pictish/Norman/whatever heritage, I would not qualify, being “swarthy”. (Funny, I didn’t think reddish-pink was all that swarthy a skin tone…).
ed: Add missing dash.
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Yeah - one comment my father made was the Bund guys speech would have been considered bland for a ladies gardening society tea. He mentioned that he and his friends HAD made sure most of the guys in the front row were Samoans - that might have had a little something to do with it. 
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