Myth America summary

“They keep coming.” That’s the horror story frequently told about the hordes of dark-skinned foreign immigrants pouring across the southern border to threaten America. This myth has served to disenfranchise many waves of immigrants over the centuries. Not only is it a rallying cry for those looking to place restrictions on immigrants, but it also justifies racism and discrimination toward those already here. And it’s not a new idea.

Benjamin Franklin complained about the Germans who flooded Pennsylvania. Later, Protestant colonists wrung their hands over Catholic and Irish “invasions.” The same discriminatory treatment was meted out to other “less than” immigrants: “swarthy” southern and central Europeans, Jewish people, Russians, and Asians. In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act in 1924 to establish quotas based on national origin to keep out these Europeans who were perceived as inferior to Anglo-Saxon ones.

Consider this fact: In the past 75 years, there have been only two years – 1977 and 1979 – when US forces were neither invading nor fighting in another country.

The United States is perceived as a leader of civilized, modern nations that agree that occupying other countries is no longer acceptable. Yet, the existence of American territories like Puerto Rico and Guam and the military presence of 750 American bases in places ranging from Japan to Saudi Arabia belie this, making it easy to shatter the myth that America isn’t an empire.

In his 2019 State of the Union address, Donald Trump stated before Congress: “America will never be a socialist country.”

He was echoing the distaste of many of his supporters for the word “socialism,” a philosophy derided by many Americans as a new and foreign threat to American values.

During the past few years, an old rallying cry gained momentum, one to tear down Confederate flags, statues, and memorials because of the racist, slave-owning past they represent. But it’s just a statue, supporters of the Confederate monuments state. And it’s history!

The truth is that a statue is rarely just a statue, and the “history” these memorials represent is less a factual representation of the American South than it is the myth of the Lost Cause, a battle cry to which defiant southerners flocked after their defeat in the Civil War.

Here’s the irony of the war waged by anti-feminists like Phyllis Schlafly: although she and her ilk claimed that women who were fighting for their rights were degrading the American family, in almost every case, the feminists’ demand for self-hood could only result in strengthening families.

Take Planned Parenthood, the organization Schlafly and her followers often point to when they want to drive home their claims. Founder Margaret Sanger, who started it as the American Birth Control League in 1921, wanted to help families become stronger by virtue of planning and controlling their births and bodies. It was a personal mission for her – she raised eleven children and saw her own mother suffer seven miscarriages.

The story of America has many threads. But some of these threads are false narratives that have gained traction and support a far-right agenda. At a time when anyone can have an audience and claim to be an expert, and where truth has become viewed as a choice, it’s crucial to understand and dismantle the most damaging of these myths.