The anti-immigrant fervor of the moment led by a new political leadership and the plans to deport millions of the undocumented from the United States is part of a chaotic drive to substantially change the ethnic and racial face of the country. This is also consistent with President Trump’s recent Executive Order to cut U.S. aid to South Africa and at the same time, provide for resettlement in America of White Afrikaners, as refugees.
Evidently, Trump was outraged by a South Africa land reform law that seeks to “redress land inequalities that stem from South Africa’s history of white supremacy.” This correction goes all the way back to 1950 when the Afrikaner National Party seized 85 percent of the land and even today, these people who make up only 7.3 percent of the population, own three quarters of the land.
The racial and ethnic tinge of selective of immigrant and refugee enforcement is somewhat ironic when it is related to the larger context concerning human evolution. The truth is that all of our ancestors, regardless of current racial make-up, came from Africa, were Black and had the wide nose we associate today with many of the darker people in the world.
Many of our attitudes on race and human features belies the point that in the beginning we were all the same. It has only been in the last fifty thousand years that our color and features have gradually changed to the variations we see today.
Another irony is that the very thing that changed the way we look is migration. Migration is the mother word to immigration, the current politicized term we use to describes the process by which people come into our country.
Beginning some 70 thousand to 100 thousand years ago, the departure from Africa to colder regions of the world and with less sunlight began to affect the features of these immigrants. In Africa, dark skin has been very necessary because in that tropical climate, it provides the best defense against ultra violet radiation (UVR).
People did not need as much of that color protection in areas with less sunshine and UVR. The nose, another prominent feature in humans, also changed according to the climate.
The adaptation to warm and moist climates included a wider nose. As the ancient immigrants traveled to colder and drier climates they adapted by developing a more narrow nose.
Over time, Africa, the cradle of the first great civilizations, was left behind just like other ancient cultures in America, Asia and elsewhere.
As such, they were further victimized by conquest and colonization that denigrated their status to the point that they have become the targets of perverse power brokers seeking to claim superiority because of color and features.
Today, the immigrant is most associated with the Latino population in America. In some sectors of that community, it is also creating confusion and identity issues.
We are seeing many in the Latino community, including former undocumented immigrants and their families, turn their backs on the new arrivals and intimate that this new people are less than those that came before. Many may know that this also happens when home languages are abandoned and world views change drastically.
Anti-immigrant initiatives that also offer openness to White immigration amounts to a sinister contradiction. However, it does confirm the struggle by those in power to maintain a majority as an overriding concern.
Current immigration policies are like telling people to go back to where they came from. Does this mean Africa?
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
