Peace loving foreigners have been a blessing to US all through the US history. Did 9/11 changed all that?

Question

Carefully screened foreigners contributed significantly to technology to enable US to be the superpower. They contributed very significantly to the economy and the cultural diversity. Did 9/11 change all that and inspired the American public to a negative attitude about them? Are they being treated differently now than in the 20th century?

Answer 1

Mistrust and poor treatment of foreigners is nothing new to the U.S. In WWII, thousands of loyal American citizens of Japanese ancestry were placed in internment camps. In the 19th century Asian immigrants built the railroads that linked this country together working under conditions that were barely better than those found on the plantations in the South. In the 1930's, Mexican immigrants were forced to sue the state of California in order to gain access to quality education (this laid the foundation for the 1954, Brown vs. the Board of Ed decision). Heck, President Kennedy faced serious challenges during and after his election because he was Irish Catholic. Many Americans believed that to elect him to office was to effectively put our country under the authority of the Pope.

I think if anything America has a better attitude towards foreigners than it has had in a long time. Yes there are many situations where foreigners have been treated unfairly and the whole immigration reform movement is simply bigotry disguised as national security. On the other hand we haven't thrown masses of people in internment camps, there haven't been riots because of foreigners and no matter what our backgrounds we're all subject to Big Brother's scrutiny.

As long as people see differences in each other, there's going to be distrust. this isn't something new and this isn't something that's going to go away anytime soon. But look at France and other European countries and examine how they are dealing with the influx of foreigners in the post 9/11 world and I think you'll see that the U.S. has learned more from the lessons of history and is overall doing a much better job of coming to terms with immigrants than just about anywhere else.

Answer 2

No.. it has not changed

Answer 3

Yes they sure are ... And is it any wonder...