> This week I learned on this very forum the US opened up to non-EU immigrants only after 1965?

What?

The stereotype of Asian laborers working (and dying) to build the great Western railroads is grounded in a fair bit of truth. Moreover, San Francisco's Chinatown acquired the Asian residents that lead to its name long before 1965.

I stand corrected: they were just second class citizens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_laws_concerning_imm...

It seems likely that there will always be at least one group of second-class citizens. The overall quality of life for humans appears to be increasing as the decades and centuries go by, but -frankly- I don't see our tendency to create outgroups going away for a very, very, very long time.

Not to be mean, but I'm having some difficulty understanding how your contributions to this subthread are related to the topic broached by rm_-rf_slash.

> instead of embracing the source of America's strength

I am trying to put this narrative into perspective.

Ah.

I expect that -if you make a close study of history-, you'll find that "[America's greatest strength is its ability to assimilate people and ideas into something greater than the sum of its parts as] long as [those people] are white and [those people and ideas are] christian..." is a statement that isn't supported by the facts.

Xenophobia and racism was and is real, yes. But, -culturally and ideologically- the US has been and remains substantially less homogenous and substantially more willing to accept immigrants into its borders than many other countries.