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Not A Nation of Immigrants

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

In Not a Nation of Immigrants, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz strives to look at the ever morphing population of the United States, to uncover the why and how of the mythology that pervades political discourse on American history.

In part, Dunbar-Ortiz recognizes that the looming problems of climate change, polarization, and authoritarianism cannot be fought while sweeping the parts of our history we don’t like under the rug. What does our history mean about who we are?

Some of us are immigrants, some of us are descendants of colonizers, some of us are descendants of indigenous peoples, some of us are arrivants brought here through violence – either refugees or descendants of enslaved peoples. Compound these complex ancestries with the fact that many immigrants conform to the values of White Supremacy (become settlers) in order to assimilate.

What can we learn from facing our complex history as told through the vast perspectives that make up our people?

Read along with us in October

Thank you to our co-producers Aubrey Hicks and Jonathan Schwartz as well as our beloved sound supervisors, The Brothers Hedden. Recorded at the USC Price School.

Yesenia Navarrete Hunter

Assistant Professor of History at Heritage University


Ehsan Zaffar

Chief Difference Engineer & Law Prof @ASU

(In)Equality Fellow, Bedrosian Center

Bedrosian Center