What bothers you and why?

There is a vast legion of answers to that question, but let’s focus on a specific issue which fits into this category.

It is irritating to witness migrant communities, whether here in Sydney or in the United States, recycle the bigotry and prejudices of the mainstream Anglophone society onto other, newer ethnic groups. Only a few months ago, I published an article with a question to those Irish Americans who voted for Donald Trump’s MAGA platform.

Trump and his MAGA colleagues have openly expressed their contempt of migrants. His administration has deported (or at least attempting to) thousands of migrants to Latin American nations. He has used the powers of the 1798 Alien Enemies act to deport the people he deems a threat.

The irony is that the 1798 act was passed in order to target Irish Catholics, the latter regarded as the original internal enemy. My sincerest hope is that the MAGA Irish Americans will reconsider their political viewpoints, and recognise that the Trump/Vance team is using the age-old tactic of divide-and-rule.

A few years ago, during Trump’s first term in office, I wrote about the threat of deportation hanging over the Iraqi Assyrian and Chaldean communities. The latter two groups, having supported Trump by regurgitating Islamophobic hatred during the 2016 election, subsequently faced deportation to Iraq and Syria. Their tears of self-pity made for a human-interest story. It also demonstrated their remarkably narrow-minded politics.

No, I am not writing this article as an ‘I told you so’ point-scoring exercise. I am writing in the hope that those migrant communities who supported Trump politically will now re-examine their attitudes in light of the MAGA cult’s unrestrained bigotry.

When migrants arrive in a new country, full of hope and ambition to start a new life, they have to overcome the bigotry of the host community. In the Anglophone nations, nonwhite migrants faced enormous obstacles, and had to overcome them step by step to achieve a level of success.

Once established, the settled communities forget where they came from. Expressing a similar, parallel prejudice against newly arrived migrants only perpetuates a cycle of exclusion and hatred.

No, I am not suggesting that multicultural inclusion and acceptance is impossible – far from it. Overcoming racism and ethnocentric snobbery is a long struggle, and ultimately successful and rewarding.