Race, immigration — and division
A survey dives into how people define racism and how that impacts their view of immigration
Asians judged it racist when whites wanted to slow immigration.
Kaufmann did not survey Canadians in a detailed way.
How can the West get out of this values split over immigration? The way forward will demand give- and- take among both liberals and conservatives.
“The right needs to stop amplifying irrational fears and stereotypes of out- groups, such as Mexicans and Muslims, which is clearly racist,” Kaufmann writes in Foreign Affairs.
“Yet it is also time to shelve the conceit that Western whites who prefer the ethnic status quo over more diversity do so primarily out of racism,” he says, echoing Duke University’s Ashley Jardina, who found that whites who identify with their group are no more hostile to minorities than whites who do not.
Kaufmann also urges people of European ancestry to open wider to multi- ethnic unions, as do many black and Hispanic groups, “which accept the offspring of mixed marriages as full group members, although Asian groups by and large do not.”
It’s inevitable some form of white identity will seek political expression in years to come, Kaufmann says. And that’s not necessarily bad, as long as the movement is moderate and committed to the common good.
The challenge will be to keep a lid on extremism, from either side.
“Avoiding this requires recognizing that it is wrongheaded for liberals to ask conservative whites to celebrate their group’s demise, just as it is misguided for right- wingers to insist that minority ethnicity be erased in favour of one- size- fitsall nationhood.”