American ‘greatness’ has never actually been achieved

President Donald Trump continues to stress his political slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Responding to Trump, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared that “It was never that great . ... We will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged ... when discrimination and stereotyping against women ... is gone.”

After being condemned for speaking the truth, the governor unfortunately felt it necessary to retreat somewhat, offering, “Of course America is great.”

But Cuomo is absolutely right about the nation’s history. Our history has been marred by prejudice, even violence, against Asians, Native Americans, Africans, Jews, Italians, Irish, Mexicans, poor whites, and women. There is vast historical documentation that proves Cuomo’s assertion.

When, exactly, was America great?

In 1789, when the slaveowning class of Founders forged a Constitution that affirmed slavery as the law of the land?

In 1790, when the nation’s first naturalization law reserved citizenship for “free white citizens of good character”?

In 1838, when 4,000 Cherokees, one-quarter of their nation, died in the forced march known as the Trail of Tears?

In 1850, when the sign “No Irish Need Apply” was common?

In 1857, when the Supreme Court declared in the Dred Scott decision that slaves, as the

property of their owners, had no rights?

In 1882, when Congress barred Chinese immigration, and massacres and expulsion of Chinese were common in the West?

In 1890, when the Wounded Knee, South Dakota, massacre occurred?

It was lauded by L. Frank Baum, the beloved author of “The Wizard of Oz,” then editor of the Aberdeen, South Dakota, Saturday Pioneer, who wrote after the massacre: “We had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up … and wipe these untamed and untameable creatures from the face of the earth.”

In 1891, when Sicilian immigrants were lynched by a mob in New Orleans after some of them had been acquitted in the killing of the city’s police chief? Leaders of the mob included the future governor of Louisiana and the future mayor of New Orleans. At the time, Sicilians were not considered members of the “white race.”

In 1916, when women could not vote in national elections?

In 1922, when the Supreme Court ruled that a Japanese man could not become a citizen because he was not Caucasian?

In 1924, when a number of U.S. immigration acts were passed? They blocked most immigrants from Southern Europe, especially Italians like Cuomo’s grandparents, as well as Eastern Europeans, Arabs, and Jews, and continued the ban against almost all Asians. Hitler praised this example of American greatness and it was used to write Germany’s eugenics laws.

In 1925, when the Ku Klux Klan had some 5 million members and lynching of blacks was common in the South?

In 1932, when the Great Depression devastated poor whites across the nation?

In 1938, when Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany were blocked from entering the U.S.?

In 1942, when Japanese and Japaneseamericans were sent to concentration camps?

In 1950, when apartheid ruled political and social life in the South and racism shaped life in the North?

In 1954, when signs in restaurants and stores in the Southwest read “No Mexicans or Dogs Allowed”?

In 1964, when blacks in the South were arrested, beaten, and murdered for trying to vote?

In 1967, when intermarriage between blacks and whites was illegal in 16 mostly Southern states?

Do we really want to go back to when America was great?