









































How did this get to be OK in  
the U.S. of A.?

C O P E L A N D  |  H O W  D I D  T H I S  G E T 
T O  B E  O K  I N  T H E  U . S .  O F  A

7 VO L .  4 ,  I S S U E  2

Author
ANDREA COPELAND, Co-Editor ENGAGE! 

It seems every day there is another headline about 
immigration or the refugee crisis. Some leaders in 
the Republican Party have managed to turn a global 
humanitarian crisis into a political football here at home. 
Humans moving around the globe are in desperate 
situations trying to find food and safe harbor for their 
families. They are not wanting to harm others; they are 
wanting only to move themselves away from harm. 

 
Sadly, the cultural wars in the United States are keeping 
political leaders from truly addressing issues that 
need to be studied and understood as if people’s lives 
depended on it, because they do. Mostly, we have 
narratives promoting political agendas rather than an 
understanding of the economic, environmental, and 
cultural systems that are at work to create this period, a 
period in which we have more displaced persons than 
ever before. The United Nations High Commission for 
Refugees (2022) estimated that persecution, conflict, and 
human rights violations displaced 89.3 million persons 
in 2021. 

 
How did a nation of immigrants become so divided on 
the issue of immigration?

 
In 2015, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump said 
this on the campaign trail: “When Mexico sends its 
people, they're not sending their best … they're sending 
people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing 
those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're 
bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, 
are good people” (Ye Hee Lee, 2015). He was elected 
thanks to the outdated electoral college, not the majority 

of voters. The fact that he could be elected by any means 
is deeply disturbing to me and numerous others. 

 
Trump did not start the division, but rather tapped into 
existing xenophobia and racism already firmly rooted in 
our soil (Perea, 2020).  
 
The inhumanity continues, in step with the 2022 
midterm election cycle. In April 2022, the Governor 
of Texas, Greg Abbott, started busing migrants from 
Texas to D.C. and NYC. In September 2022, Governor 
of Florida Ron DeSantis used taxpayer dollars meant 
to support human beings during a time of need (the 
pandemic) to fly 48 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. 
All for the optics of Owning the Libs. (Note: DeSantis 
is currently under investigation by the US Treasury 
for misuse of federal funds for his stunt.) What does 
“Owning the Libs” mean, and why is it so important? It 
means ridiculing or frustrating others that do not agree 
with a far-right conservative agenda that often includes 
white supremacy as a point of pride. It’s a making 
fun of, a bullying, a tearing down, in such a way as to 
quash serious conversation or debate by turning any 
disagreement into an opportunity to reduce or devalue 
another human being’s perspective. It’s so important 
because it’s easier to tap into people’s fear of difference 
than it is to do the hard work of finding solutions that 
make a difference in people’s lives. 

 
Who benefits from the cultural wars? It’s a question we 
should be asking of ourselves and our politicians. It’s 
certainly not the quickly advancing non-white majority 
in this country. You might be inclined to think White 



8

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B E  O K  I N  T H E  U . S .  O F  A

ENGAGE!  |  e xo d u s  &  e n t ry

nationalism is only a fringe element until you see that 
voting rights are being suppressed and gerrymandered 
into the hands of the White electorate (Li & Rudensky, 
2022; Olumhense, 2022).

 
More Asians (28%) than Hispanics (25%) have migrated 
to the U.S. since 2009 (Budiman, 2020). Yet what are 
we hearing about every day? The Southern Border. 
The top 5 countries from which people are migrating to 
the US are overwhelming non-white. Why did Trump 
attack people from Mexico instead of India?  What’s 
happening here? Why does a country of immigrants 
embrace such political grandstanding? As of this writing, 
DeSantis is ahead of his rival in the polls for re-election 
this November by almost 10 points. How did this get 
to be OK in the U.S. of A.? Did immigration become 
more concerning to Americans as the ethnicities changed 
from European (my ancestors) to South and Central 
American, Caribbean, Arab and Asian?

 
With this issue of ENGAGE!, we are asking people to 
pause and think about those human beings in pursuit 
of a better a life, no matter the path they’ve taken to 
find it. In addition to research articles, we’ve included 
some other features that we hope will help you engage 
critically with the issue of immigration. An interview 
with Dr. Mamadou Sy from Lutheran Social Services 
of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA) discusses 
how important it is to work with local communities 
to create welcoming spaces for immigrants to thrive. 
Organizations like LSSNCA provide vital infrastructures 
of support for persons arriving in the US from just about 
every life circumstance one can imagine: real people 
dealing with real life. 

 
Additionally, we have two features that are designed to 
counter, or at least balance, the narrative that migrants 
are unwelcome and threatening: Notes of Compassion 
and Annotated Bibliography. Immediately following this 
editorial is Notes of Compassion. These are headlines 

that were not promoted as breaking news or subjects of 
federal investigations. These headlines link to stories 
about communities embracing their new neighbors and 
welcoming the good these individuals can bring to the 
further development of the US. I invite you to click 
through them.

 
Next, there is Annotated Bibliography, which is a 
sampling of the types of thoughtful exploration that 
exists regarding the forced movement of humans around 
the globe. The Bibliography includes works for adults as 
well as younger readers. These lengthier works provide 
readers with the opportunity to delve more deeply into 
the worlds of displaced individuals and the challenges 
they face. 

 
Graduate student in library and information science Jad 
Rea curated both items. Librarians, as professionals, 
are committed to promoting access to a diversity of 
viewpoints and encouraging the development of multiple 
literacies, including media literacy. Media literacy is 
defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, 
create, and act using all forms of communication. 
In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the 
foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms 
of reading and writing. Media literacy empowers 
people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective 
communicators, and active citizens.” (United States 
Media Literacy Week, 2022).

 
Public and school librarians, along with K-12 educators, 
have been under attack lately for promoting access to 
diverse viewpoints and encouraging critical thinking 
about issues in the media like racial justice, climate 
change, immigration, abortion and reproductive rights, 
gender identity, and sexual orientation (Corsillo, 2022).  
There is a growing demand to ban books in our schools, 
and these demands are increasingly at the organization 
level tied to either proposed or enacted legislation. 
Those seeking bans rely heavily on social media to 



VO L .  4 ,  I S S U E  29

amplify their voices. Not surprisingly, most of the 
bans involve characters or issues related to LGBTQ+ 
individuals and persons of color (Friedman & 
Johnson, 2022). 
 
Why is knowledge so dangerous? How did 
differences become so threatening? How did 
questioning those in power become so dangerous? 
Under whose authority did this get to be OK in the 
U.S. of A.?

 
In early October 2022, the Right to Read Act was 
introduced by U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and 
U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03). 
This act, if passed, would address equity of access 
issues related to school libraries and librarians. 
Additionally, it would reaffirm that First Amendment 
rights apply to school libraries. 

 
A Right to Read Act, in the 21st Century, in the 
country that refers to itself as the leader of the free 
world? Clearly, there’s work to be done. Let’s do it 
learning together through listening to and caring for 
each other, as fellow humans.  

These words and the opinions they present are 
mine alone and do not speak from my position of 
employment at Indiana University.

C O P E L A N D  |  H O W  D I D  T H I S  G E T 
T O  B E  O K  I N  T H E  U . S .  O F  A

Budiman, A. (2020, August 
20). Key findings about 
U.S. immigrants. Pew Re-
search Center. https://
www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2020/08/20/key-find-
ings-about-u-s-immigrants/ 

Corsillo, G. (2022, August 
14). When they came for the 
librarians: My profession is 
under attack — what happens 
now? Salon. https://www.
salon.com/2022/08/14/
when-they-came-for-the-
librarians-my-profession-is-
under--what-happens-now/ 

Friedman, J., & Johnson, F. 
N. (2022, September 19). 
Banned in the USA: The 
Growing Movement to Censor 
Books in Schools. Pen Amer-
ica 100.  https://pen.org/
report/banned-usa-growing-
movement-to-censor-books-
in-schools/

 

Li, M., & Rudensky, Y. (2022, 
September 29).  How the 
Supreme Court’s new gerry-
mandering case threatens 
the Voting Rights Act. https://
www.brennancenter.org/
our-work/research-reports/
how-supreme-courts-new-
gerrymandering-case-threat-
ens-voting-rights-act 

Olumhense, E. (2022, Octo-
ber 28). New US state voting 
laws present most intense 
voter suppression threat 
in decades. The Guardian. 
https://www.theguardian.
com/us-news/2022/oct/28/
state-voting-rights-election-
laws-police-suppression 

Perea, J. F. (2020). Immi-
gration Policy as a Defense 
of White Nationhood. 
Georgetown Journal of Law 
and Modern. Critical Race 
Perspectives., 12, 1. https://
www.law.georgetown.edu/
mcrp-journal/wp-content/
uploads/sites/22/2020/07/
GT-GCRP200001.pdf 

 
United Nations High Com-
mission for Refugees. (2022). 
Figures at a glance. https://
www.unhcr.org/en-us/fig-
ures-at-a-glance.html

 
United States Media Literacy 
Week. (2022) Media Literacy 
Basics. https://medialiteracy-
week.us/resources/media-lit-
eracy-basics/

  
Ye Hee Lee, M. (2015, July 8). 
Donald Trump’s false com-
ments connecting Mexican 
immigrants and crime. The 
Washington Post. https://
www.washingtonpost.
com/news/fact-checker/
wp/2015/07/08/don-
ald-trumps-false-com-
ments-connecting-mexi-
can-immigrants-and-crime/

References




