Sadly, down to the present moment, immigration remains one of the most divisive issues in the nation. Why? Why has "white" America not been able to accept others, regardless of their skin color, religious beliefs, or ethnicity? Define who is and has been white America, and what do many believe or fear about immigrants? Such xenophobia did not become part and parcel of the nation's socio-cultural fabric until the massive influx and southern and eastern Europeans and middle eastern Arabs during the decades after the Civil War through the 1920s. Why did nativism and white nationalism, along with Social Darwinism, all emerge during this time period? What frightened white America about "these people," along with the Chinese, Japanese, and Mexicans who migrated to different regions of the nation? Religion has also played a significant role in white xenophobia, why? Why such fears of Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and other non-Protestant Christians? Eventually, many of these immigrant groups "worked their way toward whiteness"--what does that mean to you? Italians, for example (the community I know the best because I am first generation) were once racialized but eventually became "white" (they were always Caucasian, by the way, we are not green, or "olive" colored!) how did they and others such as the Irish, who are also not green, work their way toward "whiteness?" Why has that not been true for other immigrant groups, to say the least for African Americans or Hispanic Americans, even though the latter, believe it or not, were considered "white" until the 1930s when Hispanic Americans all of a sudden became people of color, so they too could be exploited and marginalized? Great question for all of you to ponder because I am sure many of you have experienced what I have stated here.