One deeply disturbing question has become deafeningly silent: What makes America racist? 

Seems controversial, sure — but getting used to being controversial is our only choice. We can no longer be polite when talking about racism and immigrant scapegoating today. Otherwise, the cost is the country’s self-annihilation. Primarily, the controversy around birthright citizenship pulls me in, twists my arm and demands redress.

Vice President J.D. Vance, the first male in the role to loudly and proudly wear eyeliner, said it better than me back when he was a never-Trumper: Racism and xenophobia collude to fuel Trump’s hateful agenda. It pushes out hate like no other. 

For instance, they neglect history — it’s a tool for political manipulation.

Here’s a retelling of American history: Immigrants — bad, unlawful immigrants from Europe. These bad immigrants desecrated the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast beaches. 

You’d accuse me of being unpatriotic, but this is simply a recontextualized history from a point of view that’s not of the colonizer — the victor. Those immigrants were glorified frontiersmen just as much as they were genocidal maniacs and plantation owners. Even from a neutral perspective, most were complicit in genocide. 

The “deplorable” immigrants of America, if we’re keeping score for who’s “more” morally condemnable, were the colonizers running rampant, stealing land and killing indigenous people. What’s appalling is the strategic hypocrisy — the willful ignorance of spouting “land of the free!” but only for a certain kind of people.

The white immigrant is somehow defaulted and the non-white other is “invasive” — invoking the language of disgust and pest control. These immigrants are no longer regarded as human beings but are reduced to “illegals.” 

And if you’re reduced to an illegal, you cease from having equal protection under the law — and thrown into detention centers without proper due process. 

For this very reason, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship — a geriatric temper tantrum that swept the global stage. 

This is a political scheme operating under the guise of stopping crime. In this instance, the attack on birthright citizenship is the epitome of racist political schemes. 

Overzealous, far-right politicians — Trump loyalists — will pivot away from the facts of history and bend the spear of truth using their racism. Reaping myths of the “evil immigrant” pits everyone against each other in a political arena we never consented to be in. 

We must “fight to the death” for rights. No one wanted this — yet here we are. 

What’s shamelessly hypocritical is that immigration is essential to America’s greatness — we’re the melting pot of the globe. 

S.E.A.L sophomore Taylor deNeve believes that we need to acknowledge the roots of immigration. Her grandfather was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. After World War II, he immigrated to the U.S. 

“If you’re born here, you’re an American. To uproot that entire belief system of being prideful and welcoming new Americans and being a melting pot, I can’t wrap my head around it,” deNeve said. 

America is renowned as the sanctuary for those fleeing war and seeking freedom. In interpreting birthright citizenship, everyone is guaranteed basic human rights by virtue of being born here — making it evident that we are human beings.

When politicians disregard this precedent and invoke MAGA, disproportionally affecting marginalized people, they destroy all institutions that display the American promise. It commands the upheaval of our judicial system. 

“I think this [executive order] is indicative of a lot of challenging democratic institutions that the Trump presidency aims to pursue,” chemical engineering senior Josh Ramos said.

This sentiment rings especially true when the university is put under duress by political actors and ICE, who are allowed to wrangle up students suspected of being “illegal.” 

We are being degraded by nauseating threats from Gov. Greg Abbott, claiming that Texas A&M “broke” the DEI ban — which constitutes an attack on all kinds of diversity in public spaces. This is but only one example of institutionalized racism.

Chemical engineering junior Miranda Antunez, whose parents immigrated from Venezuela, shared her perspective on the institution.

“From my perspective, universities are very welcoming on face value, but deep down, there’s still some stigma,” Miranda said. 

The rhetoric of immigrants  ‘replacing real’ Americans in education is welcomed as fact when it is entirely fiction. The fear that “real” Americans will be replaced is a strategic revival of white nationalist rhetoric — the doctrine of MAGA. 

Don’t cast off these concerns — or worse, rely on our complicit politicians. Racism, the MAGA agenda, affects us all. 

Racism and xenophobia intersect as issues when your Hispanic and international colleagues fear for their safety in spaces meant to be public for everyone. Immigrants must not remain in the periphery, but their right to have rights must be defended by us, their peers — their friends. It boggles my mind as to how this is controversial at all. 

Our generation must champion birthright citizenship. As college students, we should ask ourselves: “Are we doing right by our immigrant peers … or are we being complicit?” We need to get right on what we morally value now. 

Take control of the narrative. This way, we’ll not only stay on the right side of history, but make history ours. The promise of America is kept safe by us: A blossoming, beautiful country — one we can all transform for the better.

Sidney Uy is a dual philosophy & sociology sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.