Whiteness

In the wake of Mexican American and immigrant protests in response to the racist policies and treatment endured during the Trump administration, Trump continues to push a "America first" mentality. America first has a racist connotation that emphasizes whiteness.

It is clear from Trump's stance on the many anti-immigration legislation that his major objective is to uphold and reinforce white supremacy. With his ambition to erect a wall separating the United States from Mexico and the Muslim ban his administration enacted, Donald Trump very clearly had immigrants of color in mind. Donald Trump is preserving the idea of whiteness by attempting to severely restrict people of color's ability to enter the country. As a result of the normalization of white racial identity throughout America's history, the term "whiteness" refers to a social system where non-white individuals are seen as inferior or abnormal (Hagan). Racialized citizenship and the idea of whiteness are closely related concepts. Racialized citizenship is the idea that being American means being White and that everyone who is not White is consequently seen to be an outsider. These suggestions that individuals of color who immigrate to this country are somehow less "American" than white people directly contribute to the maintenance of white supremacy.