Not a Nation of Immigrants: Colonialism, White Supremacy (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

Mitch Jerich, Letters & Politics, KPFA Pacifica Radio 94.1 FM, 11/29/21; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

KPFA presents Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz with Steve Wasserman on Zoom:

Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion

“Her thought-work and writing are both full-force with courage and wisdom. In the age of telling truth, she says, the US has yet to correct its narrative to acknowledge its settler-colonialist and imperialist past and present.

This book should be taught in classrooms; readers will finish it changed.” — Booklist, Starred Review

“Dunbar-Ortiz’s message is clear: uplifting narratives about the United States as a ‘nation of immigrants’ allow the country to hide from its history of colonialism, genocide, slavery, and racism.... [T]his thought-provoking account will prove insightful for all.” — Library Journal

Many Americans will say proudly that we are a "nation of immigrants." In this bold new book, acclaimed historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts that this self-congratulatory myth is harmful because it masks the US’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today.

This propagandistic myth, she claims, is a convenient response by the ruling class to the demands for decolonialization, reparations, and social justice.

This paradigm-shifting new work from the author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States insists that we need to stop perpetuating this simplistic and inaccurate ideal and embrace the real history of the United States.

ABOUT: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades.

She is the author of over eight books, including An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, which received the 2015 American Book Award, and Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie, Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico, and Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War. She lives in San Francisco.

Steve Wasserman is a writer, editor, publisher, and literary agent, currently publisher of the award-winning Heyday Books, formerly editor-at-large for Yale University Press and editorial director of Times Books/Random House. For many years he edited The Los Angeles Times Book Review.

• Past event: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz + Steve Wasserman: Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion | KPFA
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