Xenophobia In D. W. Griffith's Film Birth Of A Nation

Xenophobia is a tradition in America, often manifesting in public policies adversely affecting the targeted group. There were/are other ethnic groups that faced a nationalized form of xenophobia besides Latino Americans in the United States. Indigenous Indians; African-Americans; Italians; Germans; Chinese; and Japanese Americans were all faced with – sometimes government mandated – discrimination. Although African-Americans did not immigrate to America voluntarily, since their arrival via the Middle Passage into slavery, they have been stereotyped and sometimes depicted as a violent, depraved, hyper-sexed people. Such xenophobia became part of public lore, resulting in racialized laws formulated to keep blacks in their place – and away from white folks. When D.W. Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation was released, it was hailed as an artistical triumph by no less than the President of the United States, *Herbert Hoover. The film justifies the existence of the Klu Klux Klan (a terroristic hate group) as the nation’s protectors of whites against black men, who were depicted in the film as lazy, drunkards who rape white women. Prevailing xenophobic sentiments such as those helped to shape northern white perceptions and southern white attitudes for generations to come, helping to keep the South’s segregated Jim Crow laws and …show more content…
The remainder: Central American or South American origin, or directly from Spain.*Latinos have been in the United States since the sixteenth century founding of Saint Augustine, Florida, by the Spanish. They are the oldest ethnic group here in the