American Nativism and its Representation in the Film 'L. A. Crash'

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Amerikanistik), course: American Immigration Policies, language: English, abstract: Although Americans are proud of their country as an Immigrant Nation and consider it as a refuge for all opressed people of other nations, they are very strict about the fact whom they allow to enter. They acknowledge that America's strenght has derived from the diversity of its citizens but nevertheless most often people that differ too much in their cultural or ethnic background from the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ideal are left out. The contradiction in this behaviour was described by Steven Vincent Benet when he said 'Remember that when you say 'I will have none of this exile and this stranger for his face is not my face and his speech is strange,' you have denied America with that word.' Americans have furthermore always mystified the foundation of America and left out of the narrative certain events like for example the exploitation of slaves, the brutality against the Native Americans and the annexation of Mexico etc. Their liberal myth of pilgrims who out of love for freedom and equality formed a democracy therefore differs from the actual history of America. Ali Behdad refers to this fact as Historical Amnesia2 and points out that it is essential for the self-image of Americans who consider themselves hospitable and unbiased and who regard America as always been open for immigration. My thesis is that the driving forces behind these phenomena have always been xenophobic fears which brought forth nativism. In my opinion therefore these phenomena can be better understood if one realizes the nature of xenophobia and the resulting nativism. In this paper I will describe what xenophobia is and I am going to give a general overview over its mechanisms and how it leads to nativism. I will show that it can effect the cultural development of a nation and the social interactions between people on a personal level. Moreover I am going to illustrate that people and nations define themselves and get a stronger feeling of cohesion and membership by defining who the outsider is. I will use the United States of America as a classical nation of immigrants as an example for the influence xenophobia can have on the cultural development of a nation. To illustrate and analyze xenophobic and nativistic attitudes between people in a normal day to day live I will also refer to the film 'L.A. Crash' in which those behaviours are portrayed very well.