Every American has a History of Experiencing Prejudice

Ignoring their own past, politicians are once again using fear and violence for votes and power.

Bernie Bleske
6 min readJun 19, 2023

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Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

At some point in the last 200 years, you would have been called a threat to America if you are:

Native American. Landless. Muslim. Italian. Illiterate. Polish. Female. Black. Jewish. Chinese. Lesbian. Atheist. Japanese. Homosexual. Catholic. Mexican. Communist. Asian. Mixed race married. Middle Eastern. Hispanic. Unemployed. African. Hippie. Filipino. Indian. Socialist. Handicapped. Pacifist. Unmarried and pregnant. Pot smoking. Unionized.

These were not isolated prejudices by random citizens. If you include yourself among any of the labels here, your danger was a political platform, a menace demanding institutional response, violence if necessary. Men made speeches against you, joined groups specifically created to eliminate you, and passed laws to punish you for what you were. They beat you for it, burned your houses, jailed you, forced you to move. Americans voted for men who promised to fight the threat they insisted you posed. They did everything to prevent you from voting at all.

They usually succeeded. Don’t forget that part. They succeeded. Americans succeed in keeping women from voting until 1920. Race was a…

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