Step 1: “escape” an oppressive land where some higher power or entity is supposedly oppressing you, your family, and those who are like yourself
Step 2: arrive in “the new world” and seek assistance from the inhabitants who already live here
Step 3: kill and steal resources from the former inhabitants so you become the only manner of existence allowed to persist in the place that was once foreign.
The real story of American Thanksgiving: https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-thanksgiving-2017-11
Massasoit, the Wampanoag paramount chief, allied with the English settlers after Plymouth was established and fought with the newcomers against the French and other local tribes. But the alliance became strained over time. As thousands more English colonists moved to Plymouth, taking over more land, authorities asserted control over “most aspects of Wampanoag life,” according to the book “Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today’s Northeastern United States.”
The real story of Cubans who left Cuba (https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/cuban-immigrant-story-in-us-is-different-from-others/)
Many Cubans, especially the moneyed class, fled over the next few years amid confiscation of property and nationalization of businesses. And the US government, unhappy with having a communist regime just 90 miles from Florida, was happy to welcome them… Those who fled in the early years included some political opponents of Castro, but the majority were middle- and upper-class people facing nationalization of their property and wealth.
Outright violence and domination may no longer be the mechanisms by which control is asserted in the USA. But to wrangle economic influence and control via economic imperialism eradicates any experience which may not fit well or work with such systems premised upon inequitable distribution of resources and basic needs. Many people who are Latino and grew up in the USA can share about the colorism if not outright racism that exists within many Hispanic diasporas and this facet is capitalized upon by the American powers that be:
[Cuban refugees in the USA] became an important part of the [American] political base, especially for the Republican Party, because Republicans take a harder line against Cuba and because the Cubans tended to be Catholic and socially conservative.
Lest we forget too that Black people in America were brought to the North American continent as slaves for white male land thieves owners and as such, will never have been able to come to the USA “the right way”.
If the above three steps come off as too blatant and uncomfortable, maybe the contemporary formula is more palatable:
Step 1: Arrive in the USA in pursuit of “better” economic opportunity
Step 2: Your employer pays you to live and work in America with income inequality present everywhere serving as a reminder of what may become of you if you step out of line
Step 3: gain citizenship to participate civically to reify the myth of rugged individualism being the sole determinant of an individual’s success in the unjust American system.
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