Becoming ‘100% American’: negotiating ethnic identities through nativist discourse1

Abstract

This study traced the negotiation of national and ethnic identities in the USA in the early twentieth century – a time of intense anti-immigrant and anti-German war sentiment. The public discourse analyzed centered around a particularly infamous ban on all non-English languages in the state of Iowa. This ban symbolized the hegemonic definition of national identity at the time, one that implicitly equated national identity to Anglo ethnicity. Alternatively, non-Anglos re-positioned ethnic differences through a discourse of patriotism (e.g., praying in a ‘foreign’ language for US victory in the war was an innocent practice of ethnic difference in the service of the nation). Equating ethnic differences to patriotism, however, resulted in the de-legitimization and erasure of non-Anglo ethnic identities. By pointing to past discursive struggles to define national identity featuring ethnic groups who are today readily accepted as ‘American’ (e.g., German-Americans), we can recast today's predominant and highly problematic narratives concerning immigrants and national identity. These narratives glorify the nation's past (and earlier immigrants) by highlighting a long and easy tradition of national assimilation and unity. This historical past is represented in contrast to today's purportedly disruptive, menacing and non-assimilating immigrants. This study seeks to intervene in such popular discourses through an analysis of one case, out of many, that demonstrates how national identity is an ongoing social invention defined through Others, not as the exception, but as the norm. Historically, Others are always on the national scene.