Eric Liu Quotes
The nativism behind the push to repeal or amend the Fourteenth is ugly and obvious.
Liu, Eric. "Why We Should All Have to Take a Citizenship Test." Time, 15 Dec. 2011.
As in most weak economic times there were more people than usual opposed to immigration. Of the opponents of immigration some were not racist, but a large number were very much racist. Also the racist organizations all opposed immigration. Historically almost all anti-immigration movements were racist. First it was against the Irish, then the Germans, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Eastern European Jews, and at the time of this quote it was against the Mexicans and other Hispanics.
This racist officer was the impetus for one of the terrible wrongs in American history but most of the national establishment and FDR himself signed off on it to his everlasting disgrace. See {587961} and {635792}.
What was to become the 14th Amendment was being discussed. Several of the most radical Republicans drafted language that would allow Congress to make any law regarding life, liberty or property, so that they could be sure that the States would not make their laws in a discriminatory manner. However, Hotchkiss and the majority wanted to be sure the laws were not discriminatory but they didn’t want Congress to have the power to make any law regarding life, liberty and property for every state. The current version of the 14th Amendment just prohibited discrimination in laws, not empowering the Federal Government to override the state governments in most important areas.
Obama won. But this quotation illustrates one the many racist attacks made against America’s first Black President. Obama’s father had been born in Kenya, his mother and he in the United States.
Eric P. Liu (born 1968) is a Chinese American writer and founder of Citizen University. Liu served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy at the White House between 1999 and 2000. He served as Speechwriter and Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Security Council at the White House from 1993 to 1994. President Obama nominated him in January 2015 to serve on the board of directors of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate; his term expired in December 2017.
