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Author Insight
History DOES repeat itself
These days—when migration (forced or voluntary) from native lands to host countries (receptive or hostile) figures prominently in every sector of the media—I am struck by how profoundly history repeats itself. As those already in place observe—from comfortable "native" sidelines—the externalities of the immigrant experience, it is all too easy to remain innocent of how "we" relate to "them." In reflecting on what transpired in Charleston in the nineteenth century, when a minority ethnic community was suppressed by the majority's endemic nativism fearful of the "other"—it is not a far reach to find parallels between what happened in that past and the present tensions between immigrants and natives, between majorities and minorities. In the present, as in the past, the "other" continues to be suspect and marginalized, rights and privileges are disputed, defenses brought to bear, prejudices strengthened and renewed. It's all happened before.
Book Excerpt
Charleston's Germans
Despite the hyperbole inherent in newspaper reporting during this period, it is difficult to overlook the fact that there was more than a modicum of judgment being passed by the newspaper reporter and, indirectly, by the editor.106 Charleston and its ruling class have not infrequently been accused of being paternalistic, and there is no lack of that in the passages cited above: “They” are a separate entity from “Us,” viewed and judged from a distance, as if the viewer in the center is looking at something on the periphery, ready and able to comment on “them,” “the Germans,” “their serious souls,” “the sunny splendor of their smile,” “their finest qualities,” “our most valuable citizens.” Obviously, “the Germans” had for some time been making a very good impression on the natives, but even though they were well-behaved and valuable members of the Charleston community, “old Charleston” would—if only subconsciously—keep these Neudeutsche somewhat marginalized for yet a while.
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