“However ought to previous acquaintance be forgot, maintain your eye on the grand previous flag.” George M. Cohan’s well-known verse reminds us {that a} flag can name a nation again to its core values in occasions of misery. However, in a nation of immigrants, which flag and what values?
The vivid photographs of protesters towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles brandishing the Mexican tricolor as a substitute of the Stars and Stripes have dominated information protection and commentary.
Critics have instructed that the Mexican flag on this context reveals loyalty to a overseas nation fairly than the US. President Donald Trump and his allies have pounced on the chance to invoke the usage of the Mexican flag to malign the protests as un-American or outright hostile to this nation. Calling consideration to the flags, Vice President JD Vance insinuated that L.A. confronted an “invasion.” High White Home adviser Stephen Miller known as it an “occupation.”
Supporters of the protest motion’s targets are divided over the symbolism of the Mexican flag. To some, displaying it’s an expression of ethnic delight that’s absolutely suitable with Americanism and bonafide protest. To others, it belies the sturdy American identification and fast assimilation of the very immigrants the protests are supposed to defend and it casts an unpatriotic pall over the motion that harms the recognition of the protests and immigration.
Does the selection of flag at an immigration protest really carry any weight? Do photographs of the Mexican flag provoke the backlash amongst atypical residents that we see amongst some conservative commentators? Would the Stars and Stripes put the protests in a extra “American” gentle and assist win public sympathy and help?
Though voters are sometimes alleged to be dug in on immigration, the doubtless reply to all these questions is a powerful sure.
Many years of analysis present that the U.S. flag nearly universally elicits strongly optimistic emotions in Individuals from all backgrounds. Furthermore, the flag can sign immigrants’ want to develop into American and love of their adopted nation. American patriotism is pervasive amongst immigrants and their kids, and the overwhelming majority of Individuals imagine that love of nation is a vital criterion for being “really American.”
In 2010, we printed a research that instantly explored how the imagery of U.S. and overseas flags impacts public reactions to immigration protests. We had been motivated by immigrants’ rights protests that occurred all through April 2006, centered on Los Angeles however spreading to 102 U.S. cities. These additionally noticed their share of commentators who argued that protesters’ shows of Mexican flags would foster backlash and in the end do extra hurt than good.
To check this notion, we surveyed a consultant group of American adults and confirmed one random half protest imagery that highlighted Mexican flags and the opposite half footage of protesters waving the Stars and Stripes.
The outcomes had been sturdy and unambiguous: Most notably, a majority of respondents within the “Mexican flag” group (55%) had been “Bothered quite a bit” by the protest, whereas solely 45% of these proven the U.S.-flag-dominated photographs had been equally bothered. In brief, altering the symbolic affiliation from “overseas” to American can contribute considerably to turning a hostile public right into a supportive one.
A newer research we carried out in 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period, underscores that regardless of all of the polarization of the previous decade, symbols of patriotism stay pivotal. We discovered that telling individuals a hypothetical immigrant had a U.S. flag, versus one from their nation of origin, in his residence elicited substantial emotions of shared identification and group. Notably, this impact was related no matter immigrants’ authorized standing. Immigrants who fly Previous Glory usually tend to be accepted by atypical residents as “one in all us.”
International flags certainly have an vital place in a nation of immigrants the place our distinct origins and traditions are celebrated. Most Individuals have respect for such pluralism and honor others’ distinct customs and backgrounds. However most additionally imagine that the value of immigration on this nation is to be judged basically by what individuals need to develop into fairly than the place they got here from. Protesters who purpose to persuade most people to rally to immigrants’ protection ought to search to amplify this aspiration as a substitute of obscuring it. An image is price a thousand phrases.
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