Yesterday's Cherokees = today's Muslims

Andrew Jackson's AmericaThe Cherokees evoked much sympathy because they basically played by all the rules as laid out by the lately Americans. They were farmers. They sent their kids to school. They had a written language, and a published newspaper. They sided with Andrew Jackson against the Creeks. They converted to Christianity. They intermarried with whites. They practiced slavery (Around 8 percent of them were slave-owners.) If you were looking for a group who was quickly assimilating into this new, insurgent America, the Cherokee were the "model minority" of their day.

But it didn't matter. White farmers in Georgia did not want to assimilate the Cherokee, they wanted to rob them.How yesterday's bigotry against Cherokees is the same as today's bigotry against Muslims:[Americans] are not being led astray. They are not being distracted from "important issues" or divided from their "real interests." This is their "important issue." This is their "real interest."

The prospect of Muslims assimilating will not subdue them. To the contrary, the last thing they want is their kid competing with yours. Their hypocrisy is stunning: These are the ghosts who burned black Wall Street, who pilfered the "Five Civilized Tribes," who recoil at gays attempting to build family. And so on. They claim to fear the immigrant clinging to his language. No. What they fear is the immigrant learning theirs. Much like Barack Obama scares them more than any New Black Panther, Cordoba House is more terrifying than any iteration of radical jihad.Comment:  The protests against mosques across the country shows this issue has nothing to do with "sensitivity" to 9/11 victims.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The same people who think Obama is a Kenyan and a Muslim are protesting illegal immigration, ethnic studies, gay marriage, healthcare reform, welfare spending, Indian gaming, and tribal sovereignty. They're also defending our constitutional right to say the n-word (Sarah Palin) and to discriminate against blacks (Rand Paul). The common denominator is bigotry against anyone who isn't a white Christian heterosexual--i.e., the so-called "real Americans."

For more on the subject, see:

Angry white Christians want country back
White conservatives "angry about racism"
Paper-checkers = birthers = teabaggers
Klansmen, militias, and teabaggers

Below:  The changing face of bigotry.