1 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,869 SCHAMA: Over 200 years ago, when the United States was created, 2 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,554 the Founding Fathers gave Americans 3 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,155 the most precious gift they could think of, 4 00:00:22,240 --> 00:00:26,199 the chance, every four years, to start over. 5 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:31,311 (MACHINE GUNS FIRING) 6 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:39,435 No matter how dire the situation, how grim the outlook, 7 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:44,355 the election of a new president offers the chance to wipe the slate clean, 8 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:50,037 for the country that's always been about reinventing itself to be born again. 9 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,314 (CROWD CHEERING) 10 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,197 Thank you, Nebraska! 11 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:59,473 SCHAMA: This is one of those moments. 12 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,635 (INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT OVER PA) 13 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,075 (CROWD CHEERING) 14 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,633 I will be honoured to accept your nomination 15 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,518 for vice President of the United States. 16 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:19,432 SCHAMA: This is the year when Americans are asking the big questions. 17 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:23,276 What kind of nation are we? 18 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,188 Who can take us to a better place? 19 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,677 Who is a true American leader anyway? 20 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,314 Fight with me! Fight with me! 21 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:35,839 Fight for what's right for our country! 22 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:38,277 Fight for the ideal... 23 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,437 SCHAMA: So maybe we shouldn't be surprised that, this year, 24 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,080 the contenders aren't the usual suspects. 25 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:46,913 ...that Barack Obama is our candidate... 26 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:48,718 (AUDIENCE CHEERING) 27 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,396 SCHAMA: This is the great tribal ritual of American democracy, 28 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:55,833 the party convention. 29 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:58,388 This year, we saw something immensely moving 30 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,871 and utterly different from any other moment I've ever seen in my life. 31 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:07,712 Someone from Kenya, Kansas, Hawaii, 32 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,351 who represents America in all its colours, all its varieties, 33 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:17,230 got to be put in nomination as the Presidential Candidate 34 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,517 of one of the great parties of the United States. 35 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,353 Barack Obama has stretched beyond anything that was thought possible, 36 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,830 the definition of who can be an American President. 37 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,918 It's time for us to change America. 38 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,750 SCHAMA: The dream that any American might make it to the White House 39 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,912 reflects the oldest and noblest American ideal. 40 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,039 But it's been the hardest to realise. 41 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:58,073 For, throughout its history, America has struggled with the question of 42 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,277 just what is an American? 43 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,074 ...standing up for the freedom of my people. 44 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,715 SCHAMA: "He is an American who, on leaving behind 45 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,236 "all his ancient prejudices and manners, 46 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,754 "begins to feel a resurrection. 47 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:49,871 "His heart swells and glows. Here man is free, as he ought to be." 48 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:52,679 (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) 49 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,310 That was the voice of the man who, right at the start of America's history, 50 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:06,996 saw the New World as something blazingly different. 51 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,638 A society of free immigrants. 52 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:17,472 The wanderers of the globe, 53 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,677 the most despised, powerless, destitute of people, 54 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:25,959 would, in this New World, become the best of all men and women, 55 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:27,359 citizens. 56 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:34,276 And who voiced this idea, 57 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,238 the one that would inspire millions to come to America 58 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,312 to be reborn as free men and women? 59 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,431 A French nobleman, transplanted to the New World as a working farmer, 60 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:47,875 Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur. 61 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:55,720 (INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS) 62 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:03,832 In a wonderful epiphany, 63 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,913 Crevecoeur realised the true meaning of the American Revolution, 64 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,710 the creation of a new society from the downtrodden of the Earth. 65 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:24,154 In his book published in the 1780s, Crevecoeur wrote that 66 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:29,678 here individuals of all nations are turned into a new race of men. 67 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,911 It didn't matter who you'd been or where you'd been born. 68 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,073 Now your allegiance wasn't to a religion or a birthplace. 69 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:41,870 It was to an idea, the idea of liberty and equality. 70 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:44,872 People all over the Old World read Crevecoeur 71 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,396 and headed for the new life he'd promised. 72 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:53,035 A wonderful idea, wasn't it? 73 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:58,638 One that would be America's reason to boast of being unique in the world. 74 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,035 But, would it actually happen? 75 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:19,760 Of course, back in Crevecoeur's day, the immigrants were European and white. 76 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,876 But the American story wouldn't stay like that. 77 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:38,239 His promise that anyone could become a free American spoke to all races. 78 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,879 And that's where the trouble started. 79 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:46,913 Citizenship has never been handed to immigrants on a plate. 80 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,876 Generation after generation have had to fight 81 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:56,520 for the right to be called American. 82 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:58,830 (PROTESTING) 83 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:05,154 Today it's the Hispanics from Mexico and Central America 84 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:07,595 who are fighting to be accepted. 85 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:13,035 When we say Somos America, we are America, every one of us. 86 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:17,033 Mestizo, mixed-bloods, half-bloods, indigenous, 87 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,715 black, white, brown, yellow, we are America. 88 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,792 SCHAMA: For decades, people have crossed the Mexican border 89 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:32,555 in search of a better life, many of them illegally. 90 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:43,435 There are already 45 million Hispanics in the United States, 91 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,718 and by the year 2050, they'll make up a third of the country. 92 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:54,836 They're changing America. 93 00:07:55,920 --> 00:08:00,835 For some Americans, that means the end of their United States. 94 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:12,392 The greatest thing we have to combat is the fear people have of the other. 95 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,038 When they don't really want to look at you 96 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,270 and say this is another human being. 97 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:17,998 And we don't need to be fearful. 98 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:21,197 We need to embrace each other in our diversity and honour them. 99 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,480 SCHAMA: In a brutal time for the American economy, 100 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:28,471 with jobs at a premium, 101 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,836 questions like, "Who are the real Americans?" 102 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:34,115 Take on a panicky intensity. 103 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,830 ANNOUNCER: John McCain! 104 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:43,550 John McCain has long been on the liberal side of the immigration debate, 105 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:47,633 wanting to find a way for illegal immigrants to become citizens. 106 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:54,275 But when he needed the support of the conservatives in his party, 107 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,831 his policy became all about border fences and crackdowns. 108 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,276 My friends, I want to look you in the eye and tell ya, 109 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:02,793 I know what the message is. 110 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,952 The message is, we must secure our borders. 111 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:07,792 I will secure our borders. 112 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:11,509 As President of the United States, I will secure our borders. 113 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:13,591 And I know how to do it. 114 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,189 This is the kind of American city 115 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:22,398 where McCain could smell white insecurity about the future. 116 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:30,473 Houston, Texas, where a third of the city is Hispanic. 117 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:37,472 And where some white Texans get hot and bothered 118 00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:40,836 about being swamped by a Latino tide. 119 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:47,391 ALL: Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, 120 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:50,718 and to the Republic for which it stands, 121 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,429 one nation under God, indivisible, 122 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,478 with liberty and justice for all. 123 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:00,356 These volunteers gather every week 124 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:03,796 to protect the kind of America they want to live in. 125 00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:11,633 The group is run by Curtis Collier, a pest exterminator. 126 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:17,958 COLLIER: There is an estimated 30 to 40 million people in our country illegally, 127 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,713 and when you start multiplying that, just by a few dollars, 128 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,110 I mean, if 40 million people only cost you one dollar, 129 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:25,952 it'd be costing you 40 million, 130 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:31,751 but, uh, it is estimated that a single illegal alien costs taxpayers, uh, 131 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:35,310 somewhere in the neighbourhood of about $4,000 a year. 132 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:39,559 As far as America needing the labourers 133 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:41,995 to do the work that people here won't do, 134 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,878 what happens is, these people that come to this country 135 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,190 actually keep the wages down. 136 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:53,152 SCHAMA: Their targets are the Mexican migrant workers 137 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:57,028 who stand at the roadside waiting to be offered a day's work. 138 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:06,073 (HORN HONKING) 139 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,035 I don't mind one nation, one flag, one language. 140 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,111 That's right. I think that's right. 141 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:24,796 But, over there, they got a cardboard 142 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,190 with the word "Nail 'em and jail 'em." 143 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:32,114 But, these guys, all of us, we are just feeding our families. 144 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:33,349 MAN 1: You're all very illegal. 145 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:35,590 - Show us papers... - ORLANDO: Not everybody illegal. 146 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:37,557 Not everybody illegal. 147 00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:40,029 Show us papers and we'll help you get work. 148 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:41,872 MAN 2: You have no authority to challenge my papers. 149 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:43,518 MAN 3: We got authority. We're citizens. 150 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:45,716 Yeah, well, I am a citizen, too. 151 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:50,191 ORLANDO: Guys like him, guys like me, a lot of guys, we've got family here, 152 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:51,633 born here. 153 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:54,952 Many of us are citizens, so... And... 154 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:57,349 MAN 3: What about the ones that aren't citizens? 155 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,079 What about the ones standing here that are invaders? 156 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:01,434 What do you want to do with them? 157 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:02,919 ORLANDO: Yeah, well, l-l-I... I guess it's right. 158 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,788 (IMITATING ORLANDO) l-l-l-l-I... You need to get the invaders to go home. 159 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,714 But jail them? I don't think that's fair. You know, we are humans. 160 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,916 MAN 3: Illegal invasion is illegal. 161 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:14,035 ORLANDO: Yeah, but we are humans. 162 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:15,678 I don't give a care what you are. 163 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:19,389 If you're not an American citizen, you ain't got the right to be in America. 164 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:21,152 Get the hell out! 165 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:29,068 They're in our country illegally, they're not paying their taxes, 166 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:34,154 they're bringing in numerous diseases, they're raping and killing people. 167 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:38,028 Um, if they don't find a job, they go out and steal and rob. 168 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,230 Americans are fed up. It's... 169 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:48,711 They're ruining our country. 170 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:51,155 It's no longer a country for us. 171 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:56,795 They even say that Texas belongs to them. 172 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:01,272 They said that we stole it from them, and I know... 173 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:03,555 I had relatives who came down here from Tennessee 174 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:08,395 and fought for the Republic of Texas and won it, fairly and squarely. 175 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,357 And now they're saying, "This is our country. 176 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:12,556 "Y'all stole it from us," which is not true. 177 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:15,879 SCHAMA: In their nightmares, 178 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:19,032 the vigilantes see themselves making a last stand 179 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:23,671 against a mass invasion, sweeping across the unguarded border. 180 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,877 But when Texas first became American, 181 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:37,838 when the United States became off-white, 182 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,718 the invasion was all the other way round. 183 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:53,159 In the 1820s, thousands of immigrants came to the borderlands of Texas, 184 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,550 then part of Mexico, in search of a better life. 185 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:06,031 They weren't Mexicans. They were white Anglo-Americans. 186 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:11,918 They'd been invited here by the Mexican government 187 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,993 to bring prosperity to a largely empty and arid land. 188 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:18,916 Now, gentlemen, in signing for your land, 189 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:20,991 I must remind you that you are agreeing 190 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,470 to certain conditions of the Mexican government here. 191 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,593 First, that you must improve and cultivate the land. 192 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:34,750 But before long, they outnumbered native Mexicans ten to one, 193 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:37,070 and had built a little America 194 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,197 with their own customs, language and religion. 195 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:49,477 Fearing it would lose Texas, the Mexican government shut the border 196 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:53,519 and tried to impose its will on the rebellious immigrants. 197 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:01,955 The response of the American settlers, on March the 2nd, 1836, 198 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:05,476 was to declare independence from Mexico. 199 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:12,272 War was the only option left to the Mexicans to reclaim their Texas. 200 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:25,834 People around here like to say that everything in Texas is really big. 201 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,229 And when you see a monument this colossal, 202 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:31,357 you know it's got to be important, not just for the history of Texas, 203 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:33,954 but for the history of the country. 204 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,708 But to tell the truth, the Battle of San Jacinto, 205 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:42,750 fought on April the 21st, 1836, wasn't that much of a battle at all. 206 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,790 The Texans under General Sam Houston simply fell upon the Mexican army 207 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,917 as it was taking its afternoon snooze, 208 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:56,279 massacring almost seven hundred of them to just two Texan fatalities. 209 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:59,673 But if the battle itself wasn't that important, 210 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:01,876 the results certainly were. 211 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:07,952 The scale of the rout suddenly made it seem that Mexico was a soft kill. 212 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:11,589 And it wasn't going to be long before a land grab south of the border 213 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:13,989 became well-nigh irresistible. 214 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:30,948 The walkover in Texas fed American ambition. 215 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:41,034 It confirmed to all red-blooded Americans that this was their continent, 216 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:42,599 this was their time, 217 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:46,434 and no inferior races were going to stand in their way. 218 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:08,119 Manifest Destiny was the new cry heard right across America. 219 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:15,069 The idea that America's racial superiority made it her God given right 220 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:17,549 to expand across the continent. 221 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,551 What was called America's "Anglo-Saxon superiority" 222 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,949 would make victory a certainty. 223 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:34,069 The American popular press now began a relentless campaign 224 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:38,119 to fulfill this Manifest Destiny 225 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:42,512 by taking on the weak and inferior Republic of Mexico, 226 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,433 and the politicians responded with vigour. 227 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:51,791 (THUNDER CLAP) 228 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:01,719 In 1845, Congress annexed Texas. 229 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:09,273 The problem was Mexicans still thought of Texas as theirs. 230 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,911 And so, after a little skirmish on the border, 231 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,436 the now inevitable Mexican-American War began 232 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:25,389 on the plains of Palo Alto outside Brownsville, Texas. 233 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:32,071 It's revealing to hear why the young American soldiers 234 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,276 thought they were fighting. 235 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:39,198 One, Creed Taylor, recalled, "I thought I could shoot Mexicans 236 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:43,114 "as well as I could shoot Indians or deer or turkey, 237 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,395 "and so I rode away to war." 238 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:47,232 (PEOPLE SCREAMING) 239 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:48,753 (GUNS FIRING) 240 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:53,234 Another, Sydenham Moore, said simply 241 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:56,790 "It's an outrage for Mexicans to own such a country, 242 00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:01,317 "as they are too lazy and make few improvements in civilisation." 243 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,512 America's victory over Mexico was absolute. 244 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:16,877 Over half of pre-War Mexico, including California, New Mexico and Arizona, 245 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,838 was now annexed by the United States. 246 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:25,513 And with that land came tens of thousands of Mexicans. 247 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:30,956 (PLAYING MEXICAN MUSIC) 248 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:38,590 And so the fantasy of a purely white America came to an end, 249 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:40,959 not through immigration, 250 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,077 but through the shifting borders of conquest. 251 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,354 The Mexicans who lived in the annexed lands 252 00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,273 now found themselves in a foreign country. 253 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,079 (SINGING IN SPANISH) 254 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:12,395 The treaty ending the war was supposed to make 255 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,916 these Mexican-Americans equal citizens, 256 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:17,592 but the reality was that they were 257 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,877 reduced to being landless, casual labourers. 258 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:32,199 For generations, they weren't considered true Americans at all. 259 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,956 Yet today, Mexican-Americans have found their own place 260 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,112 among the people of the modern United States. 261 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,074 They're the majority on the southern border, 262 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:08,790 where a person's identity can be both Mexican and American. 263 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,718 Jesus, Arturo, Alberto and their friends in the Chicken Club 264 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,837 may have lived in Brownsville, Texas most of their lives, 265 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,037 but they still speak only Spanish, 266 00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,271 and this makes many Anglo-Americans suspicious. 267 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,274 Yet they're fiercely loyal to America, 268 00:21:38,360 --> 00:21:41,158 the country that's given them everything. 269 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,560 (SPEAKING SPANISH) 270 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,831 SCHAMA: Theirs is the classic immigrant story, 271 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,276 leaving the country of your birth to make it in America, 272 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:08,555 just as Crevecoeur promised. 273 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,268 (SINGING IN SPANISH) 274 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:38,839 Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics still come every year. 275 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:45,839 But it's not just that they need America. 276 00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,672 America needs them. 277 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,196 It's only Hispanics who'll do this kind of work. 278 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:02,637 Long hours in the heat of the Californian sun, for $ 12 an hour. 279 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:16,512 Rod Braga owns over 4,000 acres of prime land in Salinas, California, 280 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,919 which has earned itself the nickname of "America's Salad Bowl." 281 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,310 He employs five hundred mostly Mexican workers, 282 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,358 some new migrants, others now American. 283 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,239 BRAGA: The country's much stronger with the fact 284 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:34,833 that we're constantly getting this inflow 285 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:38,196 of young, hard-working, industrious men and women 286 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:41,909 who, you know, are willing to work 70, 80 hours a week. 287 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:45,711 People coming from China or people coming from Mexico, 288 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:50,157 or from other parts of Asia, wherever, you know, 289 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,470 they're always the hardest working people in those countries 290 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:54,516 that want to get out and make a better life for themselves 291 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:58,275 and they come here and they add that to the United States. 292 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,074 SCHAMA: Rod's ancestors were immigrants, too. 293 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,948 His grandfather came from Switzerland and built up the farm. 294 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,310 And just as his family quickly became Americans, 295 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,278 so, Rod believes, will his Mexican workers. 296 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,270 BRAGA: If you talk to any immigrants from anywhere, 297 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:17,998 once there here, you know, they're... 298 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,753 Of course, they're probably proud of their own culture 299 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:22,637 and history and their countries, 300 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,315 but, seems to me, everybody I run across, you know, 301 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,039 they believe that they're American, in their way. 302 00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:30,519 (WORKERS CHATTING) 303 00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:33,160 SCHAMA: There's a lot of worrying, some of it angry, 304 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:37,392 that Hispanic immigrants are taking work from white Americans, 305 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:41,837 and that the sheer weight of their numbers will change America forever. 306 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,759 But Rod Braga accepts that, too, as an American story. 307 00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:51,839 It's not something that worries me. 308 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:56,436 I mean, I think countries that don't change and progress 309 00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:57,555 are far worse off, 310 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,553 so, you know, there'll be change, and there'll be some difficulties, 311 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,473 but, in the end, you know, it's... 312 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,312 We've changed in the last 200 years, 313 00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,436 we'll continue to change for the next 200, I would imagine. 314 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,513 # Sing a little song about Chinatown # 315 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:13,875 (PLAYING CHINESE-STYLE MUSIC) 316 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:28,830 SCHAMA: Sometimes, though, the process of becoming American could be tragic, 317 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,992 and no one knew that better than the Chinese. 318 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,633 # Chinatown, my Chinatown # 319 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,190 Today, they're so much part of America's success story, 320 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,589 that it's hard to imagine that not so long ago 321 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,194 they were looked on as clownish sub-humans, 322 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,157 the ching-chong Chinamen. 323 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,312 # Me, me, me, me, Chinatown 324 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,038 # Mommy, mommy 325 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:08,637 # La, la-la, la, la-la # 326 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:17,036 Time and again, America's whites have feared the change immigrants bring, 327 00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:21,591 even though it's often been immigrant toil and sweat that's made America. 328 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,273 (IMITATING CHINESE SONG) 329 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:31,597 And so it was 150 years ago, when the Chinese first came to America. 330 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,596 The Chinese came to California in search of gold. 331 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,029 But when they were chased away from the gold fields, 332 00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:52,999 they had to look for other work, building railroads. 333 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:03,118 At first, the tough Irish foremen didn't think the Chinese had what it took. 334 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,352 They were too slight, they said, 335 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,115 their lack of body hair a sign of their effeminate nature. 336 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,318 But the railroad companies were on an epic mission 337 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,915 to create a line that would cross the entire continent. 338 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,472 And they were on a strict deadline. 339 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,235 If they blew it, funds allocated by Congress would dry up. 340 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,559 So, the need for labourers was critical. 341 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:41,750 But workers were hard to find, 342 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:46,914 especially in 1865, when the line had to cross the Sierra Nevada. 343 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:53,757 (WIND WHISTLING) 344 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:58,999 At Donner Pass, near Truckee, California, 345 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,311 the railroad had to rise to 7,000 feet. 346 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:16,796 It was one of the most ambitious feats of engineering 347 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,110 Americans had ever attempted. 348 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:31,834 This may look like a picture-postcard perfect day in the Sierra Nevada, 349 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:36,436 but in the winter of 1866 it would have looked very different. 350 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,874 Forty-foot snowdrifts and, underneath all that snow, 351 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,077 thousands of Chinese in work gangs, 352 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,790 trying to get a Central Pacific Railroad through the mass of granite. 353 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,590 Now, normally, this was a crazy idea. 354 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,831 You would have stopped work in winter conditions like that 355 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,434 and started again in the spring. 356 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,512 But the Chinese were prepared to do it. 357 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:06,148 The only way they could and still live was by sinking chimneys and airshafts 358 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:11,030 right through the snowpack and living in tunnels dimly lit by lanterns. 359 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:15,912 We will never know how many died in that Herculean effort 360 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,752 but this we do know. 361 00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:19,956 If you think, and I do, 362 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:25,114 that it was the Transcontinental Railroad that made modern America one, 363 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,909 then it was the Chinese that made modern America. 364 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,074 During the critical winter of 1866-7, 365 00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,118 between 10,000 and 12,000 Chinese men 366 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,192 were at work on the Central Pacific Railroad. 367 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,597 There were many ways to die for the Central Pacific, 368 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:54,069 avalanches, flying boulders, 369 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:57,914 standing too close to the explosions of nitroglycerin. 370 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,829 Yet the Chinese kept on going, 371 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:05,151 exceeding all the expectations of their bosses. 372 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,509 Progress across the Sierra was painfully slow. 373 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:14,388 At Donner Pass, it averaged only eight inches a day. 374 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:23,630 Summit Tunnel, 1,600 feet long, would take over a year to complete. 375 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,559 Walking into this tunnel, 376 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:37,637 shredded, torn, scorched rock, is a walk into the hell of history, really. 377 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,590 The heroic work the Chinese did, 378 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:42,272 blasting their way through this mountain. 379 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:46,273 It seems really inconceivable that this could have been done, 380 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:48,669 even with the help of nitroglycerin, 381 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:50,637 by human hands at all. 382 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,428 The scale of it is, sort of, epic. 383 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,950 It must be one of the great achievements of American history, 384 00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,316 and yet there's absolutely nothing 385 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,029 to mark the tenacity and the suffering and the endurance. 386 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,555 No plaque, no little museum. 387 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:12,036 But hey, after all, they were Chinese. 388 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,953 They weren't even thought of as Americans. 389 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:33,558 On May the 10th, 1869, workers posed for the photograph in Promontory, Utah, 390 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:38,555 to celebrate the completion of the first railway link right across the continent. 391 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,279 Yet there are no Chinese faces. 392 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:49,276 Only the Irish and European labourers were invited to take part. 393 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:07,309 The Chinese may have helped unify the United States, 394 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,392 but that wasn't enough to make them American. 395 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:13,878 Once the railroad was completed, 396 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,351 the Chinese looked for work in the Chinatowns of the western cities, 397 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,750 but many whites viewed them with growing suspicion. 398 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:26,229 When recession hit in the 1870s, 399 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,995 they were accused of taking work from white Americans 400 00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:32,036 and things turned ugly. 401 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:41,349 In San Francisco, an Irish-American labour organiser, Dennis Kearney, 402 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:45,399 had vast crowds chanting, "The Chinese must go." 403 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,837 Lynchings and the burning of Chinatowns 404 00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,832 soon followed all across the western states. 405 00:34:19,240 --> 00:34:22,312 In Truckee, where many of those who had taken the railroad 406 00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:24,595 through the mountain had settled, 407 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,150 the anti-Chinese campaign was led by Charles McGlashan, 408 00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:32,552 a former high school teacher and now the owner of the local newspaper. 409 00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,795 McGlashan professed to want to avoid violence, 410 00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:44,236 not least because burning the Chinese out hadn't worked, 411 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,357 they just kept on rebuilding their homes. 412 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:55,549 So, instead of the torch, he planned to strangle Truckee's Chinatown to death 413 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,074 with a tightening economic noose. 414 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,994 He wouldn't target the Chinese directly, 415 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,913 but the whites who gave them a livelihood. 416 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,037 White homes that employed Chinese servants, 417 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,918 hotels that hired them to cook and clean, 418 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,432 timber companies that used them to cut wood. 419 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:32,749 They would all be ordered to fire their Chinese workers. 420 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:38,355 And McGlashan's weapon to enforce this boycott would, 421 00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,671 in a very modern twist, be his newspaper. 422 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,752 This stuff is really amazing. 423 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:58,472 There's evil dripping from the pages of this obscure provincial newspaper. 424 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,673 This kind of language to dehumanise the Chinese, 425 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:05,719 you just don't think of as having a place anywhere in America. 426 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:06,835 But here it is. 427 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,151 Here's McGlashan right on the eve of the boycott. 428 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:14,438 Very grand in mobilising contempt. 429 00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:20,991 "It will be a bitter, relentless warfare unto the death. 430 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,954 "No quarter will be asked or given. 431 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:29,914 "Either the whites will rule Truckee and the Chinese must leave, 432 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,356 "or the Chinese must rule and the whites will leave. 433 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,558 "There will be no compromise, no flag of truce, 434 00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:41,509 "no cessation of hostilities until the final surrender is made." 435 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,955 Now, what does he mean by the final surrender? 436 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:49,194 He means the entire community is going to be uprooted, evicted, 437 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:54,149 all traces of their having been part of Truckee wiped out completely. 438 00:36:56,720 --> 00:36:58,233 (MICROFILM READER WHIRRING) 439 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:05,472 And here's McGlashan ostracising anyone he calls a Chinese lover, 440 00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:10,031 anyone who would defy the campaign of hatred against the Chinese. 441 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,395 This is what he says. Extraordinary. 442 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:17,554 He says, "How dare they think that they could gain a livelihood for themselves 443 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:23,397 "without the aid of the thieving, lustful, 444 00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:27,155 "opium-smoking, murderous Chinamen. 445 00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:30,755 "There can be no standing on the fence," McGlashan says. 446 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:32,353 Apparently not. 447 00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,951 Well, it turns my stomach to actually read this kind of thing 448 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,919 because the degree of venom, 449 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:49,672 the spewing out of this sort of race hatred... 450 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,638 We're all used to reading the history of the war 451 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:56,838 between black and white in the South and that particular tragedy. 452 00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,753 We don't really want to think of America, 453 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:03,196 the country of the Statue of Liberty, the country of immigration, 454 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,397 as having as a deep strand in its history 455 00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:11,235 the sense in which Asiatics, who had helped build America, 456 00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,757 could never be Americans, in fact, could never really be human at all. 457 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,954 (TRAIN HORN BLOWING) 458 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:30,789 One after another, Truckee's businesses capitulated to his blackmail. 459 00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:40,157 Threats to tar and feather anyone who continued to work with the Chinese 460 00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:43,152 helped the boycott become a great success. 461 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:52,920 On February the 13th, 1886, Charles McGlashan declared victory 462 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,073 in his campaign to cleanse Truckee from the Chinese. 463 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:02,920 He called for a night of what he said would be "hallelujah" and "rejoicing" 464 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,912 and the entire town poured into the plaza. 465 00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:10,199 There were bonfires on the hillsides, fife and drum bands, 466 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,750 round after round of shouts of joy. 467 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,796 It had taken just nine weeks 468 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:23,512 and thereafter the hitherto obscure town of Truckee became a byword 469 00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:27,593 for how to get rid of your unwanted Chinese. 470 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,270 (PLAYING TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC) 471 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:47,998 By the end of 1886, Truckee's Chinatown had become a ghost town. 472 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:54,593 Little trace was left of its once vibrant community of 1,500 people. 473 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,675 The jubilant McGlashan took his campaign across the West, 474 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:19,595 boasting of the success of the "Truckee method¡± in evicting the Chinese. 475 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,191 He became known as "The Hero of Truckee." 476 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:35,919 The same year that the Chinese were being driven out of their homes, 477 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,915 the icon of the American dream was being dedicated in New York Harbour. 478 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:48,471 On its base would be inscribed Emma Lazarus' famous poem, 479 00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:50,551 "Give me your tired, your poor, 480 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,393 "Your huddled masses yearning to be free, 481 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,438 "The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." 482 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:03,078 Just so long, she might have added, as they weren't Chinese. 483 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:13,398 In an act of craven surrender to the mobs and the boycotts, 484 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:17,837 the United States government enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, 485 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:21,708 that barred all but a few Chinese from entering the country. 486 00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:33,348 But such was the power of the Crevecoeur dream 487 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,795 that thousands still made the journey, 488 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:41,557 only to end up in the detention centre at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, 489 00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:44,916 awaiting almost inevitable deportation. 490 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,548 On arrival, inmates were given an exhaustive examination. 491 00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,950 These were often invasive and humiliating. 492 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:06,196 Since, to Western eyes they all looked the same, 493 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,556 all parts of their bodies were measured and photographed, 494 00:42:09,640 --> 00:42:12,791 the shape of their heads, the length of their arms and feet, 495 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,235 the condition of their genitals. 496 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,038 Remarkably, these walls are covered 497 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,715 with that quintessentially Chinese form, the poem. 498 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:45,199 They're full of a sense of pain and sorrow 499 00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:48,158 and of injustice of being held, literally, at bay. 500 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:49,992 Listen to this one. 501 00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:53,996 "America has power, but not justice. 502 00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:57,959 "In prison, we were victimised as if we were guilty. 503 00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,559 "Given no opportunity to explain, it was really brutal. 504 00:43:03,240 --> 00:43:07,677 "I bow my head in reflection, but there's nothing I can do." 505 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,316 Even while they were officially barred, 506 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:17,757 many Chinese did manage to enter the United States illegally. 507 00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:23,473 Thousands were smuggled across the Mexican border, dressed as Mexicans. 508 00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:29,998 The people for whom the Crevecoeur promise had been most bitterly betrayed 509 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:33,197 had found their own way to make it come true. 510 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,833 (PEOPLE CHEERING) 511 00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:44,077 Yet, at the turn of the century, on the other side of United States, 512 00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:47,197 Crevecoeur's dream was very much alive. 513 00:43:52,240 --> 00:43:56,518 Millions came, escaping destitution and persecution, 514 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:01,594 from Sicily, Armenia, Poland, Jews from all over Eastern Europe. 515 00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:09,758 This was an experiment no other country in the world had ever tried, 516 00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:11,353 much less accomplished, 517 00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:17,037 to somehow forge a great continental democracy from so many different tribes. 518 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,991 Yet, as with the Chinese, many Americans reacted with fear, 519 00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:31,675 that the sturdy Anglo-Saxon character of America 520 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,991 would be destroyed by the inferior newcomers. 521 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:44,037 It was an anxiety that reached right into America's elite. 522 00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,793 ANNOUNCER: The pages of New England's history remind all good Americans 523 00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,156 of the unwavering tenacity of the little band of refugees 524 00:44:51,240 --> 00:44:55,995 who, more than 300 years ago, founded a nation in a strange and hostile world. 525 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,150 To our nettage, these honoured dead have brought a quality of endurance 526 00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:03,038 that has had a lasting influence on the American character, 527 00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:05,350 and the American way of life. 528 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,228 These earnest settlers founded Harvard College in 1636. 529 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,559 SCHAMA: Some of the nation's top Ivy League professors 530 00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:17,996 founded the Immigration Restriction League. 531 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:23,029 And they published academic papers showing the race stock of the country 532 00:45:23,120 --> 00:45:26,237 was being adulterated by immigrant hordes. 533 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,795 The League campaigned for restrictions on immigration 534 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:38,553 to ensure the survival of the true Nordic 535 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,473 and Anglo-Saxon character of America. 536 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:49,909 But industry, at the height of its powers, 537 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,036 didn't feel the same way. 538 00:45:56,480 --> 00:46:00,951 New immigrants could be turned into ideal assembly line workers. 539 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:03,519 At the Ford Motor Company, 540 00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,956 three-quarters of the labour force was foreign born. 541 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:12,679 So immigration restriction would be bad for business, 542 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,228 and that would be bad for America. 543 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:29,715 A hundred years ago, men working on the Ford Motor Company assembly line 544 00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:34,476 would have been toiling in grime and oil for long hours and low wages. 545 00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:38,839 So, it's no wonder that the company couldn't keep the workforce. 546 00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:43,750 Then Henry Ford came up with what he called a revolutionary idea. 547 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:48,231 Why not use the company profits to almost double the wages? 548 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,433 But for Ford, it wasn't just about the money. 549 00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:55,559 It was the beginning of a great experiment in social engineering. 550 00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,636 "We want to make men in our factories," he said, 551 00:46:59,720 --> 00:47:01,676 "not just automobiles." 552 00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,639 Despite needing the immigrants for his factory floor, 553 00:47:09,720 --> 00:47:14,555 Ford felt as strongly as anyone that the alien culture of the immigrants 554 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:17,791 threatened the purity of the American character. 555 00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:23,349 He'd been brought up on a farm 556 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,352 and wanted the values of that older America 557 00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,874 to survive in the Industrial Age. 558 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:34,753 Somehow, the newcomers had to be Americanised, 559 00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:37,308 the Old World cleaned out of them. 560 00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:43,668 So, to get their wage increase, those who made the Model T 561 00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:46,752 would have to show they were model Americans. 562 00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:54,679 Ford created a company sociological department, 563 00:47:54,760 --> 00:48:00,118 with a staff of 160 investigators to spy on his workforce. 564 00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:06,637 They drove around the immigrant neighbourhoods of Detroit, 565 00:48:06,720 --> 00:48:09,473 armed with interpreters and questionnaires, 566 00:48:09,560 --> 00:48:12,358 monitoring the behaviour of his workers. 567 00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:21,035 A whiff of whisky? Suspicions of too many lodgers? 568 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:25,910 Underwear not dazzlingly clean? Forget the wage increase. 569 00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:42,278 The assumption was that immigrants were dirty, lazy and immoral 570 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:46,035 and only the surveillance of the Ford Sociological Department 571 00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:48,759 could save them and America. 572 00:48:59,960 --> 00:49:02,076 (PEOPLE CHATTERING) 573 00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:09,596 But even if you lived like a saint, you'd still be penalised where it hurt, 574 00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:10,874 in the wage packet, 575 00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:16,557 if your English, the essential tool of Americanisation, wasn't up to scratch. 576 00:49:17,240 --> 00:49:20,710 The Ford English School would see to it that you were. 577 00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:24,509 Good cut! 578 00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:27,668 No-shows were automatically fired. 579 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:34,910 Before or after their shifts, 580 00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:38,629 the workers sat in rows, learning their words by rote. 581 00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:43,912 (INDISTINCT CHATTERING) 582 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:51,313 And the first the thing they all recited was, of course, "I am an American." 583 00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:58,313 There's nothing more American than baseball, the national game. 584 00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:02,156 So, where else would Henry Ford choose for the graduation of his students 585 00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:05,835 from the English School except a baseball park? 586 00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:11,556 Come the great day, the students and their families all gathered 587 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:15,394 before a platform specially arranged for the occasion. 588 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:20,836 Down below the platform was a reconstructed melting pot, 589 00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:24,271 made of cardboard, papier-mache and pasteboard. 590 00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:28,878 The students all filed along the platform, received their degrees, 591 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,669 and then down they went into the melting pot, 592 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:37,788 to emerge real Americans, waving their little Stars and Stripes. 593 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,150 It was a perfect American day 594 00:50:40,240 --> 00:50:43,596 for a perfect ceremony of Americanisation. 595 00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:53,474 Crushing the foreignness out of immigrants 596 00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:55,516 wasn't the only way of dealing with 597 00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:58,672 the mass immigration of the early 20th century. 598 00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:03,678 A few pioneers took a more enlightened approach 599 00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:06,513 towards what an American could be. 600 00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:15,954 Grace Abbott, a former high-school teacher from Nebraska, 601 00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:19,510 was one of the great campaigners for immigrant rights. 602 00:51:27,720 --> 00:51:32,032 She was as brilliant as they come, but she was no remote intellectual. 603 00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:34,591 Abbott had lived among the immigrants 604 00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:38,309 on the streets of Chicago, where she was a social worker. 605 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,231 And she knew where the young immigrants, 606 00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:51,756 especially thousands of girls who came raw to the city, 607 00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:55,116 were most vulnerable, the train station. 608 00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:05,877 Here they were easy prey for men who coaxed them to sweatshops or saloons. 609 00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:13,870 So Grace Abbott's Immigrant Protective League set up reception centres, 610 00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:16,758 staffed by women who spoke their languages, 611 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:21,356 to offer them the priceless gifts of protection and advice. 612 00:52:29,240 --> 00:52:34,439 She wrote of her experiences in her book, The Immigrant And The Community, 613 00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:38,354 America's first sympathetic account of immigrant culture. 614 00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:48,558 For me, Grace Abbott is one of the great, unsung heroines 615 00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:50,995 of modern American history. 616 00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:53,753 Because, at a time when almost everybody was complaining 617 00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:58,391 that immigrant cultures adulterated the purity of American life, 618 00:52:58,480 --> 00:53:01,153 she actually thought they enriched it. 619 00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:04,512 To honour and cherish where you came from, Abbott believed, 620 00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:10,835 was not to compromise or betray your American loyalty, but to strengthen it. 621 00:53:11,120 --> 00:53:16,717 So, instead of being embarrassed by America's differences and its diversity, 622 00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:21,999 she thought that was exactly America's unique glory. 623 00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:30,919 While many Americans demanded that the children of immigrants 624 00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:32,638 forget their parents' language, 625 00:53:32,720 --> 00:53:37,475 Grace wanted them to hold on to it and everything else about their culture. 626 00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:43,437 For in that way, America would become a true world nation, 627 00:53:43,720 --> 00:53:45,517 a multi-ethnic miracle. 628 00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:53,916 When Abbott asks Crevecoeur's question, "What is an American?" 629 00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:57,356 Her answer is shockingly, movingly modern. 630 00:53:58,240 --> 00:54:02,074 "We're many nationalities,¡± she wrote, "scattered over a continent. 631 00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:07,109 "We should not be ashamed of this but recognise the opportunity this brings. 632 00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:10,989 "If all the races on Earth can live together in America, 633 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:13,316 "and if we can respect the differences, 634 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:17,029 "then, we shall meet the American opportunity." 635 00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,397 (CHANTING PRAYERS) 636 00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:23,035 There have been times, even recently, 637 00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:25,714 when that respect has been put in jeopardy. 638 00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:35,710 Post 9/11 America was just such a time. 639 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:41,274 Many questioned the patriotism of the country's two and half million Muslims, 640 00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:44,512 and even their right to call themselves American. 641 00:54:46,240 --> 00:54:50,870 Well, obviously, since 9/11, America has got a warped impression 642 00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:55,195 of Arab Americans and Muslims in particular. 643 00:54:55,280 --> 00:54:59,034 I was in a department store when it happened. I was watching it on TV, 644 00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,630 and I said, "Please God, don't let it be Muslims." 645 00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:09,789 SCHAMA: Yet, Chuck Alawan, whose parents settled in, of all places, 646 00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:13,589 Henry Ford's Detroit, is stubbornly optimistic. 647 00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:19,239 He says, post 9/11 paranoia was the exception in his life in America. 648 00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:23,038 I, frankly, have been raised in a pretty good atmosphere. 649 00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:25,839 I never felt a burden. 650 00:55:25,920 --> 00:55:30,152 It... I tell people that I am as American as apple pie. 651 00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:38,995 SCHAMA: No one here considers themselves less American 652 00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,075 just because of where they're from and how they pray. 653 00:55:45,040 --> 00:55:48,635 So, I wonder what Chuck thinks the selection of someone 654 00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:52,633 with Barack Obama's background says about America. 655 00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:55,679 The man is now, for the first time in history, 656 00:55:55,760 --> 00:55:58,513 a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, 657 00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:01,068 and he has all these "complications." 658 00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:03,913 He's African-American, his father was a Muslim, 659 00:56:04,040 --> 00:56:07,635 he's got a Muslim name, he's got a white mother, 660 00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:09,472 you know, and on and on. 661 00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:12,632 (PEOPLE CHEERING) 662 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:16,395 And these are the kind of complications that most Americans 663 00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,516 are just now dealing with. 664 00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,994 And the future years are going to ease up on this 665 00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:27,313 because, you know, I guess I call it "the colouring of America." 666 00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:32,072 America today is probably 40 percent ethnic. 667 00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:37,915 Chinese, Japanese, Arab, African-American, 668 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:43,074 I mean, it's no longer the Mayflower white majority. 669 00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:47,951 It's fast becoming coloured in the sense of this mosaic of people. 670 00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,077 Well, this is changing the politics of America. 671 00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:53,151 It's changing the thinking of Americans. 672 00:56:53,240 --> 00:56:57,870 With profound gratitude and great humility, 673 00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,236 I accept your nomination... 674 00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:01,639 (INAUDIBLE) 675 00:57:01,720 --> 00:57:04,314 (LOUD CHEERING) 676 00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:25,871 SCHAMA: Seeing Barack Obama accept the nomination of the Democratic Party, 677 00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,151 I knew that, whatever the result of this election, 678 00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,073 an historic threshold had been crossed. 679 00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:42,078 Here's someone who just a few years ago could never have been a candidate 680 00:57:42,160 --> 00:57:45,072 for the most powerful office in America. 681 00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:49,870 Yet, here he was, a man with roots in the wheat fields of Kansas, 682 00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:54,916 and the villages of Kenya who could end up in the White House next January. 683 00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:03,031 Now that, I think, would have made Crevecoeur's heart jump with joy. 684 00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:06,429 But, then, I would think that. 685 00:58:06,520 --> 00:58:09,910 You see, I'm an American immigrant myself. 686 00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:14,551 And, without starry eyes, I do believe in the American future.