前，共和党总统们还乐于宣扬美国是全世界人民的避风港这一理念。罗纳德·里根在告别演说中宣称：“无论来自地球哪个角落的人，都可以来到美国生活并成为美国人。”里根虽算不上种族宽容的典范——他曾反对民权运动，私下里还把黑人称作“猴子”——但他并不认为非白人群体的存在会对美国构成生存威胁。多年来，共和党一直坚称自己希望接纳的是特定类型的移民：那些合法入境的高技能人才；甚至就在不久前，他们还支持那些因自身无过错而缺乏合法身份、但早已融入美国社会的童年时期移民。
Only a few decades ago, Republican presidents would happily evoke the idea of America as a haven for people around the world. Ronald Reagan, in his farewell speech, declared that “anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”Reagan was no paragon of racial tolerance—he opposed the civil-rights movement and privately referred to Black people as “monkeys”—but he did not regard the presence of nonwhite people as an existential threat to America. For years the Republican Party insisted that what it wanted was a certain kind of immigrant—highly skilled people who came here legally, or even, not that long ago, those brought to the U.S. as children who lacked status through no fault of their own and had long since assimilated.
如今的共和党早已今非昔比。如今，共和党认为几乎所有的移民都是有害的——在特朗普政府语境下，“移民”似乎特指非白人移民，并被委婉地称为“第三世界移民”。这一立场最典型的体现便是美国国土安全部上周在社交平台X上发布的“喜报”：称美国入籍人数正在下降，仿佛这种下降本身就是一件好事。该帖文写道：“半个世纪以来首次出现净移民负增长。在特朗普总统的领导下，美国正取得前所未有的胜利。”
That Republican Party no longer exists. Today the GOP’s view is that almost all immigration—by which the Trump administration seems to mean nonwhite immigration, euphemistically referred to as “Third World” immigration—is bad. That view can be summed up by Homeland Security’s celebratory announcement on X last week that the country was seeing a decline in naturalizations, as if the decline itself were self-evidently a good thing: “Net negative migration for the first time in HALF a CENTURY. Americans are amassing victories NEVER seen before thanks to President Trump.”
如今，所谓的“合格”移民范畴已变得极为狭窄：评判标准不再是受教育程度、发展潜力或与美国的联系，而仅仅是是否为白人且信奉基督教。
The “right” kind of immigrant seems to have become a much narrower category, one defined not by people’s education, potential, or ties to the country, but simply by whether they are white and Christian.
最近，福克斯新闻刊登了一则标题，称：“白宫宣称来自穆斯林多数国家的移民数量大幅下降，共和党人欢欣鼓舞。”这些移民可能是医生、工程师或艺术家，但只要他们来自所谓的“穆斯林多数国家”，这些共和党人就不愿让他们留在美国。本周，国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林还声称，“社会主义者”——他指的应该是那些同情移民的左翼人士——企图“破坏美国的人口结构以获取政治权力”。
A recent Fox News headline exulted: “Republican Glee Erupts as White House Boasts Sharp Decline in Immigration From Muslim-Majority Nations.”These people could be doctors, engineers, or artists, but if they’re from a “Muslim-majority country,” these Republicans don’t want them here. And this week, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin posted that “socialists”—by which he presumably meant leftists sympathetic to immigrants—want to “vandalize American demographics to gain political power.”
这完全是种族纯洁论的言论，而且这种观念并不仅限于移民问题，它意味着不符合特朗普政府所期望的“人口特征”的美国人也不属于这个国家。
This is the language of racial purity, and it is not a concept that confines itself to immigration. It suggests that Americans who do not fit the Trump administration’s preferred “demographics” do not belong.
在美国许多本土人口不断减少的地区，社会亟需移民来注入活力。俄亥俄州的部分地区便是如此，海地移民的到来有效促进了当地经济的复苏。然而对特朗普总统而言，海地是个“垃圾国家”，所有海地人都是必须驱逐的“入侵者”。为此，政府撤销了允许海地移民留在美国的临时保护身份；今年7月起，俄亥俄州的海地移民们还被强制佩戴脚踝监控器。
In the many parts of the United States where the native-born population is declining, communities desperately need immigrants. This is true in areas of Ohio, where Haitian immigration has contributed to an economic revival. But to President Trump, Haiti is a “shithole” country, and all Haitians are invaders to be expelled. To that end, the administration removed the Temporary Protected Status that had allowed Haitian immigrants to stay in the United States, and in July, Haitians in Ohio began being fitted with ankle monitors.
皮埃尔·达马斯·贝尔当时正在俄亥俄州的赖特州立大学就读。他是一名运动员，梦想着学习神经科学并成为一名医生。他完全属于那种在以往的共和党看来堪称“美国成功典范”的年轻人。然而，由于他是海地移民，特朗普政府并不接纳他——似乎根本不在乎他是谁，将来能成为什么样的人。9月份，他给父亲打电话，称自己感到“蒙受屈辱”。据CNN报道，不久之后，警方告知他的父亲，皮埃尔“自己冲到了卡车底下”。当地牧师卡尔·鲁比在新闻发布会上指出：“正是我们的移民政策夺走了他的生命。”
Pierre Damas Bel was in college at Wright State University in Ohio when he was issued his bulky ankle monitor. He was an athlete. And he hoped to study neuroscience and be a doctor. He was exactly the kind of young person whom previous versions of the Republican Party would have seen as an American success story. But he was a Haitian immigrant, so he was not wanted by the Trump administration, which did not seem to care who he was, or who he might become. In September, he called his father to say he felt “humiliated.”CNN reported that soon after, police told his father that he had “thrown himself under a truck.”A local pastor, Carl Ruby, said at a news conference that it was “our immigration policy that took his life.”
一年前，《纽约时报》获得了美国国务院与国土安全部官员呈交给总统的文件。文件中声称：“人口多样性的急剧增加削弱了民主制度正常运转所必需的社会信任度”，并主张美国只应接纳“能够完全融入社会且符合总统施政目标”的难民。如今我们终于明白这些话的真实含义：特朗普政府已将难民接纳计划变成一项几乎只面向南非白人的项目。
A year ago, The New York Times obtained documents submitted to the president by officials at the Departments of State and Homeland Security claiming that “the sharp increase in diversity has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity,” and arguing that the U.S. should admit only “refugees who can be fully and appropriately assimilate [sic], and are aligned with the president’s objectives.”We now know what was meant by this. The Trump administration has turned refugee admissions into a virtually whites-only program for Afrikaners from South Africa.
这些所谓“难民”其实并未遭受严重的迫害，他们的申请却得到了快速处理；而全球其他群体的难民申请则大多被搁置。政府一方面将大多数移民描绘成只会消耗纳税人资源、毫无贡献的群体，另一方面却动用纳税人的钱来扶持这个仅限白人参与的南非难民计划。
The applications of these so-called refugees—who do not face significant levels of persecution—are being processed quickly, while those of other groups around the world have largely been suspended. The administration portrays most immigrants as people who leech off U.S. taxpayers rather than contributing, but it has supported South Africans in this whites-only refugee program at taxpayer expense.
南非白人的政策颇具启示意义，因为它揭示了非白人移民所面临的进退两难的局面：如果你很贫穷，就会被视为只会索取救济的人；而如果你有稳定工作，又会被认为抢走了勤劳美国人的就业机会。要想成为“好移民”，唯一的办法就是身为白人且信奉基督教。
The Afrikaner policy is illuminating, because it proves the catch-22 facing nonwhite immigrants: If you are poor, you are a moocher, and if you are gainfully employed, you are taking a job from a hardworking American. The only way to be a good immigrant is to be white and Christian.
正在竞选德克萨斯州铁路委员会席位的博·弗伦奇将这一观点进一步延伸，声称只有身为白人且信奉基督教才能成为真正的美国人。
Bo French, who is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, has taken this idea a step further, suggesting that the only way to be an American is to be white and Christian.
上个月，弗伦奇看到一张亚洲学生为德克萨斯大学橄榄球队欢呼的照片后发帖称：“我听说今年德克萨斯大学的毕业典礼就是这般景象。起初我并不相信。如今看来，问题显然比任何人想象的都要严重。”他还补充道：“社交媒体正在揭露有多少美国人被外国人挤出了就业市场。”随后他又说：“我认为更值得探讨的问题是：我们究竟要制定以美国人为优先的政策、维护我所认为的美国人的特殊性，还是要制定以外国人为优先的政策呢？”
Last month, French responded to a photograph of Asian students cheering the University of Texas football team by posting, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” adding that “social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners.”French later said, “I think that the bigger conversation is, are we going to have policies that prioritize Americans, and the exceptionalism that I believe Americans have, or are we going to have policies that prioritize foreigners?”
根据州法律，德克萨斯大学的学生中必须有90%来自本州，只有10%可以是国际学生或外州学生。然而弗伦奇根本不清楚照片中那些年轻人的国籍情况。对他而言，这些学生之所以是“外国人”，仅仅因为他们不是白人。
State law requires that 90 percent of UT’s students be from Texas; only 10 percent can be international or out-of-state students. French had no idea of the citizenship status of the young people in the photo. What made the students “foreigners” to French was that they were not white.
保守派活动人士克里斯托弗·鲁福在播客中与乔纳森·基珀曼讨论了弗伦奇的言论。基珀曼经营着一家专门出版保守派书籍的出版社。基珀曼解释道：“我们能够察觉到‘不，这并非一个已经融入社会的群体，只不过是一群观看比赛的印度人’这一事实本身，就足以说明他们尚未真正融入社会。”究竟是什么导致他们未能融入呢？
The conservative activist Christopher Rufo discussed French’s comments on a podcast with Jonathan Keeperman, who leads a book publisher of conservative titles. Keeperman explained that “the mere fact of us being able to notice that No, this is not an assimilated group, this is just a bunch of Indians at the game is itself sort of definitionally the case that they’re not yet assimilated.”What makes them not assimilated? Nothing more than the opinion of a guy who looks at a picture and sees, as Keeperman put it, “just a bunch of Indians.”
无非就是某个人看到照片后得出的主观判断——用基珀曼的话来说，就是“一群印度人”罢了。很难想象还有哪种行为能比为自己所在的德克萨斯大学橄榄球队获胜而欢欣鼓舞更能体现融入程度了。这正是问题的关键所在：如今的“融入”已不再意味着上学、就业、说英语以及接受当地文化，而仅仅意味着身为白人且信奉基督教。
It is difficult to imagine a behavior more indicative of assimilation than rejoicing in the victory of your college football team in Texas. And that’s the point: Assimilation is no longer about going to school, getting a job, speaking English, and embracing local culture. It’s about being white and Christian.
近年来，许多保守派人士大力推崇一种反动式的“种族盲视”观念，即认为任何旨在消除歧视的种族针对性举措本身都等同于种族歧视。这种论调假定：白人是靠自身努力获得成功的，而其他族裔则获得了不公平的优待——这完全违背了美国历史事实。美国最高法院已裁定平权政策违法；在包括德克萨斯州在内的多个州，公立大学中负责推动多元化、公平与包容的部门也遭到限制甚至被取缔。
In recent years, many conservatives have championed a kind of reactionary “color-blindness” that insists that any race-conscious effort to alleviate discrimination is itself equivalent to racial discrimination. White people earned their success, this argument assumes, but people in all other groups were given unfair advantages—a notable inversion of American history. Affirmative action has been struck down by the Supreme Court, and offices promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion have been restricted or outlawed at public universities in many states, including Texas.
然而，非白人群体的成功依然备受质疑；事实上，他们的成功反倒被视为体制存在严重问题的证据。正如我的同事乔纳森·蔡特在评论鲁福与基珀曼的播客时所言：“这两人指出，人们对这些移民群体心怀不满是可以理解的——这种不满并非因为许多南亚裔在学业与经济领域取得了成功，恰恰是因为他们成功了。”倘若“精英选拔机制”无法让白人在德克萨斯州顶尖公立大学这类精英机构中占据绝对多数，那这种机制又有什么意义呢？
But the success of nonwhite people remains suspect. In fact, that success is evidence that something is deeply wrong with the system. As my colleague Jonathan Chait wrote about the Rufo and Keeperman podcast, “Resentment of these immigrant communities is understandable, the two men explained, not in spite of the fact that so many South Asians have been successful academically and economically, but because of it.”If “meritocracy” does not produce an overwhelming white majority in elite spaces such as Texas’s flagship public university, what good is it?
多年来，“无视肤色的精英主义”一直是一种行之有效的宣传策略：它既能削弱反歧视法律的作用，又能将黑人排除在优质学校及重要职位之外。正因如此，20世纪70年代时许多曾经的种族隔离主义者似乎突然开始拥护这一理念。对他们而言，真正的目的始终是实现种族隔离——而非所谓的“无视肤色”。只要某些移民的成功可以用来证明黑人学生不配获得机会，“无视肤色的精英主义”便被视为合理。
Color-blind meritocracy was, for many years, a successful rhetorical strategy for undermining antidiscrimination law and excluding Black people from selective schools and prominent positions. That’s why so many former segregationists seemed to suddenly embrace the concept in the 1970s. For them, resegregation—not color-blindness—was always the goal. As long as the success of some immigrants could be used to paint Black students as undeserving, color-blind meritocracy was good.
然而如今，许多右翼人士又发现了新问题：亚裔美国人在精英圈层中人数过多。于是他们便试图将亚裔的成功歪曲为对“真正的白人美国人”应得权利的恶意掠夺。
But now many on the right see a new problem: too many Asian Americans in elite spaces. Their success, therefore, must be portrayed as a sinister theft of real (white) Americans’ birthright.
政府所警告的“社会信任度下降”现象，当然绝非这些学生造成的。问题的根源在于像博·弗伦奇这样的偏执狂——他们无法接纳与自己种族、宗教不同的人进入自己的圈子；还有那些通过社交媒体散布这种偏见并以此牟利的人。这就好比那个杀害父母后以孤儿身份乞求宽恕的孩子，他们正是自己所指责问题的制造者。
The declining “social trust” that the administration warned against is, of course, not the fault of these students. The problem is bigots like Bo French who cannot accept into their community people who do not share their race and religion, and those who monetize or otherwise profit from that bigotry by spreading it through social media. Like the proverbial child who kills their parents and asks for mercy as an orphan, they are responsible for the problem they are decrying.
或许比弗伦奇的言论更值得关注的是：得克萨斯州的共和党政客中鲜有人敢于批评他。支持弗伦奇的州长格雷格·阿博特虽与他划清界限，却并未公开谴责其言论；得克萨斯州副州长丹·帕特里克以及正在竞选美国参议院席位的州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿也均未发声谴责。只有曾在初选中败给帕克斯顿的参议员约翰·科宁站出来批评道：“弗伦奇让共和党蒙羞，他的种族主义言论会拖累整个政党。”人们不禁要问：倘若没有在初选中落败，他是否还能如此直言不讳呢？
Perhaps more significant than French’s remarks is that few Republican politicians in Texas were willing to criticize them. Governor Greg Abbott, who has endorsed French, distanced himself but did not condemn the remarks. Neither did Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Nor did Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat. Senator John Cornyn, who lost the primary to Paxton, was among the few sitting Republican officeholders who did, saying French was “an embarrassment to the Republican Party, and he’s going to drag the whole ticket down because of his racist comments.”One wonders whether he would have felt free to speak so frankly had he not been primaried out of his seat.
前布什政府顾问卡尔·罗夫向来以立场强硬著称，绝非温和的自由派人士。他抱怨道：“我们党正被像博·弗伦奇这样的人渗透。尼克·富埃特斯跑到达拉斯，与一群共和党领袖会面。这家伙可是个纳粹分子。”不过在我看来，这些人并非只是“渗透”进了共和党——如今他们就是共和党本身。
The former Bush adviser Karl Rove, hardly a liberal squish, complained that “my party is being infiltrated by people like Bo French. Nick Fuentes goes to Dallas and meets with a bunch of Republican leaders. This guy is a Nazi.”I’m afraid that these people have not “infiltrated” the Republican Party. Today, they are the Republican Party.