Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Not a Nation of Immigrants, in conversation with Nick Estes

Sunday, September 12, 2021 - 3:00pm

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Click on the link above to register for this virtual event. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will be in conversation with Nick Estes.

Debunks the pervasive and self-congratulatory myth that our country is proudly founded by and for immigrants, and urges readers to embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States

Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US's history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today. 

She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity--founded and built by immigrants--was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good--but inaccurate--story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. 

While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm shifting new book from the highly acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and a historical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma in a tenant farming family. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than 4 decades and is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. Dunbar-Ortiz is the winner of the 2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize, and is the author or editor of many books, including An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, a recipient of the 2015 American Book Award. She lives in San Francisco. Connect with her at reddirtsite.com or on Twitter @rdunbaro.

Event address: 
Bookworks
Albuquerque, NM
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$27.95
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ISBN: 9780807036297
Published: Beacon Press - August 24th, 2021

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People (ReVisioning History for Young People #2) By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Jean Mendoza (Adapted by), Debbie Reese (Adapted by) Cover Image
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Jean Mendoza (Adapted by), Debbie Reese (Adapted by)
$18.95
ISBN: 9780807049396
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Published: Beacon Press - July 23rd, 2019

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment (City Lights Open Media) By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780872867239
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Published: City Lights Books - January 23rd, 2018

$16.00
ISBN: 9780807062654
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Published: Beacon Press - October 4th, 2016