Conditional citizenship

In an essay in the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, Laila Lalami discusses how many minority groups in the United States have “conditional citizenship.”  They are not considered to be completely Americans.  If you are an Iranian-American, you can no longer sponsor your mother for a visa; if you are a German-American, you can.  If you are a Libyan-American, you can no longer receive a visit from your grandmother, but an Italian-American can receive a visit from her grandmother in Venice.  If you are a Yemeni-American you can no longer bring your relative here for medical treatment, but a Portuguese-American can bring his relative here from Lisbon.  Those are Trump policies, upheld by the Supreme Court.  

If you are an American Indian, the government can build a pipeline through your reservation in violation of signed treaties.  And now, if you are Chinese-American, you may be spit up or yelled at because of a virus that originated in China.  You are a conditional citizen.  

But if you are a white male, you can say America is “foolish,” “dumb,” and “a laughingstock.”  The United States is “going to hell,” it looks “like a third world country,” it is “an embarrassment.”  You can say all of those things during a presidential campaign and win the presidential election.  Trump, a white guy, said all of those things.  Imagine if Obama had said them.