“As of 2017, according to Gallup polls, almost half of Americans agreed that immigrants make crime worse. But is it true that immigration drives crime? Many studies have shown that it does not.”
Popularized by the conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, the catchphrase “facts don’t care about your feelings” is often used by proponents of right-wing ideologies to back their positions on whatever they see fit. The phrase has taken on an ironic tinge in recent years, but many conservative personalities still love to bring it up unironically as if it’s some ultimate gotchya to “own the libs.” Yet this belief that facts are always on the conservative’s side couldn’t be farther from the truth. Case in point: The New York Times’ article on The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant, which completely dispels the reactionary right’s notion that an increase in violent crime is correlated with increased immigration. The graphs used in the article are based on a study conducted by Robert Adelman for the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, showcasing the fact that no meaningful connection between violent crime and immigration in America exists. Not only is the notion that causation exists between the two fallible, but any correlation at all between the two variables is weak. If anything, the strongest correlation exists between an increase in immigration and crime actually going down. This is where we get back to that previously mentioned catchphrase, which is often used by conservative grifters in an effort to make their points seem purely logical and based on fact, whereas their supposedly liberal opponent bases their opinions purely off of emotion. In the context of the immigration debate however (as well as nearly every other political topic), the opposite proves true. Fears regarding the connection between immigration and crime have been entirely manufactured by conservative personalities and multi-media conglomerates (cough cough Fox News cough), with nothing to base their claims on besides their own illegitimate and backwards fear that someone supposedly “foreign” may seek to improve their own life. It is absolutely insane how the American right has managed to create a self-declared monopoly on facts while simultaneously maintaining some of the most emotionally-charged positions one could possess.
I think one of the most important jobs we have as history teachers is to instill in students a tinge of doubt, especially regarding any and all coverage of current events they encounter. If we can prove to them that history is not just a mere collection of facts but itself an ongoing debate about our past, then perhaps we can also encourage them to question the ways in which so called “facts” are presented today. If the facts of the past are still being discussed and argued today, then who’s to say that the “facts” being broadcasted on televised news are themselves accurate? There are of course verifiable pieces of information, but it’s important that students always question how that information is verified. Is the claim in an online article backed by an academic study? Great! Is it a claim made by an abrasive and loud talk show host on primetime coverage? Then maybe some skepticism should be practiced. Digital graphs are one of the best tools we have today to provide data, as they take information that appears complicated when written in words and present it in a comprehensive and all-inclusive picture. Providing students the ability to interact with these pieces of information is incredibly important, as they should always be given the tools to develop their own understanding of the world, and never told directly by another how they should feel about so called “facts.”
