Morgan Turner

POLS1100
Michael Styles
The Dangers of Xenophobia in America
The world has become a very global community since such inventions as the
internet, flight, and modern trade networks. Just as any community, if we cannot
work together, our community will be sick, weak, and unable to achieve its full
potential. America would never have become a superpower or have the incredible
standards of living that it has today if it werent for sharing of technology, culture,
and resources. There are many merits to being friends with our neighbors and
engaging in a culture of reciprocating assistance when the other is in need. The
biggest threat to our involvement in the global community is our xenophobia and
the false sense of superiority that it creates.
Natural disaster can strike without warning and nature has no mercy for those
in its way. Hurricanes across the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico are not
uncommon. An enormous volcano lies underneath Yellowstone National Park with an
unknown timer set for its big eruption. Large populations of Americans live in close
proximity to the San Adreas fault line on the West Coast, the New Madrid Seismic
Zone in the Midwest, and even here in Utah along the Wasatch Fault. The intensity
of one or all of these potential natural disasters becoming a joint reality could
consume more resources and require more help than the United States is capable of
handling on its own.
Finding allies in the war on terror may become more difficult as the US
continues to wage war after war for generation after generation. Developing and

sharing new technologies to help the environment and/or protect the economy
require interaction with the greatest minds of the world. Progressive means of
educating citizens are being explored throughout Europe, Asia, and the world in
general. Without adapting to educational needs, like the rest of the world, we will
find ourselves falling further and further behind in education and end up as a
waning global intellectual power. We must participate in the world to keep
improving and protecting the lives of our citizens and culture. Closing our boarders
and assuming that we are better than our global counterparts will only distance our
involvement in the world.
Why would a nation who shares a boarder to the US be willing to lend a
helping hand if we consider them to be a lesser people of drug dealing, criminal,
rapists who are loathed to the point that thousands of miles of fencing are built as
an isolation precaution? Why would the Muslim world, which accounts for roughly
twenty two percent of the world population be willing to aid a nation that closes is
boarders to them and bans their culture because it is different and considered
wrong? Who has the will to aid the US as a culture that invades because they felt
threatened only to leave political and economic instability in the wake of its
aggression? What incentive are we giving the world to come to our aid if we are in
need? Natural disasters, economic health, and progressing as a society require us to
participate in the world. Xenophobia creates a false sense of superiority that will
only shut ourselves off from the rest of the world and we will be left behind.