Most people in the United States are unaware of the degree to which racial distinctions and exclusions have been embedded in U.S. history. Although the territory that is now the United States has been racially diverse ever since the first Europeans arrived, the political entity of the country was restricted to people from Europe. Even today, sources from textbooks to popular culture promote the idea that the real essence of the country is white. The oft-repeated phrase “this is a country of immigrants” reaffirms that notion. The “immigrants” it refers to are European immigrants. Only by a large stretch of the imagination could Native Americans, or enslaved Africans, be included in the category “immigrants.” U.S. immigration and naturalization policy was one piece of a national political structure and identity aimed deliberately at creating, and preserving, a white country. The legacies of this history are very much with us still today.