By
Paul VanRaden
©2025
Topics
Definitions
You are a
Placist!
History of
Placism
Please Erase
Racism and Placism
References
Reviewer Comments
Definitions:
racist (noun) A person
who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward people on the basis of their
membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a
minority or marginalized.
placist (noun) A person
who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward people who want to move from
someplace, typically one that is poor or marginalized, to a different place.
If I called you a racist, you would be offended because that is
not true. Before the American Civil War, most Americans were racists. Their
Constitution and their Supreme Court said that people of one race could buy,
sell, and 100% control people of a different race. European-Americans gave
their African-American slaves almost no rights and counted each slave as 3/5 of
a person. Slavery ended in 1865, but racism continued from the 1860’s until the
1960’s when Congress passed and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of more Civil
Rights. Today, most Americans believe that people of all races should work
together as equals.
If I called you a placist, you would not be offended because
nearly all Americans are placists and proud of it. You believe that every
person on earth must remain in the place where they were born until they get
permission from the government of some other place to move there. I have never
been a placist and will never be a placist because my moral values make sense
and my mind is clear. You can stop being a placist, improve your moral values,
and start thinking more clearly. We can end placism like previous Americans
ended slavery. Our goal is for each person to be able to choose their place to
live and to work.
Some of my European-American ancestors may have been racists, but
most were not placists. They remembered that 100% of our family DNA was
imported by immigrants who left other places to come to this place. Most were
proud of both the new place they chose to live in and the old place they chose
to leave because they had family in both places. My immigrant ancestors chose
to move from place to place to find a better life. In past decades and
centuries, many Americans believed that people from many places could or should
work together as equals. The Wall Street Journal and many Republicans used to believe in
open borders.
Placism hurts many more people than racism. Both have similar
effects, but racism hurts mainly minorities within a country whereas placism
hurts almost everyone. Placism forces most humans to stay in their country of
birth and forces their children, grandchildren, and further descendants to
remain in that place for many generations. Such laws hurt only a little if you
were born in a nice place but hurt every day if you were born in a bad place.
In a country where everyone is the same race, racists cannot find any other
races to hurt. Instead, they may discriminate against other countries that have
other races.
Discrimination based on national origin was supposed to be illegal
in the United States since the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII) and the 1965
Immigration and Nationality Act. It says “No person shall receive any
preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an
immigrant visa because of the person's race, sex, nationality, place of birth,
or place of residence.”
We pretend not to be placists, but we pay the U.S. government to
discriminate on national origin for us. The Supreme Court in 2018 upheld an Executive Order
banning immigrants from several Muslim countries. Before 1986, only the
federal government enforced placism. Since then, U.S. employers must also help
enforce placism by checking papers or be fined. Many other nations also enforce
placism, and together our placism now keeps almost all other people in their
place.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion were goals before 2025, but
Division, Exclusion, and Intolerance seem to be the current U.S. government’s
goals. Placism divides people by country, excludes people from
other countries, and is intolerant of treating all people as equals. I
have the opposite philosophy. The people of earth are more diverse than the
people of any one country, and the world benefits from that diversity. I try to
treat all people as equals and always include their needs in my goals.
The most important and lead topic on my website Solutions To World Problems
since 1999 and the highest goal of my personal research since 1990 is the exact
opposite of placism: The
Right To Migrate. At least once every 5 years I read my book again and
always find its logic clear, ahead of its time, and getting more important now
as placism grows. Being a placist might make your life a tiny bit better but
harms the lives of everyone outside your borders. Placism and racism are both
bad.
Territory is a key to understanding our options. A former Research
Leader of our USDA laboratory, Robert
H. Miller, explained that to me in 1996. Some animals, mostly predators,
mark a territory and fight to keep other predators off it. Other animals,
mostly grazers or scavengers, coexist in peace without territory, but that
strategy often leads to overgrazing. Long ago, many humans were
hunter-gatherers who fought for territory with neighboring tribes, but humans
for thousands of years have planted crops and grown their food. People own
property. Individuals or families or foreigners can easily rent or own the apartments
or houses where we live and we can buy or sell land. We do not need to act like
predators or like grazers. We can buy what we need and sell our labor
peacefully, anywhere.
Few humans have moved from place to place since 30 years ago.
Population densities still differ greatly across countries, and those with
highest or lowest density have hardly changed: 4 of the 5 most dense and 4 of
the 5 least dense countries are still the same. My 1994 and 2023 tables both
listed 28 countries with more than 1% of the world's farmland or more than 1%
of the world's people. Previously United Kingdom, France, Poland, and Spain
were above 1% and listed but now Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Niger are listed
instead because African populations increased much more than European. The updated tables
posted in 2023 show either that few people wanted to move or that, if people
tried to move, placists forced them to stay in their place.
Speciesism is a belief that animal
species have different rights than humans. Many Buddhists and vegetarians are
not speciesists. Animals often have more rights, such as the right to migrate.
Insects, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and most mammals can cross national
borders in either direction with no passport. Placists only force humans to
stay in one place. The place you were born is often not the best place to live.
Other species are smart enuf to figure that out and many animals migrate to any
place they choose.
Abraham Lincoln fought against racism but suggested using placism
to keep races apart. He favored letting slaves return to places their ancestors
had come from, such as Liberia, or move to Haiti. But “A review of Abraham
Lincoln’s speeches, writings, and political actions confirms he was dedicated
to the idea of free and open borders throughout his political career” (Klitzman, 2019).
Lincoln in the following quote from 1838 also correctly predicted that American
democracy could not be destroyed by foreigners but only by Americans choosing
to destroy their own country, as they tried to do in 1860:
“At what
point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify
against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean
and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa
combined… could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the
Blue Ridge, in the trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the
approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must
spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we
ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live
through all time, or die by suicide.”
In Europe, German democracy did die by suicide in 1933
when an elected leader became a dictator. He wanted his government to last
1,000 years but instead it lasted only 12 years until his own suicide. Hitler’s
use of fear, hatred, and violence caused many other governments to become
allies to defeat his strategies. After World War II, the Soviet Union, also
ruled by a dictator, divided Europe into 2 places with 2 sets of rules and put
up a wall to keep people in their place. That wall lasted only 28 years until
the people of eastern Europe broke free and began migrating again. Europeans
stopped being placists on November 9, 1989.
Melania Knauss Trump grew up on the Soviet side of divided Europe.
A civil war split her home country of Yugoslavia into 6 places beginning in
1991, leaving her in the smaller place of Slovenia. In 1996, she came to the
United States on a visitor visa and earned $20,000 for modelling before getting
permission to work. She was not the worst of the worst, but according to Fox
News she
could have been deported for her criminal conduct. Donald may have wanted
to deport her, but I did not want to deport Melania because I did not believe
in needing permission to work. As an immigrant, Melania may not be a placist,
but her husband certainly is.
In 1996, Bob Miller advised me that governments could let most
people in but should at least do some background checks to stop the few that
might want to harm us or our government. But I agree more with Lincoln. Foreign
invaders have not taken any territory away from our democratic nation, but
racist fellow citizens in 1860-65 almost took half of U.S. territory away. They
tried to split our states into 2 places with 2 sets of rules.
In 2021, our Capitol was severely attacked not by foreigners but
by a mob of Americans called to Washington by a President who hates the rules
of democracy. In 2024, half of Americans voted to destroy democracy by suicide.
They voted for a candidate who called a free press the enemy of the people,
promised to be a dictator on day 1, and said he would release his criminal mob
from jail, thus proving that the rule of law and democracy mean little to him
or to his followers. Our country has more to fear from the family in the White
House than from any foreigner. Usually, we put people in the White House who
will preserve our rights rather than take them away.
Please Erase Racism and Placism
In the United States, we do not let
local, state, or national governments restrict each American to live in a
certain place. In Europe, since 1992, citizens of each nation are also citizens of
Europe. Local and national governments must allow them to move from place
to place across country borders. People convicted of serious crimes within the
United States or Europe or any country can be placed in jail for a time before
continuing their life’s journey to the places they choose. We can free our
minds by voting for governments that do not force other people’s bodies to
remain in one place forever.
If asked, voters will approve free
migration across Earth just like voters did across Europe in 1992 and voters
did across the United States in 1789. Several South American countries recently
adopted free migration, and African countries are beginning this process also.
But some countries such as China still restrict movement of their own citizens
within their own borders. Earth can choose to move forward like the colonies in
America and the countries in Europe already did. You and I can both become
citizens of earth.
We can erase placism from our minds, like most people tried to
erase racism from their minds during and after the 1960s. It is easy. Explain
it to your family and friends or just say to yourself “I am not a placist.”
When you see someone new, do not try to put them in their place. When you meet
a human, just smile, or say “I am pleased to meet you” or ask “How are you
doing?” or “How may I help you?” instead of “Where are your papers?” Life is
better when you and I are not chained to a place and when we also let other
humans improve their lives by moving from place to place.
References
Definition of
PLACIST | New Word Suggestion | Collins English Dictionary
Trump's
wife worked illegally during her first weeks in the US, documents show | Fox
News
History of Liberia -
Wikipedia
Lincoln
to Slaves: Go Somewhere Else – Pieces of History
Klitzman,
2019. Lincoln
and Immigration - President Lincoln's Cottage | A Home for Brave Ideas
Freedom of movement -
Wikipedia
European Union
citizenship - Wikipedia
Freedom
of movement under United States law - Wikipedia
Citizenship of
the Mercosur - Wikipedia [South America]
Why
don't all Africans have free movement within Africa? – DW – 07/17/2025
Outdated
‘urban passports’ still rule the lives of China’s rural citizens
Report:
Nicaragua, China, India among 55 countries that restrict freedom of movement
Your
statement 'Placism is worse than racism' is absolutely correct, and it is valid
not only in the USA but also in China. Let me tell you about my painful
experience with 'Placism' in China before I migrated out of my birth country in
1989.
To
be honest, I had not been aware of any social disadvantages of being minorities
until I went abroad, where I have suddenly become a visible minority. But back
in China during my 23 years of life, I looked like the same as all the people
surrounding me and there was no need for me to think about any issues related
to the minorities in my home country.
I
was born in a remote and relatively poor village in Northern China.
Because of the century-old, good tradition of Chinese education system, I left
my parents' house at age of 13 to attend the best high-school in my
county. The first thing I noted immediately was that I was laughed at because
of my local dialect. The classmates from the county town felt somewhat
superior. Through the three high-school years, we eventually became
friends.
Some
inhabitants of the city of Beijing, the Capital of China, usually call their
countrymen from outside Beijing as 'WaiDiRen' (people from foreign regions).
The phrase is not as humiliating as 'alien', but certainly it inserts a
giant gap between the aboriginal Beijingers and those
immigrated foreigners from the other regions of China. Even today, a young
woman from Beijing would rather stay being single for her whole life than being
married to a young man from other region without a residential permit in
Beijing. Placism is not as evil as racism, but it hurts many more people.
This
is the story I'd like to share with you on placism. I feel great that both
of us share so much the world views. I feel so delighted when reading your
diaries or notes. Keep writing!
Zengting Liu
[Germany]
Return to The Right To Migrate