The meaning of the expression “arriving with nothing but the clothes on their backs” is ambiguous (it appears to be clear enough – “very poor”, yet unclear after I searched Nothing but the clothes on their backs because the clothes could be expensive ( is such wearer very poor? Doubtful. The clothes may be the symbol of their culture).
As a highly visible indicator of racial progress, a well-educated Harvard Law-trained African American president is indeed threatening to dominant white status ( 54 , 55 ), while immigrants arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs apparently are not. For a dominant group to be threatened by an outgroup, the outgroup needs to be perceived as powerful. Traditional racial stereotypes of poor, uneducated, or unintelligent minority groups do not fuel the sense that one’s dominant group status is being challenged.
-PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
