I often say that the Black Liberation Struggle is a gift we've given to the United States.

I mean that literally because so many of the rights Americans take for granted today

grew out of Black people's effort to claim and define freedom in this country.

Probably the most consequential chapter in that story comes right after the Civil War.

When the US rewrote its constitution, we've talked about this period a lot on the show, the reconstruction amendments, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution.

Arguably the most consequential one, legally speaking at least, has been the 14th.

It established the idea of equality before the law.

And in its very first sentence, it did something radical. It said anybody born in the United States is a citizen of the United States.

That's called birthright citizenship and in the Trump era it is suddenly up for debate.

So in this episode, we ask,

what's it like to live in a country without birthright citizenship?

And a warning, the episode contains some profanity,

including a racist slur in both Italian and English.

So heads up if you do not want to hear that kind of thing right now.

I'm Kywright, and this is the United States of Anxiety,

a show about the unfinished business of our history

and its grip on our future. Yeah, U.S. You are. Oh, you are. Oh, oh, oh,

Oh, Oh, Oh,

Yes!

Yes we yeah.

And we yeah. And we yeah. Gofan and Puteu Boile is a reporter for the New Yorker radio hour and

Gofan you're also a lawyer. I am a lawyer.

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