German Americans publicly declared loyalty to avoid WWI-era discrimination

Evidence

Analogous to Muslims seeking to shield themselves from Islamophobia after the September 11 attacks, German Americans proclaimed their allegiance to the United States and opposition to Germany in an attempt to avoid discrimination and harassment. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 410

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The US public was deeply divided against entering WWI — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 152; Total war’s demands bred intolerance of any divided loyalty in America — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1218; Black Civil War service marked blacks as loyal Americans unlike other ‘foreigners’ — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 540