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Rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia across the United States and around the world was illustrated in Horry County about a year ago when the Conway Police Department investigated a report about alleged illegal activity by 鈥淢exicans.鈥�

The report turned out to be false; the investigation concluded there was no illegal activity and the initial descriptions on social media were fabricated. The Conway case was a classic example of xenophobia, fear and dislike of 鈥� and prejudice against 鈥� people from other countries (foreigners).

Xenophobia may come from racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, all recently rising globally; beyond social exclusion, it can result in economic discrimination, psychological trauma, and physical violence.

It鈥檚 certainly not a new behavior. This nation of immigrants persistently, since Colonial times, has exhibited xenophobia. A nation of immigrants at the same time expressing fear and hatred of foreigners.

In 1750, founding father Ben Franklin expressed concern that 鈥渓arge numbers of swarthy foreigners, speaking their own language among themselves, would swamp the colonies鈥� and their British subjects, according to the Tufts Now website. This was a generation before the colonies broke away in the American Resolution.

Franklin was worried about pre-Revolution Germans, who, then as now, look much like British people.

The ancient Greeks, who considered themselves and their culture superior to others, denigrated foreigners as barbarians and therefore intended them to be enslaved. The Japanese held their culture as superior to others, as they brutally invaded China in the 1930s. And Japanese superiority was not limited to other Asian cultures; it included some Japanese attitudes about Americans.

After the Japanese attacked Hawaii and other places throughout the Pacific, in December 1941, the United States reacted by arresting and putting in camps Japanese-Americans, many third and fourth generation citizens here, in one of the nation鈥檚 most egregious acts of xenophobia. Granted, we were at war.

Erika Lee, a professor at the University of Minnesota, describes xenophobia as 鈥渁 shapeshifting, wily thing just like racism. You think it鈥檚 gone away, and it comes back. It evolves so that even though one immigrant group finally gains acceptance, it can easily be applied to another.

鈥淎nd sometimes the group that just made it can be very active in leading the charge against the others.鈥� An example: Decades ago, newly accepted Irish immigrants demonized southern European immigrants, such as Italians.

Xenophobia is a form of racism, Lee says, that has been embedded in laws. It鈥檚 beyond bigoted talk about 鈥渢he Mexicans,鈥� which led to the false report in Conway.

Through digital storytelling, Lee leads an effort to help people see immigrants and refugees as fellow humans. The 鈥�350 Immigrant Stories鈥� profile immigrants as 鈥渞eal people, not stereotypes,鈥� Lee says. The profiles project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Increasing antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia remind us to be understanding and kind to our neighbors, regardless of where they鈥檙e from, their skin color, their clothing, their speech, their religion.

These traits may be our human nature, but they do not have to be if we remember to listen to our better angels.