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In the 1930s, the radio personality, Father Charles Coughlin accused an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers" for bringing on the Depression. In his popular radio broadcasts, he even quoted Joseph Goebbels, and defended the Nazi genocide. Rather than offer solutions to the deepening economic crisis, Coughlin chose to castigate President Franklin D. Roosevelt and others who sought to restore prosperity by creating jobs, instituting social security, and establishing a minimum wage.

In the 1940s and 1950s, fear of communist infiltration led to a witch hunt against intellectuals, socialists, and entertainers. Jews again found themselves disproportionately represented among those who lost their livelihoods and their reputations as a result of this fear-mongering.

During the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s, urban African-American communities found themselves blamed for sapping the resources of the federal government. The unsympathetic image of the "welfare queen" helped to drum up support for reductions in public benefits, despite the fact that most recipients of welfare were rural whites, and despite any evidence of widespread welfare fraud.

Immigrants have long been at the receiving end of scapegoating campaigns. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Know Nothing Party alleged that German and Irish immigrants were plotting a Vatican takeover of America. Later that century, the governor of California accused Chinese immigrants of lowering wage levels, and created punishing legislation aimed to curb the flow of these newcomers. In the twentieth and twenty-first century, anti-immigrant groups have sown fear that immigrants take jobs from "Americans," threaten the viability of the English language, and pose a terrorist threat. Leaders of such organizations propose ending or severely limiting immigration, granting local police wide leverage to detain and deport immigrants, and instituting English-only policies in schools and other public institutions. Some militants have even taken upon themselves the responsibility of patrolling the Mexican border, often with violent results.

While some groups and public personalities spend their time spewing rhetoric against Jews, immigrants, socialists, African-Americans, women, and other minorities, other groups and individuals seek positive means of responding to economic and social challenges. In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a major target of Father Coughlin's diatribes, instituted social security, created jobs, and established the nation's first minimum wage. Since the turn of the twentieth century, labor unions have engaged immigrants in campaigns for fair wages and safe working conditions. For decades, community groups have organized for affordable housing, better jobs, and quality schools. On the state and national level, advocacy organizations attempt to establish immigration laws that will respond to America's need for immigrant workers, allow for families to reunite, and protect immigrants from racially and ethnically-motivated violence.