I would disagree with your comments in that they paint current culture with brush from multiple centuries ago. Not that more recent xenophobia examples don't/can't exist but I wouldn't give them the primary effect. Especially for moderns mostly descended from folks who immigrated a century or so ago, long after all that stuff happened. And in modern culture the average poorly educated fool can barely tell the difference between Columbus and the Pilgrims.
My suggestion is its more likely to be stereotypical modern american rebellion. Give them freedom of religion, they rebel by becoming hard core fundamentalists. Give them economic opportunity and freedom and they rebel by turning themselves into cubical drones enslaved to bank loans. Give them free libraries and schools and they rebel by embracing ignorance as a chosen lifestyle. Give them freedom of the press from govt interference and at least some rebellious throwbacks will demand drone strikes against anyone opposed to oppressive programs.
Its a pretty effective stereotype. If you give an American something like XYZ, then you can pretty well assume dominant cultural desire will be for the opposite ABC as their natural first response. Logically weird, but observation proves it to be true in most cases.