posted by Sam and Michelle
Post your 450 word (minimum) comment and 100 word (minimum) response to a classmate. You should be responding to the lectures about immigration. You can write anything you want about whatever you hear in the lectures.
23
Jun
I get extremely upset when I hear people speak about immigrants because more than half the time people are just talking out of their behinds. People hear things on TV from other people who really don’t know what they are talking about and base their own opinions on a particular issue, from someone else’s view point, which is very stupid. Before speaking on any issue everyone should actually take the time to investigate an issue thoroughly before addressing it. For example the man ranting about how illegal immigrants are the scum of the earth, and all that crazy BS, he is an complete and total idiot and that is all I can say about him. First and for most I can honestly say that about seventy-five percent of the people that I know personally are immigrants or are descendants of immigrants. In my opinion immigrant people are the hardest working group of people that you will ever meet, and I can almost say that is a fact but there are no absolutes in sociology as the professor stated so I will just say one of the most. Immigrants come to America in search of a better life, and like Americans are in pursuit of the “American dream”. How can you penalize people for wanting better lives for themselves and their families?
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itsthatguy10 Reply:
July 4th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
07/04/10
I agree completely that the ranting guy is an idiot, but there is no solace in recognizing that another person is an idiot. The best you can do is to understand why they think the way they do. As we have seen in class anti-immigration sentiment pops up whenever there is a bad turn in the economy and which ever group of people are immigrating at the time are the ones that are blamed. It is a part of the human condition where we need to assign blame to someone whenever something bad happens. People are uncomfortable with accepting the fact that life is random and chaotic so they force themselves to create patterns and reasoning to explain their problems. So when they lose their job and at the same time notice there are more immigrants in their neighborhood it is very easy for someone to draw the conclusion that they are related. Once you are able to understand where a person is coming from to make such stupid statements then you can move beyond the inanity of their comments.
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People often get so hung up on what they believe are the negative aspects of immigration, that they forget all the positive contributions that immigrant people and “non Americans” have made to America as a nation and American culture. The first immigrants in America were Europeans, therefore all white people in America are essentially descendants of immigrants. It is mind boggling to me why the people who are against illegal immigration go so hard trying to fight against illegal immigration when they are not “real Americans” in the way that they interpret being a “real American”. In my opinion the fight against illegal immigration is just another way to be racist and discriminate against people who are not white. There are illegal immigrants from all over the world not just Latin America, yet you never hear people fighting about illegal French immigrants or illegal Scottish immigrants or any other European nation, you only hear about groups that are not white.
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Easygoing96 Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 3:37 am
7/4 I agree with your idea of how people tend to just regurgitate a lot of information they hear and form their opinions on often time, misguided facts. I'm not trying to excuse them, but it is sometimes hard to get all the facts, when you have so many sources of information (especially with the internet nowadays) that can all be wrong. Like Sam I don't think that we can just open our borders to everyone all the time, things just wouldn't work if we did that, but I definitely see the emphasis on immigration from Latin and Central American countries than from anywhere else. And yes, immigrants are what this country was composed of and its interesting how we are now making laws to keep out other immigrants. I do agree that there is a lot of discrimination in immigration laws and a lot of these laws tend to stem from fear of the "other. As soon as something starts going wrong, American's need a scapegoat, and immigrants are the easiest target to turn against. Because its easy to forget all the contributions they have made to this country and easier to see them as the problem.
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I cannot count the number of times I have heard people complain about Middle Eastern immigrants getting all the “good jobs” like engineers and doctors, or people complain about every company outsourcing to India, or Spanish people taking all the minimum wage jobs. White people have a problem with non white people, especially those who are not from America excelling and that is the real problem. In my opinion it’s not the fact that these people are illegal immigrants, it’s the fact that they are immigrants period that creates an issue, and because you cannot just outwardly express your hate for foreign people the way that people do about illegal immigrants unless you will be seen as a racist, people use the illegal part to make it okay to hate people who are not “American” especially those who are black and brown, who are not “American”. This is very sad but very true, take a moment to think of the last “white” illegal immigrant you heard someone rant about, I can’t think of any can any of you?
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7/4/10
Topics like these cause a lot of confusion for me. It’s not that I do not understand the topic, like immigration in America, it’s that I cannot understand at all how some people reach the conclusions that they have reached. Richards mentioned some of the common arguments people make against immigration, like how immigrants are not looking to assimilate and they refuse to learn English. As Richards pointed out pretty much every group of immigrants from the Irish to Mexicans acts the same way and are treated the same way. No group has stepped onto American soil and instantly dropped their culture and identity and instantly become “American”. Where do people get the idea that their Irish Catholic ancestors came to America and assimilated right into America and were accepted by the people who were already living here? Where does this assumption come from or can it be fully attributed to people re-writing history to make themselves look and feel better? I can understand why people would want to tweak their memory slightly so as to comfort themselves about something that happened in the past, but some people take it so far it is hard to comprehend how they pull it off. For example the lady with the sign that said “Hispanics keep out” I wonder how someone could be so ignorant. I wonder if she is willfully ignorant of the hypocrisy of that sign or whether she is just plain ignorant. It does not take a college class like Soc 119 to realize that all of the land she claims is “her land” once belonged to Native Americans. Maybe she really is stuck in stage one and is unable to make the connection, I personally just find it dumbfounding. But it is not like she is alone in this; we all participate in the re-writing of history. Every year we celebrate thanksgiving and act like everything was nice and peaceful between the Europeans and the Native Americans. Every year children in elementary school are taught about thanksgiving but the horrible things America has done to the Native Americans are left out. Most people learn at least parts of our true history but we still participate in things like thanksgiving. In this way we are participating in the re-writing of history. Obviously we cannot change what has happened in the past but there are still things we can do short of every non Native American packing up and leaving. By spreading knowledge to other people and not acting willfully ignorant you can spread our real history and not continue pretending that a lie is true. It may be much but it is at least something and can give the people that you know a greater perspective that can be applied to many more aspects of their lives.
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All my life, I have never fell for these extreme movements against the media and that we never get to know the truth. I never believed that we are always getting the truth 100% of the time, but I believed that those movements were a little more enthusiastic about it than they should be. That they usually distort and magnify the issue of our misinformation, and I have been gradually starting to question myself and see if I was wrong about what I think about this whole issue. I believe I was wrong, and that I am so extremely misinformed that I may need to spend a lifetime to replace the potentially wrong information with the right ones. I believe what we know about many disciplines and studies are following the agenda of the authors who did not take in consideration how bad it is to serve one’s own interest instead of preserving the truth. So President Andrew Jackson did all these savage crimes, and thought it was the right thing. I thought barbaric crimes were exclusively for Muslims throughout history. I no longer know whom to trust. From one side, I get to hear that the Westerners have committed violent crimes that nobody could ever approve of to access to the resources and land that they are on right now, and the other side tells me my people have always preferred violence and oppression as a way to expand their state. I have been switching teams for a while, condemning each party at a certain time of my life. But now, I do not really know what to think about the whole issue since I really do not know what is true and what is not.
Another point that I found interesting was that when Professor Richards said that businesses control the American policies regarding immigration and who gets in and who does not. I think that businesses not only control the immigration policies, but nearly control all the policies and laws in the United States. What about universal healthcare and how insurance companies made the Republican party a “subsidiary of the insurance industry” as Congressman Anthony Weiner said about them. He also said that he cannot think of a single Republican who is not bought by corporations. I am not trying to dump on Republicans, and I am 100% sure that there are many politicians of other parties who are influenced by corporations, but what I am concerned about is how long will it take until the United States takes control of itself and diminish the power and influence of corporations on the government and the people. Why couldn’t the United States be like Canada or other countries where corporations are not as powerful as they are in the US.
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July 4, 2010
The second I saw the topic of this lecture I was very interested in hearing what Dr. Richards had to say. I admit I am one who until now did not fully understand immigration and thought this was mainly a political issue. After all, this is what the media makes this issue out to be. Until this lecture, I had very strong opinions on immigration, most of which were negative. I felt that if people were coming to this country, they should AT LEAST learn our language. I sometimes find it rude when people do not use our language in our country.
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July 4, 2010
Now I can say I have a better understanding of WHY people come here and have a better understanding of immigration’s background. I thought it was very interesting that Dr. Richards pointed out that no matter what, people hold on to some part of their own culture. I think it important to realize that my relatives, who came here from Europe, did not drop their culture immediately after coming to America. How hypocritical is it of me then to complain about immigrants not adapting to our culture? I think if everyone realized this we would be a little more welcoming of immigrants, or at least more willing to help immigrants learn our language and adapt to our culture.
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July 4, 2010
I was completely oblivious to the concept of businesses controlling immigration policies. It is funny because my friend’s uncle picks up Mexican immigrants every day to work for him and his business. It is true that immigrants are willing to work for less; I believe this is the reason as to why so many Americans are frustrated with them. The cost of living in the United States is extremely high. I live in New Jersey in a county with one of the highest tax rates in the entire country. Of course, people in this area expect to be paid more because they need the money to afford their houses. However, immigrants are willing to do our jobs for much less and this takes away OUR opportunities for jobs and OUR abilities to upkeep our households. So while immigrants may help business owners, it hurts us legal citizens who are trying to work for small business owners. At least I understand now why the free market likes immigrants.
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July 4, 2010
The background of immigrants slide was very eye-opening. I was shocked to read that over fifty percent of African American immigrants had college degrees. I honestly forgot about the previous lectures when Dr. Richards talked about how many immigrants from Africa and the Middle East are highly educated. If these are the people coming in to our country, should we not welcome them? Those with college degrees would certainly be beneficial to businesses. Then again, are these educated immigrants trying to take the jobs of American citizens? Perhaps this is why the issue of immigration is so difficult to address; it seems like a lose-lose situation in trying to reform immigration policies. I agree with Dr. Richards that whatever we have now in the free market works.
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July 4, 2010
I was extremely struck by the KKK video. I cannot believe the numbers of Klan members who were recruited. If four million was the high point back then, I could only imagine what that number would have risen to now had the KKK retained the power it once had. In the Hispanics video, I was not surprised by the woman with the sign. I have seen a lot of people vocalize their dislike of immigrants. My uncle actually has a sign on his car that reads “Can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em,” which he claims refers to immigrants who reproduce and take all of our tax dollars and health services. I think again these are sticky situations… people are righted freedom of speech, yet I believe they should do so in a constructive manner and not in a way that raises anger and hate, like the one video showed of the man who appeared to have too much caffeine.
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July 4, 2010
The last segment on immigration leading to transformation was very interesting. I personally think it is great that immigrants are so connected to their families, as families are highly responsible for how we are socialized. Furthermore, the innovations that immigrants could bring could be extremely beneficial to our society. Now my stance on immigration is more back-and-forth than ever. While I can see and have seen how immigrants affect our workforce, I do not simply see their presence as negative anymore. It is true that the costs and benefits of illegal immigrants truly balance themselves out. So, what do we do? I honestly could not propose a full-fledged solution yet. However, for now I believe we should make more of an effort to welcome immigrants and should certainly document all immigrants coming in and out of the country. I agree with Dr. Richards that illegal immigration is not good. If we could make these illegal immigrants legal (or at least know who is living in our country) I think the situation would improve.
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Immigration is an issue that has been a problem for as long as I can remember (basically since before I was born.) It is not a democratic issue nor a republican issue it is just an issue in itself. People just assume that Mexicans are a majority of our immigrants. To be honest that is exactly what I thought too until proven otherwise. The facts prove that Mexicans are not the majority and I found that very shocking until I actually thought about it and realized Italians and Irish people (which is my culture and heritage background) can be immigrants too but since I am as well as the rest of my family considered Americans now I forget that they were once immigrants.
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I agree with Dr. Richards when he spoke that people who are immigrants are not going to change there culture just because they moved somewhere else. I hate people that can not speak English when they come into my work ( which is retail) but I never think to myself that maybe they just moved here and don’t want to change to please others (which I fully understand and respect.) Although I can see there point it does not mean that if I went to another country I would not at least try to change my ways to make things either for the people living there as well as myself.
The statement made by Dr. Richards that struck me by surprise when he stated, “ Poor people are a problem like immigrants.” I think its true to a certain point but overall I think that statement was inappropriate. I think it was terrible throwing the poor people under the bus. Being poor sometimes isn’t a choice and I understand living with poor people is a pain is the butt but sometimes people can work so hard everyday yet are still poor.
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Growing up a bit on the poor side I took a little offense to that statement although I realize it was not directed to me and I probably should not have taken offense to it I did but some people honestly do not choose to be poor in some cases.
Congo the dog is a very sad story but at the same time I can understand it. Although the man was working minding his own business I can see where the people are coming from wanting to save the dog. Now don’t get me wrong I find it to be completely racism but he is illegally here so getting as much as he did get is great. The dog should not be killed because he does not seem like that much of a threat if the owners are going to keep a close eye on him. The dog was completely wrong but he should not be punished to death because he did not kill the man . I guess this is my pet loving self speaking but I can see where the people who want the dog to live point is coming from because the man was here illegally and the owners can watch there dog more carefully from now on.
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Part 1
I think this lecture was really important for the understanding and moving forward of race relations. Immigration is an important topic in today’s politics and is a major issue along the US and Mexico border. Many people are too busy looking at the negative parts of immigration and are not seeing the importance of immigration to the country and what it stands for. The first people to immigrate to America are Europeans. It is important to understand that when Europeans first came to America they didn’t just start acting like Americans. Many of our traditions in America come from other cultures around the world. Immigration is an important aspect of America. This is true even in today’s culture. In truth without immigrants America would never be what it is today. The Native Americans would still have rights to all the land and technology would not be what it is today.
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Part 2
With illegal immigration at the forefront of politics, it is hard for some American’s to understand that the people who immigrate to America today are not going to dive into our culture. The immigrants come in with their own languages, traditions and culture. Just like the Europeans did hundreds of years ago. I know when my Great- Grandfather immigrated from Germany after the First World War he didn’t speak English. Also he moved into the German section of the city. He was allowed time to fully submerge into our American culture. Although he never fully forgot his German traditions and culture he became American. I still remember, 11 years after his death, the German song we used to sing together whenever I went over to his house.
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Part 3
I know as an individual I need to understand that immigrants are not going to submerge into American culture right away and some many never submerge. I do find it frustrating at times that people do not know how to speak English and that I have to press 1 for English at ATMs but I need to understand that if I lived in a different country I would not stop speaking my native language.
Although I believe at sometimes that we should shut down immigration into the country completely because of our economic crisis, I also know that if immigration gets shut down American culture would not be the same. I struggle at times understanding why some Americans believe it is okay for illegal immigration because I feel illegal immigrants who are getting paid under the table are taking jobs away from American citizens. I think that this is hurting our economy because now American citizens are receiving higher income tax. I do believe that immigration is good for our country and I would never truly want to shut down the borders; however at times I find immigration frustrating.
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I like how this lecture started out on sort of a lighter note, but very quickly shifted. Yes, the cartoons are funny, but they do have a very important message. What the European settlers did was in fact terrorism. Their doors were broke down. They were forced to change. That seems slightly back words, doesn’t it? Whenever anyone today visits a foreign country or land, they don’t force the people around them to act differently or speak their language do they? I can’t fly to Italy, pick out a nice house, move in, and then begin yelling at my neighbors. I can’t scream at them to speak English, or to do everything as I do. They would think I was a whack job. Well, isn’t this very similar to what happened to the Native American people? I never actually thought of it like that. I always thought of it as “yea ok, the land was taken, but we weren’t that horrible to them.” I never looked into the Native American’s history. I always had just heard about “America The Brave.” America, the country that fought for its freedom, not the country that took and destroyed them. Jackson talking about the things that they did to those people I was speechless. Holy Shit…That’s all that came to mind. How sick and deluded does someone have to be to do something like that!?! Why would they cut off noses for a body count? I’m sure that there are much, much easier ways to do something like that. The thought of removing pieces of human flesh, and scalps as a show of pride is pure barbarity. I am almost shocked. All I ever heard about was how America was always threatened and had to fight people who did so. What did these people do? They had land we wanted. So let’s go kill them. Sounds like a goo idea. You know what? My neighbor has a nice yard, I think I will scalp him and call it my own, then say I was the hero of that. I’ll just say he was a danger to my freedom. There is a difference between freedom, and greed. You can’t just take something, and when someone says no, you call it a violation of YOUR freedom. Well what about THEIR freedoms. Nobody likes poor people, unless you can exploit them. Yes, poor people do get on my nerves at times. Often the people, who break into homes to steal things, or rob people, are poor. So there are reasons why there can be some hard feelings, but I don’t think that that is race segregated. If I lived with someone who was poor and didn’t pay their bill, I wouldn’t care what race they belonged to. I know a lot of poor white people where I am from. There are also a lot of poor Latino people as well. The fact that most immigrants are rather wealthy also seems to be a worldwide thing. Often to move to another country, without having a job ready when one gets there, requires a great deal of money no matter where you are from. Business rules almost everything. If you have the money, you can go wherever you please, but if you don’t you better have a good use. It’s something that is almost impossible to find equilibrium. Money makes the world go round, it also makes people not look clearly into what matter. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Yea right, that doesn’t apply so much anymore, now does it. America the land of Hypocorisms.
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7/4 I knew we were a country of immigrants and I know some of the history of immigration laws but definitely not to the extent in this lesson. It was really interesting to go through all the laws and amendments throughout the birth-place of this place we now call the United States. I thought it was crazy how all the discrimination was so obvious in the laws and how that was that was the only way people “felt safe”. The laws even went as far as being called “Operation Wetback”. That is pretty offensive and it was the actual political name used for this campaign. In the articles (Shadowboxing with Race) there was a really good point made: “Each period of anti-immigration sentiment has coincided with a loss of confidence in the cohesion and resilience of the American nation.” (Shadowboxing 109) People do some really crazy things when they feel threatened and they always need a scapegoat, so of course it’s natural for them to choose “them”. When you don’t understand someone or the culture they come from, you can feel threatened by them, of course this depends on where you are in terms of stages of race. What really got to me in the reading was the amount of racial profiling that occurred during the duration of a lot of the immigration laws. For example, they would just take people who looked Mexican and deport them, and many of them were U.S. citizens, but their rights were taken away because the “security and progress” of the nation was at stake, so naturally we had no time to give rights to these people, even though the country was founded on this idea of freedom and democracy. I liked what Sam was saying about how business and large landowners have shaped our immigration policy. I guess I never really paid attention, but its true that border patrol security tightens and loosens depending on how our economy is doing and whether or not we need cheap labor. Article 14: Phantom Menace was really interesting, talking about this hysteria on people’s fears when it comes to illegal aliens. “…there are many places where there are relatively few illegal immigrants, but where Americans are nevertheless apoplectic about illegal immigration” (Shadowboxing 106) I never really understood why people in certain areas of the U.S. were so upset about the immigration problem, when they didn’t really have illegal immigrants in that area. But again it comes around to the whole idea of people needing a scapegoat when things are going wrong. Even if that scapegoat is no where near the problem. I feel like, even though we have made a lot of progress as a country, this whole issue on immigration will never really find a solution. There will always be a reason for someone to be unhappy and to continue to blame problems on immigrants.
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As with all of the lectures, I also found this one interesting for several reasons. One reason was that the very topic of immigration is one that is very current right now especially with what is going on in Arizona. When you think about what the United States is supposed to stand for, one of those things is for immigrants to come into this country and experience the "American Dream." Right now, you have many speaking out against immigration and specifically calling for more immigrations laws and enforcement of those laws. What is the real problem? Why are people so intimidated by immigrants looking to come to this country to make a better life for themselves and their families? I’ve heard many arguments against immigration, and many of these arguments really don’t make a lot of sense. Then, many people will try and distinguish between the immigrant who is here legally from the immigrant that is here illegally. To be honest, everyone’s background within this country involves ancestors immigrating to this country or being forced to come to this country unless you are an American Indian.
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(cont'd) Another thing that I find interesting is how many Americans want to accuse immigrants of taking "their" jobs. What exactly are "their" jobs, and where did this sense of entitlement come from? What makes people think just because they live somewhere that they are automatically entitled to something? Some of the jobs that illegal immigrants have are domestic work in which American citizens employ illegal immigrants to perform work “under the table” in which the immigrants perform work without taxes being taken out, and employers don’t pay any employment taxes. Without Americans agreeing to this type of work arrangement in the first place, this would not be able to go on. So, don’t these Americans have some culpability in all of this?
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(cont'd) When I hear people complaining how there are "no jobs" available, it makes me wonder what they are talking about. I see jobs available all the time. While it may be the case that some of those jobs are not desirable, it is not true that there are “no” jobs available. There are many Americans that refuse to accept or take on any job just to make ends meet. Instead, many of them would rather state that there just aren’t any jobs available when this is not the case. Then, you look at some of the immigrants, and they are more than happy to staff these vacancies. The fact is that the economy is still struggling right now and that there are some jobs available, yet some people who are unemployed choose to be very selective in the type of work they would accept. What does this say about the mentality of some of the people in this country? Before people continue to blame many of the problems on the immigration laws, each person should think about the number of jobs that Americans turn down because lack of occupational prestige or some other aspect of the job that they dislike.
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Blog Comment for Grade. Lesson 13 – Immigration. July 4th, 11:16pm
I had pretty much banked on this lecture being interesting and informative. I have always had a lot of different thoughts/opinions on immigration not to mention all the talking in the media at the moment – especially with Arizona's new law. One thing I noticed the Dr. Richards said very early on was the U.S. History (at least its books) have misconstrued facts about its history. U.S. History books are intentionally written to show a story that hides the deprivation and genocide that took place on our soil. So, my question is how does any ONE person find the true history of the United States? If every book is written with how the author views our history, then how do we ever know what is factual and what isn't? It certainly is not possible to ask anyone who was around back in the 18 and 1900's, so where do we turn for non-biased information?
I do think that it is quite difficult to come up with an immigration policy, at least one that appeases to everyone's needs. Truth of the matter is, you cannot make everyone happy at the same time. It just isn't possible. Someone will disagree or feel oppressed. I think the trouble is that those in the political arena want to create laws more so to satisfy their own political agendas than what will really solve the underlying issues with immigration. One thing I noticed is Dr. Richards' insistence that our business world is what dominantly shapes our immigration policies. "We" need immigrants to do the jobs that most do not want to do and if they did, they wouldn't want to do it for cheap – dirty jobs, to some, should yield a higher paycheck. Immigrants tend to not be on that level – they will work for lower wages doing the dirty jobs and business owners (at all levels) will gladly pay the cheap wages and sweep their status' under the rug.
Congo the Dog. That was pretty interesting – the facts and circumstances of that case is what I mean. To answer Dr. Richards' question, no I do not think the assemblyman would have initiated that bill/law if it was a white person who was attacked. However, I also feel that it would not have been initiated if the person who was attacked was legal – no matter the race or ethnicity. I think the public has an issue with an illegal immigrant receiving a 250K settlement from the insurance company, I think that infuriates a whole lot of people. It certainly makes my eyes widen just a smidge. I mean, if I went to Mexico and I was attacked by someone's animal down there, would anyone want to extend help my way or want to see justice done for me? I'd venture to say (and this is based off of time I've spent in Mexico, no not at resorts either) that they would welcome nothing for me except me getting what I deserved and that I had no right to be there anyways. I have had friends go to Mexico and be beaten and robbed by Mexican authorities…where is their settlements? Where is their sympathy for the people of Mexico?
The Rant. Well, I have to say, I can appreciate what this guy thinks of illegal immigration. While I think he could go about it in a more productive way, it is not like he a political figure, so why does he need to be calm in the assertion of his feelings? I agree with him; our country is harboring illegal immigrants, nobody can deny that fact and he is not wrong for bringing that to our attention. I also think he made a good point in that if you knowingly hire an escaped convict you are harboring a fugitive/convicted felon but it is okay if you knowingly hire an illegal immigrant? It sometimes makes me wonder what some people would do if they lost their cushy jobs sitting behind their desks in air conditioning and had to go out and look for those lower-level/lower-paying jobs…if their family's livelihood depended on it…but they lost out to an illegal immigrant – how would that shift their views on these so called "rights" of illegal immigrants?
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Although I guess it is not a good trait to possess, I can without a doubt say I am generally not very educated on the current events and issues taking place in our society. Unless it is a major problem, or directly effects my way of life (or at least that I notice it effecting me), I seem to shut it out. I don’t really even watch the news or read the paper, beyond my local town’s dramatics. This also rings true about my knowledge of immigration. So overall, I can’t really say that I have a formed or educated opinion on the topic, even after lecture. However, as usual, lecture was very interesting – in this case particularly to hear about immigration from the business standpoint.
The first thing that really “caught my eye” was the cartoons Dr. Richards displayed in the beginning of class. I always enjoy how he can incorporate humor into lecture and at times break things down to a simpler level. However, these cartoons really struck me. My favorite was definitely the one where the native American was saying “I’ll help you pack”. It is so overlooked (as I truly never put in any thought to it) that Europeans “discovering” America were the first immigrants. And when Dr. Richards said that it was actually terrorism, I completely agree. It just angers me sometimes how hypocritical our society can be and how easily we can forget exactly what our forefathers did in the past decades.
The other thing I want to talk about is those people that say/think “if you are going to move to America – be American (i.e. speak English, wear American clothes, etc). Being honest, I once agreed with this idea. However, when I really put myself in their places, my thoughts have changed. If I were to be thrown into another country, I would not be able to speak that language or conform to their customs immediately. America is the “poster country”. And by this I mean we pride ourselves on our freedoms, democracy and acceptance for others. However, I really don’t think that it is true for the majority of our society. So many people are so quick to criticize others, especially in the case of immigrants, before actually considering the perspective of the other individuals or groups. We are becoming more and more hypocritical every day, and ruining the reputation we pride ourselves on as Americans.
Overall, I don’t really have much to say on the actual issue at hand of immigration – simply because I don’t think my opinion would even make much sense. But what I can say, which is true of many issues that have been brought up throughout this class, it is something that I will be definitely paying more attention to in the future.
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First thing that I thought of in the beginning of the lecture was the idea that
‘every culture if going to write their history books in favor of them”, the idea that it is the vision we ideally want to see, not so much what we want others to see. Why would we want our people to hear about the death and despair. It made me think of how true this is especially in the news media. Think of what we see on the news about the war in Iraq or any American story about foreign countries. We are always better than them. We are always just America the great and freedom riders. We help third world countries and build schools to give chances to poor children. The war is made to look rational, helpful and like we are not the bad ones. We are made to view Iraq and Iran as made up of bad people. It is made to look like they are all terrorists over there and that their government is corrupt and the country is just out of control. Thank god America is so in control and is based on freedom, right? We rarely are exposed to the views of the foreign land that show the country in light. We won’t hear about the good things they are doing. We will not see them glorified. Our history books will not show the death and destruction we have caused over there. Why would we want our people to see that, and our government doesn’t. But on the other side, In Iraq and Iran I am sure they only want their people to see the good and that America is the bad ones. They do not want terrorism seen in their history books, they want the Americans labeled as the “Christian Invaders”, trying to forcefully convert their people. Every culture will do this. The truth is hard to admit. The truth of how cultures have gained and maintained culture is altered. History can not be changed, but it can be covered up. It can be hidden and sugar-coated. It can be directed in anyway a controller really wants as long as it has followers. There are something’s we just can not control. I wish the news could be more truthful, as an person who furthered their education, I know that the news is sensationalized. I know not to believe half the crap I hear and to read between the lines. I know to view the news in a critical way. But what about the population that is not educated that way. It is almost like they are brain washed to view the news in a way to highlight America. They thrive on the American pride and way of life. Why would the government want to educate people to not believe the news. Plus the government also steers the news information in favor of the government.
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Funny enough, Americans do not do assimilation. Anytime we travel outside of our cozy little comfort zone of a country, we hem and haw the whole time about how things don’t look, smell, taste, or function as they do back home. As can often be typical of our beloved country in matters of patriotism, we are totally hypocritical on the flip side when it comes to people immigrating to our country. Many Americans expect people immigrating to this country to assimilate fully, practically to the point of patriotically cloaking themselves in the flag the second they touchdown. Interestingly enough, as our professor points out during lecture, we didn’t assimilate when we stole the red man’s land, why should we force everyone else to? Is that the only way to ensure order in such a great melting pot? Or are we just so steeped in arrogance that it basically boils down to one of the most basic of human ultimatums – you’re either one of us, or one of them? I am not saying that we should just open up the floodgates and let it be a cultural free-for-all. I just think that we should have a little more tolerance for those that have a cultural perspective that is different from “ours”, particularly because all us other than the Native Americans are immigrants. Speaking of which, I would like to also touch on the whole “free-market” bullet point about thinking outside of the box in when it comes to immigration. Yes, I believe in free-market capitalism, and yes I realize that businesses and large landowners are the ones that have truly shaped our immigration policy. We’re the quintessential capitalist country for crying out loud! What I do not happen to agree with is the perspective that this is an “open-minded” viewpoint, or more to the point a viewpoint at all. I believe this to actually be a dirty little fact that nobody wants to discuss. I am talking about the fact that we talk about the free-market being sustained by immigration, but in reality it is our way of life that is sustained and fostered by the cheap labor that immigration provides. For this has always been the tradition of nation building in this great country of ours – use damn near free labor to “free” the market and tend to the land! As Professor Richard said, if you can’t exploit poor people, you don’t want them. It’s all good until Jose and Fatou want equal rights, health care options, and the ability to vote along with the taxes they pay, right? Right. I’m just saying that we can’t speak out of one side of our mouths about the wrongs of slavery and how this is the home of the free, all the while just refurbishing it and dressing it up in a modern day frock under the guise of competing with China. Let’s keep it real for once “America”!
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