Wednesday 23 March 2011

Presentation: Trespass & The Human Body.

This week, is the presentation of the book How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and how the two short stories I have chosen to do, have a sense of an American Identity, and the journey into it.

The first story I'm looking at is Trespass (page 150 - 165). The main character or perspective in this story, is from the Carla, who at the time of this story, is in the 7th grade and knows basic English (which I will talk about in a moment). The overall premise of the short story is that Carla and her family have been in America for a year and Carla has started attending a Public school, which is a few blocks away from her house. Here, at her new school, she is bullied by group of boys. She describes them as "They looked bland and unknowable, the way all Americans did. Their faces betrayed no sign of human warmth. Their eyes were too clear for cleaving, intimate looks." (page 154) She feels that that these boys look exactly as Americans did. She also watches them talk about cars, the different models and how fast they go compared to others. From here, the story takes a dark twist, with Carla walking home one day from school, where she is followed by some older man in a big green car. It is quite clear what is about to happen, he tries to lure her into the car, but with her basic English all she can say is "Excuse me?" (page 157). She notes that this man runs his words together like Americans do " "Whereyagoin?" he asked, running all his words together the way Americans always did." This is quite a large barrier for her, as she can only speak basic classroom English, she is not used to dealing with this born and bred American. Here her Spanish identity, is still very much intact. This can also been seen when the Policemen are interrogating her about what happened. She can hardly remember words, even in Spanish to describe the man. There is a language barrier between her and the Policemen.
Throughout the story as well, Carla is showing the first signs of Puberty, and she doesn't know what is happening. She is clear that she doesn't like what is happening to her body, wishing to wrap her body up, in the way that Chinese girls had their feet wrapped up (page 154). Her body changing, in a way is a huge metaphor, for the change in lifestyle, and her own adaptation to America. It says "She would stay herself, a quick, skinny girl with brown eyes and a braid down her back, a girls she had just begun to feel could get things in this world." The world she is referring to would be Mexico. Her body is changing, and in a way is shedding her old self, her old relations to her homeland and accepting this new land which is vaster and more prosperous. Yet it does come with its dangers. Her identity is changing, even if she wishes it didn't.

The second story I chose was The Human Body (page 225 - 238). The protagonist in this story is Yoyo (or Yolanda) she is the younger sister of Carla. From what I read, I think this story is set in Mexico. The overall plot of the story, finds Yoyo being forced into not playing with her cousin Mundin. Her grandparents who own a house in this plot, are generally away in New York for most of the time. But every time they come back to visit, they bring back presents for all the children. Each time, Yoyo would always get some new toy, or something to play with. Her auntie Tia Mimi goes with her grandparents as she is college educated and generally the smartest person in the family. On one of the visits back from New York, instead of toys, they all each receive a book. Mundin receives a plastic doll, that shows the anatomy of the human body. Yoyo is jealous he has something that is at least interesting. This in itself is quite interesting. As they are growing up, becoming more mature (or at least their parents wish they were) they are not receiving toys, but books. Objects that they could use to start an education. Seeing as the book is in English, Yoyo cannot read it that well (page 229). Without alerting their Auntie, their Grandmother, slips all the children toys she brought back with her. Mundin gets modelling clay, which Yoyo seems to be jealous of as well, seeing as she tries to trade with him for it, but he isn't interested in her presents. When she does sit down with the book she had been given, Yoyo actually finds it quite interesting, but Mundin comes up to her and decides to trade. But he wants to trade her the clay, for her to show him she is a girl. This is quite a leap forward, from playing with toys and fighting over them, to displaying your body for show (page 233). It is unclear whether Mundin has ulterior motives or is generally just curious. The whole ordeal doesn't last long at all (page 234 -235).
It can be said that throughout this story, it deals with Yoyo having to accept she is growing up. With the gifts that she received by her Auntie, the separation of her and Mundin by her parents, the forcing of her to undress. At the end of the story, the parents of Mundin, find them in the shed (fully dressed), angry she asks why they are in the shed, and Yoyo improvises and says the Guardia were on the property. I guess the Guardia were the secret police, that the family were trying to get away from. It seems that with the intrusion of the Guardia in the lives of this family and their children, everyone is forced to grow up earlier than they would like to.


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Monday 21 March 2011

Wednesday 16 March 2011

19 facts you didn't know about Immigration!

This week, we had to find two websites dealing with the South-West border immigration, with a website dealing with the pros of the situation, and one obviously, dealing with Anti-Latino immigration. I found this article dealing with creating a wall along the border, and it seems to be supporting the fact that, even if there is a wall there will still be illegal immigrants because there is labour on the other side of the wall that is better than their current situation.
This article deals with 19 facts people don't know about Immigration. It pretty much says that immigration is a national threat and the situation there is only going to get worse, but does occasionally say that immigration is good.

The first article explains that creating a wall between America and Mexico, is quite a bad idea. Even with this wall, there would still be illegal immigration, even if they have to climb the wall, or go under the wall. The article also says that the fact that in America, there is a lot of cheap labor that not a lot of Americans would do, the illegal immigrants take this labour and work for companies that willingly employ them because it is cheap. It doesn't matter to these immigrants that the work is minimum wage, due to the fact that it is far better than their situation in Mexico. The article does go on and say that it is quite impossible to control the border, with walls or how it is controlled today, as there will always be cracks where the immigrants would be able to seep through. Even if it is through the desert which is the longest and deadliest way of getting across the border, as they have to go 3 days and nights through a inhospitable landscape. The article also compares this wall to the Berlin wall "Taxpayer money should not be spent in useless strategies. The problem is always going to be there until BOTH governments create a solution. The expensive bandaid will have the same faith as the Berlin wall, although be do not know which side is going to tear it down first." I think the article is trying to say that illegal immigration isn't the end to America, or the way of life in America, but it is a problem that has to be fixed. But it needs both governments to work together to sort the situation instead one overpowering the border.

This is very different to the second article, where it says that illegal immigration is permanently destroying the South-West of America. It does say "The U.S. government has refused to control the U.S. border with Mexico for decades, and this has allowed millions of criminals, drug dealers and gang members to cross freely into the United States. Not only that, but our refusal to secure the border has allowed thousands (if not millions) of people that have very serious diseases into the country." This is pretty much condemning the government for not doing anything substitutional with this problem. The article also is complaining that America is keeping the border between North Korea and South Korea locked down with military, and why can they not do that with the Mexico Border. I find this quite surprising really, as surely it is the North Koreans keeping the border under military control? "What is most infuriating of all too many Americans is that these illegal aliens are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens. According to a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, legal and illegal immigrants gained over a million additional jobs between 2008 and 2010 even as millions of American citizens were losing their jobs during the same time period." This is overtly blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs for Americans presently, even though these Americans would probably wouldn't settle for minimum wage jobs. Then it lists the 19 facts that people do not know about immigration, which I won't put here, but you can view them here.

Overall I think both these articles do have great points from both sides. Though the first one doesn't blame problems on the immigrants, it tries to find a solution for the problems that would in a way benefit both parties. Even if it is quite difficult to come to a conclusion where both parties are happy. The second article seems to be pointing the blame, and not solving the problems. It pretty much says that there are jobs being taken away from good Americans because of these illegal immigrants, it doesn't cover the possibility of the immigrants lifestyle beforehand.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Latino Immigration- Pro and Anti websites

This week I will look and one pro and one anti-Latino immigration website. What I thought was interesting about this task was the fact that it was really easy to find an anti-Latino immigration website but quite hard to find a pro-Latino immigration website. Does this show that popular opinion is against immigration of Hispanic peoples (especially Mexico)?

I will start off by looking at the pro-Latino immigration website: http://www.hispanic8.com. This website is written by Jon Garrido, who as a Hispanic himself is very pro-immigration for Latino peoples. The website has lots of news, articles and links about Latin Americans but I will focus on an article titled ‘The Great Immigration Panic’ from 2008.

The article overall gives an impression that America has no right to deny Latinos entry to become citizens. At the start it says: ‘A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away’. This emphasizes the fact that America is a nation of immigrants so Latinos are the same as any other ethnicity/race therefore it is unjust that they are allowed to suffer. This idea is also demonstrated from the image they use (above): it shows the Statue of Liberty, which would welcome immigrants who were about enter through Ellis Island, this is striking because Mexicans cross through the border, not overseas therefore it’s almost like they were never wanted in the first place; they don’t have the same (symbolic) journey as other immigrant groups. The fact that it mentions how America is making it impossible for them to be legal immigrants further demonstrates how they feel unwanted and victimised. The article argues that every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation’s most deeply held values’. This suggests that, despite the unfair treatment, eventually Latin Americans will fit in with the rest of America just like other minority groups have done in the past; therefore there should be no panic that their immigration will change America.

Most of the article talks about how poorly they are treated. One example used is that of a raid at a meatpacking plant in Iowa, where hundreds of workers ended up in prison. It says that, ‘Civil-rights lawyers complained, futilely, that workers had been steamrolled into giving up their rights, treated more as a presumptive criminal gang than as potentially exploited workers who deserved a fair hearing. The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges’. This shows that the majority of companies face no punishment for hiring illegal immigrants and highlights the fact that businesses are benefiting from cheap labour which, in turn, helps the economy. Therefore, it suggests that Latin American workers benefit our country, doing the jobs that Americans don’t want to do, therefore they deserve to immigrate here and they shouldn’t be treated with such disrespect. As well as this, it mentions poor medical care and general poor standards of living. The article implies that little effective actions are being done to remedy this and unless the nation realises that ‘illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life’ then the issue will never be resolved.

The anti-Latino immigration website I chose was http://www.wesupportamerica.org/. This is the website for an organisation called We Support America: Advocates for Immigration Reform in Oregon and the United States of America. The very name suggests that they allowing Latin immigration is going against America; however, unlike the pro website, it doesn’t consider the fact that America is an immigrant nation. The website comprises of news, videos and links to other anti-Latino immigration organisations. I will focus on the homepage and the section called ‘Our View’.

The first notable thing on the homepage is quotes from speeches of Hispanic leaders like ‘You old white people it is your duty to die’ (the quote in large, bold on the website). This is supposed to lead the viewer into feeling threatened by the idea that Latin Americans are going to take over America. Other quotes reference the fact that Mexicans are regaining the land they lost in the Texan War of Independence 1835-6 and the Mexican-American War 146-8 and the increasing fertility rates. This reminds me of the statistic which was discussed in the lecture: by approximately 2050 ‘whites’ will be in the minority, thus making America a country of many minorities and no majority. These quotes are followed up by a mention of the February 15th 1998 US vs. Mexico soccer match in LA Coliseum when the majority of the crowd were Mexicans who ‘booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match’. This implies that if Mexicans did take over America that the welfare of ‘proper’ American citizens is at risk. It also says ‘When I was young, I remember hearing about the immigrants that came through Ellis Island. They wanted to learn English. They wanted to breath free. They wanted to become Americans’. This connotes that they don’t wish to be assimilated but that they will strip America of its identity, unlike immigrants beforehand.

Much of the focus of their argument is that they are draining the system whilst taking opportunities from Americans. It says, ‘Not only are they Stealing jobs from US Citizens (and Legal Aliens) they are Draining our social services, Flooding our schools, Over crowding our housing and medical services, Abusing our government lands, Smuggling illegal drugs, Overburdening our court systems, Befouling our parks, Terrorizing our Children, Ripping off our identities, Spawning violent gang members, Demanding free interpreters, Over taxing our law enforcement and emergency services, Making a mockery of our tax laws, Turning our streets and highways into unholy blood baths and more’. This quote seems extremely over the top, making it sound like America is a horrific, uninhabitable place and will keep going downhill as more and more Latin immigrants arrive; suggesting that we should feel threatened by Mexican/Latino presence.

Pro and Anti - Immigration Websites.

This week's blog task was to find two websites, one in support of Latino immigration in to the United States and another website that gives the opposite opinion. When I was searching for results in google, i noticed how it was certainly a lot easier to find websites which give anti-immigration support rather than pro, which immediately suggests how the dominant ideology in America is that illegal immigrants or "Aliens" are bad.

The first website I have found is American Immigration Control
, this website is one that is anti-immigration. The website and group have been active since 1983 and claims to have over a quarter of a million members that are of all creeds, races and colours. On the home page of the website is is made very clear of the groups aim, as it is full of bullet points explaining their ideologies, but the one that jumps out first is the one that reads, "AIC is about deporting those illegal aliens already in the US". This statement suggested to me that the website has some underlying racist beliefs and after researching the website's owners, it is clear that this website is run by people who may believe that illegal immigration needs to be stopped but perhaps not just for the reasons of it being a drain on America but also becasue they are racist.
AIC has been headed by John Vinson since 1990. In the mid-1990s, Sam Francis, who was fired from the conservative
Washington Times after penning a racially inflammatory column, was AICF chairman
.
Today, Francis is editor of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens' (CCC) monthly tabloid, Citizens Informer. Vinson, who is also editor of the anti-immigration publication Border Watch, often speaks at CCC meetings and is a founding member of the white supremacist League of the South.
AIC claim that they are about demanding that the federal government immediately use maximum manpower and support to secure our nation from terrorists, drug smugglers and illegals. Yet the website gives no insight as to how the US government might be able to do such a thing, not only would it cost a fortune but the impracticalities of being able to secure the border just because of it's size is something that couldn't be done.
The website also has a section about congressional support and they have on their a few quotes from members of congress who support what the website is trying to achieve, all of these are from republicans. and the website claims to have no association with any political parties.

The second website that I located was http://immigrationclearinghouse.org/about/ This website is a website that was established to be an aggregate for other pro migrant sites. Immigration Clearinghouse is set up to face off against "the anti immigrant right wing hate groups" who they believe have been very vocal in an attempt to put forward their anti Hispanic agenda.
The website doesn't appear to be funded as well as the previous one I have looked at, but its message is just as clear, that this group are fully pro immigration and are appauled at how immigrant families can be treated, "We oppose and despise the gestapo like tactics that ICE and Homeland Security use to separate families while separating and destroying families."
The group are in full belief that the American Dream is still something that can be achieved and feel that immigrants have just as much right to it today as they did when it was first realised. Also the website is concerned with raising awareness about hate speech and hate crimes, in an attempt to stop such things from occurring.
Immigration Clearing House have a much more liberal view on immigration and it is clear that instead of trying to alienate these people they are trying their best to intergrate them into American society, this can be seen through their support of the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — or DREAM — would create a path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children under the age of 16 by their parents.
Pro and Anti Latino Immigration

This weeks blog task was to find one website supporting anti-Latino immigration and one pro-Latino immigration. This subject has a wide range of groups and websites and therefore information was relatively easy to obtain.

Pro-Immigration


The first website is called "Latino Decisions - Everything Latino Politics". The website seems very established as there is a link to there Facebook page and you can subscribe for emails that send you information about the organisation. Their current research is focused mainly on states that the Latinos votes will play an important role in the 2012 elections. In 2010 the polls mainly focused on immigration reform, health care and the economy. The polls for the 2010-11 will look at the main issues concerning the Latino community. For example, attitudes towards Latin Americans in Congress.

On the home page there are many news reports about the Latino community in politics. One of the stories is about President Barak Obama and how the Latino vote will make a significant difference to the voting system. This shows that the Latin community has become established enough to make a large difference in the American society and therefore can makes significant changes. This image shows the four states that Obama won over due to the Latino vote.
Anti-Immigration

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t17649/

The next website is called "White pride, World Wide". White pride is a slogan indicating pride in being white. White pride claims themselves as being a cultural group and that only certain ethnic groups can join but they claim not to be racist. However they believe that the United States should be a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). The group have been criticised for being white separatist. The movement is a relatively new phenomenon and they mainly focus on immigration in the last part of the 20th century up until the present.

The first thing that caught my eye on this web page is that there is an Anti-Mexican Rally that is held bi-monthly. This is to encourage Nationalists, Conservatives and Racialists groups to protest all together. The idea is to get as much coverage as possible in the hope that these rallies will go national and therefore spread the word. The second aspect that grabbed my attention was the fact that this group believe that their heritage is being taken away by Mexican Immigrants. One person said "We will take our civilization back!". This indicates that White Pride feel that these immigrants specifically Mexicans are removing and changing society in such a way that they feel America and its ideals are not Americanised anymore.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Pro and Anti Immigration

This topic had a wide choice and range of groups for both pro and anti immigration and so finding information was not difficult. I found both sides of the argument from this website:

http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/pro-anti-immigration.html

I shall start with the anti-immigration group called Project USA. http://www.projectusa.org/index.php

To the side of their page they have a section entitled arguments and within this have 10 reasons that people are for immigration, but are what Project USA believe in fact myths and has the title "'Jobs Americans won't do' plus nine more timeless classics!" Implying that these arguments are a joke in themselves. It then goes on to explain why each reason is inaccurate/incorrect in detail.
  • Plenty of room for lots more: Highlights population density in America, that all of the major cities are overcrowded but there are vast areas of empty land that can't be inhabited. "Last year*, the United States grew at a faster rate than China. Yet, between 1998 and 1999, Wyoming lost population"
  • Immigration is good for the economy They say that during the years 1925-1965 when immigration was at its lowest, America advanced in many areas such as computers, civil rights and putting a man on the moon, as well as winning world wars.
  • Immigration adds diversity "Immigration policy should not be decided on racial or ethnic grounds, or we will end up turning immigration into a tussle between the races."
  • Borders are mean They say borders are neccessary and realistic because of the changes that such a mass amount of immigrants brings to the country, changes that the majority of people don't want. They say that in this pc world today we have a problem excluding people, we can't say "us" and "them".
  • Immigrants built this country As well as saying that the country should consider stopping "building" they say "Actually, Americans built this country. Immigration averaged only 235,000 persons per year prior to the disastrous 1965 Immigration Act. That's only 47 million immigrants over the course of our nation's history."

  • Immigration reductionists are racists It agrees that there are some people who are racist but this isn't the case with all reductionists. "Those who fear racial conflict or the rise of fascism should support, as we do, an immigration time-out in order to take a breather, reassess what we are doing, and give the assimilation magic time to work."
  • Immigrants do jobs Americans won't They say that it is ridiculous to say that the country cannot get by without an endless supply of immigrants to do jobs for them. (See example on website)
  • We're a nation of immigrants 85% of Americans were born in the country, so their main argument here is that America is a nation of descendants of immigrants.
  • Immigration helps economy It goes into detail comparing with other countries to prove that America can be rich without the help of immigrants.
  • Your ancestors were immigrants "No matter where you live in the world you have an ancestor from somewhere else." It says that just because something was relevant in the past, doesn't make it automatically so now.
The pro-immigration site is http://www.borderangels.org/index.html
There introduction is as follows:

"Founded by Enrique Morones in 1986, Border Angels is a non-profit organization supporting humanity. The organization consists of extraordinary volunteers who want to stop unnecessary deaths of individuals traveling through the Imperial Valley desert areas and the mountain areas surrounding San Diego County, as well as the areas located around the United States and Mexican border. The high percentage of unnecessary deaths have been results of extreme heat and cold weather conditions, in addition some have sadly been the results of racial-discrimination crimes."

They provide a huge amount of information on how you can help, what they aim to do and even show the hate mail and messages from extreme groups against immigration. They also have a list of myths, much the same as the other site did but obviously from the opposite viewpoint. The difference between the two styles, is that this one backs each point up with facts and statistics and research papers alone and doesn't give their own opinion. It is far more formal than the anti-immigration site.

  • Immigrants don't want to learn English "While first generation, non-English speaking immigrants predictably have lower rates of English proficiency than native speakers, 91% of second generation immigrants are fluent or near fluent English speakers. By the third generation, 97% speak English fluently or near fluently."
  • Immigrants don't pay taxes "Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund."
  • Immigrants increase the crime rate "While the undocumented immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005, violent crime dropped by 34% and property crimes decreased by 32%."
  • Immigrants take jobs away from Americans "given that the number of native born low wage earners is falling nationally, immigrants are playing an important role in offsetting that decline."
  • Immigrants are a drain on the United States economy "Research reported by both the CATO Institute and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors reveals that the average immigrant pays a net 80,000 dollars more in taxes than they collect in government services. For immigrants with college degrees the net fiscal return is $198,000. "
  • Undocumented immigrants are a burden on the healthcare system "Federal, state and local governments spend approximately 1.1 billion dollars annually on healthcare costs for undocumented immigrants, aged 18-64, or approximately $11 in taxes for each U.S. household. This compares to 88 billion dollars spent on all health care for non-elderly adults in the U.S."




Tuesday 8 March 2011

African American Separatism

This week I have chosen to look at the website/blog of The Black Fist Organisation http://theblackfistblog.blogspot.com/. From the profile it is obvious that this organisation supports separatism; their ‘battle cry’ is ‘Black Fist, Black Power, Black Nation’, this not only suggests that they want their own country but that they feel there is/should be a war between black people and whites.


Throughout the website there are references to Malcolm X, who is clearly their inspiration (like many separatists). The most obvious being that the author of the blog calls herself ‘General Nikki X’ therefore, like Malcolm X, using the ‘X’ to emphasise the loss of the true unknown African name; the fact that she has the title of General further implies a war between races. The most recent post in the blog is to commemorate Malcolm X. In this post it says

46 years ago today, we lost one of the greatest black men to ever walk the face of this earth and as long as I live I will always remember, teach and live by the principles of Bro. Minister Malcolm X as he taught and lived by which was:
- Black Love For Self.
- Black Unity Amongst Our Black Selves.
- Black Militancy and the principle of telling the white man to his face the truth about himself regardless of who likes it or not!
.

Therefore this shows that this African-American separatism organisation promotes the ideas of unity between black people, loving your black roots and actively (and aggressively) fighting for your rights.


I decided to also focus on the first ever post in the blog (posted July 24 2005) which describes the aims, purposes and ideals of the organisation. This post seems to stress that the only route forward is having a separate identity and emphasising African roots; this is completely opposite to African Americans who feel that integration is the answer like Martin Luther King Jr. For example, it says that the main aim is to

[Reunite] The Black Man and The Black Woman for a Strong Black Unit who "TOGETHER" will raise and nurture Strong Black Children. What equates into a "Strong Black Family"’.

This, with other similar quotes, suggests that black men/women who marry someone white is betraying the black community and that the only way in which black people can gain power is through separation. Overall, the tone of the post is quite aggressive. For example,

we believe in shining a light/shutting down No-Good Racist where they live, work and breed! And there will be those rare occassions when we must "deal" with our own "TRAITOROUS" black people so don't be surprised if or when your name is called out! We will not allow anything OR ANYBODY to get in the way of our freedom struggle’.

K-12 teaching of immigration

http://www.shs.org/podium/default.aspx?t=45681
I found this task quite difficult because it was hard to find a school website which had a detailed description of what is taught in the lessons. However, I chose to analyse the curriculum of Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In seventh grade they learn about early American history, focusing on colonisation and in eighth grade they learn about immigration in the US; they fail to mention the fact that everyone except the Native Americans are immigrants, thus implying that the white Anglo-Americans are superior and ‘real’ Americans. It appears that they look at a range of nationalities in the curriculum; on this website it mentions Irish, Mexicans, Asians and African-Americans. From this, it seems that they focus on more obvious immigrants and they completely leave out immigrants like other Europeans who accounted for many of the immigrants who came to the US during ‘the Great Deluge’ 1870-1920; therefore it is a partly biased view on US immigration.

The curriculum does look at the issues of immigration so it is more than just who immigrated where and why. It says, ‘we focus on the question of citizenship and belonging... we consider whether it is ever justifiable for a government to violate the rights of its people... we explore the theme of a dream deferred and wonder about the differences between segregation, integration, and assimilation’. They do this by looking at the role of borders, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Ellis Island. Therefore this school presents the history of immigration as a complex issue and they explore how the government handle it while touching upon the subject of discrimination. However, its presentation is still reasonably biased because it doesn’t look at in great detail about how the immigrants actually live, the poverty, housing issues and unemployment.
Black Muslims - Nation of Islam

http://www.muslimhope.com/index.html

The black Muslim Movement was founded by Wallace Fard. Elijah Mohammed joined the movement in 1930 and assumed leadership after Fard's mysterious disappearance in 1934. Regular Muslims would regard the teachings of The Nation of Islam to be blasphemous. The movement did not really emerge till the 1960's when Minister Malcolm X became a spokesman.
Malcolm X, a Black Muslim who was gunned down by three black men after he left the Black Muslim Movement. Most people have heard of this religion, but few really know the core of who they are and what they teach.

Elijah Mohammed preached the "Doctrine of Yakub". Yakub is said to have been born in what now is Mecca (2000 BC). By the ages of 18 he had obtained all the knowledge possible of that time. As the story goes he discovered that the "original black man" had both a "black germ" and "brown germ". He set about breeding all the black traits and killed all the darker babies after 200 years. After 600 years the white race was created.
The Nation of Islam believe that all races other than black were byproducts of Yakub's work.

Another belief that the movement has is sacrifice and ritualistic killings. Every Muslim has the duty to offer a sacrifice of "Caucasian devils" i.e White men.
Teachings also include black self-reliance, black separatism and the opposistion to black-white miscegenation.

From looking through the website, this group of people seem to be very extreamist and have strong views about religion aswell as how the world should be ran. In some ways the movement seems to be anti-American as on the home page they refer to 9/11. They say that it shouldnt all be blamed on Muslims. The Black Nation of Islam view themselves as being peaceful, however in my opinion there seems to be much violence, anger and hatred towards whites and other races. Malcolm X was very different to Martin Luthur King's approach which seems to take a step back from the arguments and violence and discuss issues.

Jill Scott's soul burns.



This week, I found this video of the African American singer, Jill Scott, who also has appeared in a number of films, such as Hounddog and Why Did I Get Married? She was interviewed by an American magazine, Essence where she was supposedly to have said that her "soul burns" whenever she see's a successful black man with a white woman.

She recites a story to the magazine when she learned her black friend was married to a white woman. "
My new friend is handsome, African-American, intelligent and seemingly wealthy. He is an athlete, loves his momma, and is happily married to a white woman. I admit when I saw his wedding ring, I privately hoped. But something in me just knew he didn't marry a sister. Although my guess hit the mark, when my friend told me his wife was indeed Caucasian, I felt my spirit wince. I didn't immediately understand it. My face read happy for you. My body showed no reaction to my inner pinch, but the sting was there, quiet like a mosquito under a summer dress." This is generally quite surprising especially in the present day. She then goes onto say why she winced "The answer is not simple. One could easily dispel the wince as racist or separatist, but that's not how I was brought up." "We share our culture sometimes to our own peril and most of us love the very notion of love. My position is that for women of color, this very common "wince" has solely to do with the African story in America."

In a way she is defending the position of her African-American roots, saying that the history of the African-Americans cannot be ignored in the present day, and that even if it is something as innocent as falling in love with someone of the opposite colour, there is still the history that has to be confronted in one way or another. I feel Jill Scott, is calling out the history of African-American people, to acknowledge their separate history that should be remembered. She is not necessarily racist or pro-separation of black people from whites, she generally feels that there will always be some sort of line between black people and whites, because of the history they have shared in America.

Nuwaubianism

The Nuwaubians began as a Black Muslim group in New York in the 1970s and they created a headquarters in Putnam County, Georgia in 1993 but they then left it because the leader Dwight York was convicted of money laundering and child sex charges and is in prison.

http://www.nuwaubianfacts.com/

As a result of York being in prison, the website is currently full of articles and videos showing how the government has wrongfully imprisoned this indigenous man. Such points it makes are that he was convicted on Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, which is a federal holiday.
They talk a great deal about the government being anti-black.

"Come on, the United States government and the KKK have the same agenda Kill the Blacks."

They say that any black man who tries to help his people is put down by the government/white people. This was done to Martin Luther King, Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm X, The Black Panthers and Marcus Garvey.

The site includes the following video of Malcolm X and beneath it said:

"The problem this government have with our tribe and culture has always plaque the people on top in the government, because our culture represent PEACE and UNITY and theirs represent WAR and DIVISION, and as you can see from this video clip this is nothing new, but we will bring the change just as all of the other unjust rulers before them was brought down, so will these unjust rulers be brought down."



The style in which most of the talking is done when it comes to their radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nuwaubian-facts) and the background on the site, it is very much in the same style as Malcolm X. It is passionate and full of almost anger, it leaves the audience feeling empowered and ready to take action.

They say that even black politicians won't help, because of the same reason that Malcolm X believed King's methods were pointless.

"All of them, got into position by working for and with the EVIL ONE. Those that didn't, such as Marcus Garvey or Noble Drew Ali or Dr. Martin Luther King, were swiftly Eliminated because of their sincerity."

They very much believe that there is a conspiracy among the white to oppress the black people, with false evidence and statements being given to illegal entry of property and physical attacks upon people, including women and children.

As well as the outrage about the 'wrongful' imprisonment of their leader, they make frequent reference to being evicted from their rightful lands.

"injustices that Rev. Malachi Z York-EL and the Yamassee Nuwaubians Native American Moors were facing in Putnam about their land."

"Photo's of Tama-Re in the years of 1996, 1997 and up to 2002 the Nawaubians Holy Land Enjoy some of our Memories before the EVIL INVADERS"



Wednesday 2 March 2011

Immigration in America, Schools and Stuff.

This week, the task was to find a K-12 website, dealing with the history of Immigration in the 19th and early 20th century in America. Mainly it was to see how American curriculum's deal with the issue of Immigration and what sort of way it is presented to the students in the class. The first thing to do was try to find a website that would be sufficient for the task at hand. But I did find this website that is a planned Simulation activity for the class about Immigration. It can be found here.

So looking at this website, it gives an overview of the history of Immigration, throughout the history of America. It touches upon the reasons why the Irish and German left their countries, with this well put together line "
New arrivals came from several European countries during this period, but most came from Ireland and Germany, where devastating crop failures forced many residents to leave their homelands." It details the numbers of immigrants living in New York, and the fact that it was mainly populated by immigrants and their American-born children. It goes onto say that America's growing industrial economy needed more workers, which then again needs more people for work. Thus it details another influx of immigrants from Europe. In this brief overview, it does say "Like their Irish predecessors, most of these new arrivals were poor and uneducated. Many were peasants from rural regions who were being pushed out by Europe's industrial revolution." This is actually touching upon the conditions of the immigrants and the fact that they were not accustomed to the life that America held for them. One thing it does not touch upon are the restrictions of that America put on immigration during the early 20th century, such as the prohibition of Chinese people into the country. It also does not detail the situations of new immigrants, and their conditions that they lived in. Though it does suggest that immigration has steadily reason since the 60s where it picked up again after the second World War.

The website also has issues for the students to consider, such as
  • How many immigrants should we continue to admit?
  • Should we continue our present policy of one general quota, or should future immigration be restricted to specific nations and/or races?
  • On what criteria should we base these policy decisions?
  • How should we enforce these policy decisions?
These issues, are mostly based on what to do about immigration in the present day. It also states in the paragraph above it "Although immigration provides one of the most colorful chapters in our country's history, it has also brought a host of problems which have not been so easily resolved. For example, cultural differences and language barriers among different ethnic groups have frequently given rise to hostilities between them. Also, immigrants' inability to quickly assimilate themselves to the norms of mainstream American social life have often prevented them from realizing the economic advancement they sought when they left their homelands." Which to be honest, are issues that immigrants have faced throughout history, I think that in order to learn about today's immigration policies and how to solve some problems that deal with immigration today, the students would obviously have to learn about the immigration history of early 20th century and the late 19th century.

The actual activity that the students have to do all this research for is some sort of hearing, with each student playing a different part. And by that I mean each student has a different position that they have to present, argue and defend to the other students. This is actually quite interesting as the task is getting the student to research about immigration (the history, the policies and the current situation) and present it to an audience who all have done their own research and may have different opinion or facts to the other. But in my opinion this task, is relying on the student to do the work, and they may gloss over the important facts of the actual immigrants lives. In a way, they are learning about immigration, but I feel that they are mostly concentrated on trying to solve problems today, instead of learning about the history of their country and descendants.