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AsktheSonofaShepherd — Question 50
Published: 2018-01-04 02:16:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 1355; Favourites: 42; Downloads: 0
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This was an interesting one! Don’t be afraid to ask me any questions concerning immigration, I’m very pleased to shed light on these issues. 
I have some recommended reading for everyone. Lillian Rubin’s essay ‘’Is This a White Country or What?’’ biblio.csusm.edu/sites/default…
You’ll probably be surprised (or not) by the reactions of the native-born American interviewees who glorify and romanticise their European predecessors who did not initially pass as ‘’American’’ enough when they first arrived fresh off the boats. Yes, Italians, Irish and Germans have assimilated today, but they were not always accepted, and lacked white American privilege. How ironic that the descendents of the original immigrants scrutinise and criticise the immigrants of today who face similar judgment as their parents and grandparents before them. Yesterday’s Europeans are today’s Mexicans and Middle Easterners.
As a social experiment, I challenge everyone to go live in a foreign country for at least a year, and then come back to your country and try to at least understand all the crap that immigrants have to put up with. Or, ask your family where you originally came from. Ask them about the struggles and the challenges your early ancestors faced when they first migrated, and compare those experiences to the hardships of the modern-day immigrants. Nothing’s changed. The only thing that has really changed is the country of origin, but whether it was Europeans at the turn of the century or the Asians and Hispanics of today, they continue the voyage of hope and life of determination. In the case of the US of A, they all share the same ‘’American Dream’’ (or what I call the myth of meritocracy), and that’s why they continue to keep coming. The only thing we can do to lessen these burdens is to educate ourselves.
-For Immigration Reform 2018, I’m Asante Chowdhurry.))
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Comments: 34
((Awesome sketch. And it is always so good to learn something more.))
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((Thank you~
I'm glad people are learning!))
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((You are very welcome. And history was among my favorite school subjects.
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(Well, hum, aaaagh!, I never asked a question on this platform, I do not know why I feel nervous, and I don't know if you are still responding, my question is not even serious, I'm sorry xd, I love you, don't hate me xD)
Hi Rolf!, how you doing?, well, I have a little problem whit ma boy Alexandro, he is too weak and lazy, and, I was thinking, you have a little farm right?, could you please pleeeease do me the huge favor of turning my slack boy into someone useful?
Al; -Growls in Spanish- I-I'm not weak, I'm just tired, let me be
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((Lol hey there! Yes, I'm still here. I am currently working on Question 51 right now so I will be rather slow getting to the rest, but I'll take your question!
~Asante~))
Question 56
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((Oh thanks lord, I was thinking about erasing the question because of shame x//D
Thanks Asante!, don't worry, take your time to do your stuff~ I'm gonna be waiting, muack! ))
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((No no I'm glad you asked, it's a good question, don't feel ashamed!
I promise to get to it soon~))
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((Thanks qvq
Do not hurry, take your time honey uwu
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Lol at the people in the ''Is This a White Country or What?'' Uuuummm hate to burst your white privileged bubble but America was NEVER a white country in the first place it belonged to the Native Americans before the whites came in and took it from them. Soooo people of color taking over and making the white people the minority well, duh, they're just taking back what's rightfully theirs.
How does it feel to be pushed out, huh white people?
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((It's not that the immigrants are taking back what's rightfully theirs.
American Indians aren't even immigrants.
But the whites came to the States as immigrants originally so that's why they feel like their homeland security is being threatened. Though yes, they did take the land from the natives, they fought long and hard to earn it. The Revolution to win independence, then the Civil War over state rights...no, what they did to the natives wasn't right, but you have to look at this from both sides. There's always two sides to every argument.
America was built on the backs of immigrants, yes, but somehow they've created a distinction between the Europeans and the immigrants today.
MAYBE Mexicans and Middle Easterners will eventually assimilate and pass until another group comes along, but hard to say at this point.
America is under the impression that it's a white country, and you're right, it really never has been, but the whites made themselves the ruling class majority. It's only natural that they feel that, the more people of colour they let in, the more they're going to be a shrinking minority. It's not just whites either. Native born American people of colour also feel threatened. It's not so much a phobia of people of colour as it is foreigners.
The fear mostly just stems from ignorance. If everyone researched the statistics instead of jumping to conclusions, they'd know that immigration isn't hurting the economy as much as they think it is.
Myth vs. reality. Unfortunately people listen more to myths than facts.))
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My mom was born in AZ but her father, who was born in Chile, is of German-Jewish descent. Her mother is full-blooded Chilean. But my family is not Jewish, we're Christian. My grandfather's family converted to Christianity when they immigrated to Chile, so even my grandfather, who's parents were German Jews, was raised Christian. And his wife, who is full-blooded Chilean from Mexico is Christian. But I have a lot of Jewish friends. I kinda wish my family was still Jewish though. When they immigrated, my grandfather's parents changed their names to Gonzalez. But we spell it without the accent, the Germanic spelling because of the European roots. I was born in AZ like my mom. We're totally Chilean American and half European. I'm more white because my dad was white where my mom's dad was white and her mom full Chilean. So I got my German Jewish great grandparents, my grandfather and my dad's European blood, then my mom's, and grandmother's Chilean blood. I've never even been to Chile. Nor do I speak Spanish. I feel like Frida Kahlo. I identify as Latino (prefer the masculine over Latin@ or Latinx) but I am more European I guess. I'm White Latino that's just what I tell people.
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((That's such a cool family history, Sid, thanks for sharing!
I remember you telling me a little bit about that, but I had no idea your family was originally Jewish, then converted. That's crazy! But it's understandable given the anti-Antisemitism.
Race is complicated and it really all boils down to how you want to see yourself. People tend to identity more with the culture they were raised in, regardless of how many races they're made up of.
Frida, like yourself, was raised predominantly Mexican and didn't feel a connection at all to her European roots.
They say it's a social construct but I think it's more of a personal identity. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.))
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Exactly, that's why they left Germany and converted in the first place.
It totally is! I don't like people feeling like they have the authority to tell me what I am and am not. So thanks for that!
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I don't think the experience has changed either. Back then, many immigrant women worked as dressmakers, and today's garment workers struggle with hardships not so far removed from those of a century ago. A lot of the immigrants today actually still live in the original tenement buildings in the Lower East Side, although the buildings have been refurbished. New arrivals toil in sweatshops above chic boutiques not unlike the Europeans before them...it's been that way for nearly 200 years. The tenement museum I visited was one of the few buildings left in its original condition; it was boarded up for years until a non-profit organisation decided to turn it into a museum to educate the masses. I have a couple books about its founding, and the stories of the inhabitants that once resided there. I actually cried reading the stories, they're so sad.
My family immigrated from Sicily but they didn't live on Orchard Street, they moved upstate. But the stories of some of the Italian families that used to live there aren't so different from my family.
The stories of the modern-day immigrants aren't so different either.
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((Yes, and I just saw an amazing film about that from 1983 called El Norte where these Guatemalan teens immigrate to L.A. and the sister, Rosa, had to work as a seamstress in a factory. They also lived in a little village with other Guatemalan refugees right outside L.A. This was back in the 80s, and it's still like that today.
I would really like to go to this tenement museum but I think I would cry, lol. What books are they if you don't mind me asking? I'd like to read them!
But I'm sure even upstate they had their own struggles to deal with. It's so incredible. I can understand why people are so proud to talk about how their families made a life for themselves in such a country in such a time.))
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I just saw that film, too, on TCM the other day! I know why they were playing it, too, with all that's going on right now. I missed the beginning so I found the rest of it on YouTube. I can't believe I've never heard of it before, it's seriously one of the greatest films I've ever seen.
It's such a cool museum, we didn't even get to go through the whole building, you can only go inside on tour, and they have a lot of tours that take you to a section.
We have to go back someday and see the rest of the building.
The books are called Stories of Immigrant Life: 97 Orchard Street, New York by Linda Granfield and Arlene Alda, and A Tenement Story published by the actual museum.
They're both on amazon.
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At any rate, immigrants have been coming to American shores since its founding and it hasn't destroyed society as we know it. It's shaped American culture. In the next 100 years or so it will be another wave of immigrants getting bad rap.
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((Exactly.
Who knows what the future brings.))
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That essay is a good find. I love how the dominant group always feels like their rights are being taken away by giving minorities *some* rights and privileges. Heck, people of color, esp. immigrants, are not privileged.
Now America is a melting pot, so though I understand their fear of the jobs being ''taken away'' that's very rarely, if ever, the case, statistic wise.
Immigrants actually help the economy. www.csmonitor.com/Business/new…
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((I love this essay, I've read it over 100 times. It was required reading in my sociology class and I loved it so much I saved it.
I always tell everyone to read it every time the topic of immigration comes up. It was published in 1994 but it's still important. And a white woman wrote it, but her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia, and she grew up in poverty. Rest her soul, she's dead now. She died in 2014, but I loved her work.
But yeah totally. They always feel like their rights are being taken away when it's very often not the case, such as the instance where gay marriage was finally legalised.
A good majority of immigrants without social security numbers can't even get half the jobs the Americans can. They're literally being paid under tables.
Oi. People really need to do their research.))
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((I'd like to agree with you, and though you're partially correct, you're forgetting the American Indians. They count, too.))
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Back then, there were the same criticisms that sounded much like the ones that you hear today: ‘'They don’t speak English. They don’t assimilate. They’re darker. They’re criminals. They have diseases, etc''
As for the notion that yesteryear’s immigrants assimilated more easily than today’s, that’s another common myth. All first-generation immigrants have trouble learning English, continue speaking their native language, and have strong ties to their ethnic communities, not unlike Rolf. Then as now, assimilation accelerates in the second and third generations. So his children or children's children will probably be more American.
If someone says, ‘''My grandparents came legally, learned English, and assimilated quickly,’' I can’t challenge their personal story — I don’t know it. But I do know that was not the experience of the vast majority.
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((Absolutely. Dani and I actually just talked about this.))
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I love the fact that he’s standing on a soap box.
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((I had to.))
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It's really eerie how similar those two photos are. Indeed,nothing really has changed!
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((I found them by accident and when I put them side by side I realised how similar they were. I rest my case.))
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((I'm glad you got something out of it.))
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