Week 5 Reflection: Immigration
I honestly have a lot to say about the topic for this week. The fact that the U.S. was able to ban an entire country of people from entering America was not very surprising because we do the same thing today. White Americans were able to immigrate to the United States for better opportunities, but those rights denied to people that do not look like them. They see anyone that has a different skin color and automatically sees them as a threat, but why is this? And now they exclude the Chinese from even entering the country for over 60 years. Since the Chinese exclusion act got repealed in 1943, it hasn't even been 100 years since they banned them from entering the country. After reading "The Life of a Chinese Immigrant," it showed me how difficult it was to be a Chinese immigrant. The Chinese immigrant, Lee Chew, would only make about $35 a month doing servant work and constructing railroads. In the 1920s, growth in nativism arises. Nativism is the fear that minorities will take over the white population. This fear of people of color and immigrants is still very much prominent today, 100 years later. Weirdly, it's called nativism because white Americans are not initially from their so
called "native" country.
Immigrants in the early 20th century were subjected to horrible working conditions and suffered the price of the greed that runs America. Workers, especially women, began to protest and inevitably started the progressive era to combat the desire of the gilded age. After watching Triangle: Remembering the Fire, it illustrated how adverse conditions were. One hundred forty-six women and teenagers died in the fire in a New York City triangle shirtwaist factory on March 25, 1911. There were 300 sowing machines crammed into a small space with hundreds of workers packed together, making it cramped and, ultimately, a disaster waiting to happen. This story made me realize the reality of their situation during the fire. Women were trapped, and 90 people even jumped to their deaths to trying to escape the flames. This was the worst industrial accident in NYC history up until 9/11. Tragically, it took the deaths of hundreds of workers to make a change in the safety regulations of these factories. The government finally passed reforms to working conditions to prevent a disaster like this from happening again. In regards to the exam essay question, the tragedy of the triangle waist factory shows that "the great American assumption" is not correct, and an average worker cannot be successful because the employers do not want that to happen. These workers made about $600 every year, worked in horrible conditions, and were paid anything barely. People in charge at the time did not care for people unless they offered them money of some kind, and if they didn't, those people were worthless to them.
Great point. Yes, you are absolutely right about today we still have immigrants that are not able to see they own family or kids that has the ability to get to the US, but many can't that's denied to see they family.
ReplyDeleteHey Aleena I am glad you expressed yourself on this topic. I agree with your discussion about banning a whole country which i think is outrageous. Alot of good information for this topic talking about the conditions in the market industries of the plants that people worked in. All the conditions were terrible and was not safe at all.
ReplyDeletehello Aleena,
ReplyDeleteWoW you really hit it right on the nose with this reflection , and I agree with everything you had to say about this topic. Immigrants till this day still cant visit or see their family because they aren't aloud to see them due to circumstances not allowing them on this side of the US. keep up the good work i really like what you had to say.
Hey Aleena I also liked how you expressed yourself on this topic. I agree with your discussion about the white Americans being able to immigrate to the United States for better opportunities, but those rights denied to people that do not look like them. They see anyone that has a different skin color and automatically sees them as a threat, but why is this? And now they exclude the Chinese from even entering the country for over 60 years.
ReplyDeleteHey Aleena! I like your post! I agree with everything stated above. I felt that it was unfair for people who wanted to move to this country for a fresh start to be denied the opportunity because the "threats" they could possibly oppose. Once again, this was a very good read and I will enjoy reading your future posts!
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