The Browning of America

http://www.essence.com/2012/05/22/preparing-for-the-browning-of-america/

I looked at an article from the magazine, Essence. What this article is talking about is the "browning of America." This term refers to the fact that "minorities" are slowly but surely becoming the majority. According to a recent US census, most babies under the age of 1 were kids of color. Although it may not seem like a big deal, it actually is. We need to be careful because "the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share [American] values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps." Wow! Sounds scary, huh? Those darn people of color are ruining the United States and we need to prepare ourselves for what is to come. Aside from ignorant comments such as the one stated above, we are able to know for a fact that the United States is about to face a major change. Where the country always had a majority of white people, that majority may no longer exist. What was once the majority may become the minority. It will be interesting to see how the country reacts to such a change. To me, it does not really seem like a big deal because I am used to being around those of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and it surprises me a little bit that some people are really fearing what is to come. Hopefully this will make our country come together more than ever though. 

Chapter 17

Again, we keep getting closer and closer to more recent immigration topics. One of my favorite parts to read about was the distinction between illegal immigrants and those who merely have visas or something to show as proof of their legality in the United States. I learned that there are actually a whole bunch of different reasons for a foreigner to be here (legally) in the United States. Usually, when we think of illegal immigrants, we just clump them all together. And usually, many people stereotypically think of Mexicans that cross the border without permission from the government. We tend to not think of the Canadians that cross the border from the northern part of the United States or those who travel her from other countries. But anyways, what I learned that was most interesting to me was that the majority of illegal immigrants are those who have actually ran out of visa time! So basically, they came here legally with valid visas from the US government and then the visas expired and yet those once legal immigrants continued to stay in the states which now makes it illegal. This fascinated me because it showed that the majority of illegal immigrants are those that once immigrated here legally. But see, once you settle in the US for a while and then your visa expires, it must be difficult to pick up everything and go. This makes me think that we need to consider some kind of immigration reform. Which is what the last chapter talked about in good detail. We still have not found a successful means of reforming immigration policy, but we obviously have to keep working until we find something that benefits both those who are native to the United States and those who would like to try their luck in this country.

Chapter 16

As we get closer and closer to learning about more recent history, we also seem to be focusing a lot on Immigration Acts. The list that we made in class on Friday was kind of like a really big preview of the Acts and Reformations that were to come. In this chapter, they focused a lot on The Immigration Reform Act of 1986. This was to really crack down a lot on immigration to America because so many people were trying to come over here. For example, an employer could get prison time if they were found out for hiring an illegal immigrant. However, at the same time, some people got it easier so that they could actually have immigrants come and work for them. This is what struck me as odd and just weird. It was kind of contradictory and I was confused as to how this Reform Act went into place. But then I remembered that we are really just trying to benefit ourselves and not so much those who are trying to make a living out here. They also focused on the concept of nativism. And how that means that you don't like foreigners. I think that even currently, as a whole nation, we still have significant  rates of nativism and it is sad but I don't think that will ever really change. I think that it has dropped significantly even since the 80s, but still.. we have a long way to go.

Asian immigration

Reading this section in the book was enlightening for me because it reminds me each different Asian group that immigrated to America has their own story. It helped me to distinguish the cultural differences between the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Filipinos! One of the things that I thought was most interesting was how well the Japanese excelled in the united states when they came over here. They immigrated here and then before you know it, they started to have a higher income than most north Americans. They just came over here and were ready to do work and I thought that was both really inspiring and just really dedicated of them, really. It shows how they took advantage of their situation and were really able to benefit from it! Also, my best friend, Victoria, is Filipino. Her mom is Filipino and her maiden name is Grande. The reason why a lot of filipinos have Spanish surnames is because that thr Philippines were a Spanish colony. And before her mom got pregnant with Victoria in school... She was training to be a nurse.

Chapter 6 Overview: Pioneers of the Century of Immigration

Chapter 6 is all about breaking down the barriers of "old" and "new" immigrants. Typically, immigrants before the 1880s who had a somewhat easy time assimilating to American culture are considered to be "old" immigrants. Whereas those who came after the 1880s are thought of to be the "new" immigrants. In this section of the book, however, the author does not focus on the distinction of "old" and "new" immigrants. Instead, he focuses on the immigrants themselves and the countries that they emigrated from. The three large groups that he talks about are the Irish, German, and Scandinavian. He makes the point that the differences between old and new immigrants is not really that different. While there are significant changes that occur before and after 1880, he notes that each group was still dealing with similar problems. Between 1860 and 1920, America made the jump from 30 million to 105 million persons. We grew from being largely agricultural to being a mostly industrial one. Our nation changed because of these immigrants. As the author speaks about different nationalities of some of the first immigrants, it is interesting to see what each group brought to the new country that they helped to develop.

Slavery and Immigrants from Africa

Well, the first thing that I took into account when reading about the slave trade was that more than nine million people were transported to the New World. This both impressed and disgusted me.. because that is a lot of people. Another thing that I found interesting that I don't think I ever knew before was that there were slaves in Canada. This makes me wonder when Canada abolished slavery since you never really hear about Canada's slavery struggle. Is that because they had less of  problem? Or is it because since we are in the United States, we don't focus on Canadian slavery. Anyways, the chapter went on to talk about how slavery eventually became predominant in the south. And it also made me wonder why that happened. Was it because conditions for crops and farming were better in the south? I may have learned the reason at one point but I can't remember. But I think that it's funny how things can be divided by region. I don't know if that really makes sense... But like, the south is known for slavery. I guess it's just interesting how different geographical regions can have the same values. For the most part. Like how the east and west coast are generally more liberal than the middle and southern parts of the country. It's just crazy how demographics work. But back to slavery, the last thing that I thought about while reading the passage was how sad it is that the first generation of Africans in America has no history that we can look back on. All we have are the slave owners accounts. And that just sucks because while we can imagine, we have no primary sources to show us how it felt to be a first generation slave in America.

Coming to America Chapters 1 and 2

The main thing that stood out to me in this writing was the point about how we have become more and more unfriendly towards immigrants coming in to the United States. This part struck me in particular since I am Mexican. Even though there are Canadians and Europeans and other people who are immigrating illegally, Mexicans are just the ones that come to mind since there has been such an ordeal with the border and such. The people who are already living in the US forget that their ancestors had to immigrate here a long time ago too. Because they also wanted a better life for whatever reason. But now we have this kind of "I'm better than you" attitude that ha causes us to highly look down upon immigration for the past century or so. I understand that the illegal immigration is a difficult subject, but reading this text reminds us that we are all immigrants to this country.

Pacific Seafarers and Maritime Cultures

Well, to be honest, these articles were kind of difficult for me to read. Not because the language or vocabulary was difficult to understand, but because I just found it to be kind of redundant and a little tiresome. Personally, I thought that it was talking about too much "this place is this many kilometers from this place" and stuff like that. The one thing (which was also the main point of the articles kinda) that I found interesting was that humans were traveling be sea and discovering land a lot sooner than we may have imagined. My favorite part was actually when the author said that "it now appears that Homo erectus reached the Indonesian island of Flores by 750,000 years ago." That part was just so cool to me because I just imagined cavemen braving the seas on their little simple rafts and boats! Overall, it is an interesting concept. I just thought that it dragged on a little.

The American Indian and the Problem of History

While I am not an expert on the complete history of the Native Americans, I feel that I am quite familiar with their backstory. Having your history class last year, I was able to expand my knowledge about what really went down with the Native Americans and Columbus. This reading reminded me of a lot of things that I had previously been taught about the true history of America. Such as the fact that Christopher Columbus did not, in fact, discover America. Well, I guess you could argue that he did, but then you it would just be that he didn't "discover" it first. The Native Americans lay claim to that feat. Or do they? It seems that Native Americans have, for the most part, been squeezed out of history textbooks and elementary classrooms. And it brings up a question that we were asked to think about in my previous history class: Why? It may be because it is too difficult to try to rewrite the history books. Maybe we are too embarrassed to let everyone know that we've been doing it all wrong, so why stop now. Or maybe, it is just because we are too ignorant to realize the mess that we are creating/have created. Packets like the one that we just read are important because they inform readers about typical historical events but from a different perspective. A perspective that we are not usually familiar with. The way that it causes us to think is both healthy and saddening. Because as some of us begin to hear the truth, we also realize that we are so very late.