Topic: Dis 3

Order Description In the discussion you formulate, you should not reflect anyone else’s belief. The professor does not grade you on whether or not she is in agreement; only on how logically and reasonably you discuss the issues. Read through and incorporate your answers to questions in your discussion. The examples in this discussion are taken from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report. When a wave of Irish Catholic immigrants began arriving in the U.S. in the 1820’s, they found a bitter welcome among the Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority. Newspapers described them a “Irish niggers” and “a mongrel mass of ignorance.” Many employers assigned Irish laborers to only the most menial and dangerous positions. Irish Catholicism was denounced with charges of superstition and perversion. In just half a century, native-born Americans had come to regard other newcomers as “them.” Language, culture and appearance all separated Chinese immigrants from their neighbors in 19th-century America. For many Whites, these differences were cause enough for suspicion. But when the Chinese demonstrated their willingness to work for lower wages than their white counterparts, fear and distrust erupted into violence. The Chinese became victims not only of armed attacks, but also of some of the most severe anti-immigration laws ever passed in this country. The massive Native American removals of the 1830s marked the end of the first phase of Native American conquest. Later, as the United States set its sights across the entire continent, there was no “outside” land to which Native Americans could be banished. Instead, the tribes were corralled inside the fixed borders of reservations – mostly barren patches of land for which the Whites had no use. These were not even immigrants. Like the Quakers, the early Mormons were feared and distrusted by their neighbors. When Mormons settled in Missouri in the 1830s, local residents found Mormon beliefs and practices not simply strange, but wrong. The solution they sought was just as extreme as the banishment and death penalty laws against Massachusetts Quakers. The Mormons, the Missouri governor declared must be removed, if not by expulsion, then by extermination. In February 2004, Domingo Lopez Vargas was leaving a grocery store in Canton, GA., when four white teenagers in a pickup truck offered him work at $9 an hour. The day-laborer, originally from Guatemala, accepted. The young men drove Vargas to a remote field and then pummeled him with pieces of wood for half an hour, leaving him to die in his blood. Anti-immigration bigotry has periodically resurfaced. In the 1870s, recent European immigrants joined nativists in opposing Chinese immigration. Around the turn of the century, controversy arose over the large scale immigration of Jew, Italians, Poles and other ethnic groups. Today, a similar influx of Latino immigrants has revived discussion about closing America’s borders. Widespread frenzy over undocumented immigration has inspired public policies steeped in an “us vs. them” mentality. Some cities in Florida and the southern border- states have enacted ordinances mandating the use of “English language only” in public education. In 2004, Arizona voters passed a public referendum making it a crime to provide certain social services to undocumented immigrants. As a result, native-born Latinos, and legal immigrants have been the victims of ethnic and racial slurs and physical violence. In theory, every citizen has a voice at the ballot box. But the principle of majority rule means that some voices don’t get heard. At various times in our history, lack of minority representation in government has allowed the majority to abuse minority rights. *In 1834, the Charlestown, Mass., town council included no Catholics. When the local Catholic Church applied for burial privileges – the same right that everyone else in town had – the elected council was able simple to refuse. *During World War II, Japanese American citizens found their rights ignored because of the fears of the majority. *In the 1990s, some towns and states passed measures legalizing discrimination against gays and lesbians. This last year the Supreme Court ruled that gays and lesbians had the same right as all citizens to marry. The President has proposed Immigration Reform Legislation. Initially supported by both of the major political parties (Democrats and Republicans) Congress has, to date, failed to address the issue of Immigration Reform. Have you, or your family, had a personal experience with immigration? In view of the fact that we hear a lot about immigration and what should be done, react in your discussion to what has been presented and explain, logically, what you feel about immigration and how you would have the government react to illegal immigrants. In organizing your thoughts and words, reflect on the poem by Emma Lazarus that appears on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,, With conquering limbs astride from land to land, Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A might woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Gloves world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” Cries, she with silent lips. “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-tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”