Golden Posts & Soapbox 2: Ever-Pounding Waves of Immigration and Hostility

Happy May Day Everyone! Coincidentally, it also happens to be my birthday, and my 50th post to this blog journal! Too bad I can't find a maypole to swing around in celebration.

Apparently I share a birthday with John Woo, Wes Anderson, Kirsten Dunst, and Calamity Jane. And according to Wikipedia, Important events occuring on my birthday include the Opening of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," the forming of Great Britain, the dedication of the Empire State Building, the premiere of "Citizen Kane," the naming of the planet Pluto, and the suicide of Joseph Goebbels. Yay. Bad thing to occur on my birthday: the first ever spam e-mail was sent; I had nothing to do with that, I swear!

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Of course, today is also the "Great American Boycott," or whatever, with the hispanic/latino people boycotting everything. . . white? American? Can you forgive me for not being able to tell the difference? I can't say I am supportive of the boycott, because frankly I am confused about what message is that the protestors are actually trying to send. And I hate to seem rude or disriminatory, because I do love the hispanic and latino cultures and am proud to have them in our country, but I do not get where this hostility they have for us "gringos" is stemming from. I used to be very supportive of immigrant rights, because I myself am descended from recent immigrants, but the way they are going about this is turning me off from supporting their misrepresented cause altogether.

Are they trying to say that we do not appreciate the impact of immigration in our country in general, or just hispanics/latinos (h/l) in particular? Because of course we appreciate the impact of immigration, and to imply we don't is frankly insulting. This country is a nation of immigrants; we all came from immigrants and so hopefully we already appreciate the sacrifices those immmigrants endured to get here and to thrive. I mean, if that is the true point of the boycott then the entire country should be shut down, since we are all immigrants from South America/Europe/Asia/North America/Africa/etc. My maternal grandparents are immigrants; they came here from Switzerland in the 1950's, after WWII. Do I appreciate the sacrifices they made to get here? Every single day, believe me. So I don't think that is the point the protesters are trying to make; I think instead they are trying to say instead that we don't appreciate the specific sacrifices the h/l's in this country have made to get here. And that is where I get even more confused.

Are they trying to say that they are upset because they feel unappreciated for doing a lot of the menial labor in this country? Because the menial jobs are there for anyone to do, but typically they are shunted to the poorer, less educated members of our society. H/l immigrants fit that description today, but only because they are the main current of immigrants today. Not so long ago in out history, it was the Asian and European immigrants filing those positions. And like the immigrants of today, it was also a very difficult struggle for them to assimilate into the American lifestyle. My grandmother had a degree in horticulture before she came to America, but once she arrived her degree was considered worthless. So to make ends meet, she took on a lot of thankless jobs, including janitorial work, to clothe and feed her growing family. But one of the good points about america is that you are not stuck in those jobs forever; with education, hard work, and luck, you can give yourself and/or your posterity the chance to rise to a higher level. No one is handed the American dream, everyone has to work at it.

Are they upset because they feel Americans are unfairy racist against h/l's? Because as the movie Crash shows, racism is unfortunately everywhere, it is not specifically reserved for just one society of people. And again, if the h/l are being unfairly discriminated against—and I will go so far as to say they are—I believe it is because of the stereotypes that all newfound immigrants have to face, not just the h/l population. All immigrants in every era of American culture were accused of being lazy, uncooperative, uncouth, filthy, and/or having too many babies. People used to believe that a person of Irish descent would never be able to attain the Presidency, because people were too prejudiced against the Irish. But John F. Kennedy proved them wrong, and since then a lot of once-scorned nationalities have ascended to the highest ranks of every facet in America. I would love to see a h/l president someday, and I believe we will. And while I feel that the h/l populaiton is often unfairly treated, I strongly feeel that this boycott is not the way to go about getting the respect they so deserve.

Are they upset because of the way American citizens view and/or treat illegal immigrants in this country? That I can understand. Respect for illegals? Absolutely; I think the way illegals are treated is abominable. They are human beings, after all and so do not deserve the abuse or improper treatment that many of them receive for fear of deportation. But at the same time I don't think it would be fair to the legal immigrants who work dang hard for their citizenship and green cards to just hand all the illegals a free pass to American citizenship. My sis's best friend is Chinese-American; he was born in Hong Kong, and his family now lives and works in the U.S. It has been a nightmare for him to get citizenship; some of his siblings were born in Hawaii, and they have been spared the legal woes that a green card contains. But my sis's friend is now more American than Chinese, and he loves it here and wishes to stay. Is it fair that he gets passed over for citizenship but an illegal immigrant from Mexico or Latin America can? I say no. There is a reason for all the citizenship classes and schooling it takes to be a citizen, and circumventing those laws does not make it all work out for the better. If anything, granting all illegals citizenship would set a bad precedent.

Do the h/l people feel that they are unfairly expected to give up their heritage in order to become a citizen? Because anybody descending from immigrants or studying American History knows this not to be the case. In the past, yes, there was a pressure to discard the "old ways" and try to become as American as possible. But nowadays, people recognize the importance of their heritage, and openly celebrate their differing ancestry. My grandparents are still fiercely Swiss, even to this day, the pride of which has been handed down and instilled in us grandchildren. Our family celebrates the Swiss in us in a lot of ways; two examples are the daily foods we like to eat, and in the Swiss concerts we attend annually. Both my mom and I have traveled back to Switzerland to see our culture and relatives there, and one day we will bring Elicia too and show her the true meaning of being Swiss. We as Americans, no matter our backgrounds, are all justly proud of our unique heritages and the strengths that they bring to our country. But at the same time we all as Americans have to be willing to assimilate into the broad heritage that is America. Being an American was so important to my grandparents. They learned English, worked very hard for everything that they have, and my grandmother even had her labor induced early so she could attend the ceremony that made her a full-fledged citizen—being an American was that important to her. No one person or culture in this country is exempt from the americanization of their culture, and they shouldn't be. And it is the same with whatever country you choose to live in. If I wanted to move to Germany, for example, I had beter learn how to speak decent, if not fluent, German, and learn the German culture and modes of behavior if I wish to be fully accepted into German society. I would have to change my American ways—not eradicate them but modify them, in order to say I belong. Sometimes it seems that certain h/l's are not willing to do that here—that they want all the promises of America without having to assimilate and accept the responsibilities of being American. And that is what truly irks me. It doesn't matter to me what country you come from, as long as you are not afraid to try to find your own way of being American in America. Your ways of being an American will be different from mine, but we should both be proud of our shared cultures and accept them. To me, that is what it truly means to be caled an "American."

Here are my solutions to the problem: I think that we either need to allow the illegals work permits but not citizenship, open more slots for immigration from Mexico and the Latin American countries, and/or bring back the work-sponsorship permits that allowed my grandparetns to come here but for some reason were disbanded. (They had someone from America sponsor them, basically vouch for them and find them employment, so they could come to America and work here and gain citizenship. There was potential for the sponsors to abuse their charges, but as long as that is fixed I see no reason to prevent this form of work-sponsorship from helping countless millions of immmigrants to arrive here legally.) And I think the laws they are trying to pass to make it a felony to be an illegal are silly and should be stopped. Yes, illegal immigration is a problem, but it won't stop the flood of illegals and will just cause headaches for the courts. And what do you do with the children of illegals who had no say in coming here; just throw them in prison too? Silly.

Man, the whole immigraton thing is a mess, isn't it? That is my final thought on the matter.

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Forgive me for ranting on a non-design topic. But I consider citizenship and nation-wide politics to be just as important a topic as design or manga (shocking, I know.) And I hope that my rant doesn't too deeply offend anyone, because that is not its intent. I just wanted a chance to blow off some steam on a timely issue. If you truly hate what I have said, just chalk it up to to much sugar for the birthday girl (I am not a big sweets person, and I indulged in far too many sugary confections yesterday), and forgive me my occasional non-design outbursts. I promise you I will return to a regularly-scheduled design comment or rant for my next posts (there is a certain Pearl Jam cover I am gearing up to bash.) And if what I have said truly angers you, post me a message why—I would love a nice, respectful debate on the subject. I love talking over issues with people and debating, so that would be an awesome birthday present. Or you can just wish me happy birthday too—either way is good.)