Takaki chapter 12

In Takaki’s chapter 12 entitled El Notre: The Borderland of Chicano America he tackles the migration to America from yet another ethnicity, Mexicans. Crossing the Mexican-American border was extremely easy, border officials only requested your name, place of birth, and where you were headed. Not to mention the many people who skipped the officials and crossed the Rio Grande. In Mexico workers were streaming into urban areas seeking work but so many did so that unemployment became huge. Workers were forced to become tenant farmers or sharecroppers which left them without money or food. The owners of these farms took the entire crop creating starvation through much of Mexico.
This starvation created hostility and lead to The Mexican Revolution, in which Francisco Madero took control in 1911. Soon after however he was over thrown by General Victoriano Huerta until he was pushed into exile. This left the Mexican government in chaos and left many citizens dead. Many Mexicans decided to wait out the brutal revolution in America, but it went on for an extremely long time. Though these citizens wished to eventually return to their homeland but to return would mean to chance being able to find land and the factories and mines in Mexico where shut down.
Like the Irish, many Mexicans came to America to escape starvation. However, unlike the Irish potatoes famine, the starvation in Mexico came from tenant farmers working for nothing and the revolution that came from it. Mexicans were forced to escape the war in order to ensure their safety, and what better place than the melting pot just north. The close proximity and the ease of entry to the United States resulted in large numbers of immigration to the US from Mexico. Since America is so close to Mexico and so easy to enter that Mexicans would come to America temporarily but became trapped when their land as no longer available.
So why didn’t citizens focus on changing their own government instead of escaping to the north? The answer is that the citizens did try to change the country, which is why the revolution started. The oppressed Mexican citizens rose up and took power attempting to change the starvation that hit the nation. However, their leader Francisco Madero was quickly over thrown unable to make changes. What happened actually created more problems adding the blood shed of war to the negative aspects of living in Mexico on top of the starvation and unemployment already occurring.

Takaki ch 6

In Takaki’s chapter entitled Emigrants from Erin: Ethnicity and Class within White America he discusses the hardships the Irish endured. In Ireland there was a deadly disease for potatoes that took Ireland’s cash crop out of existent. In order to stay alive the Irish were forced to immigrate. At the beginning of 1855 around one million people had died from the famine due to lack of food and disease. The “Market Revolution” in America attracted these Irishmen to come join the work force in the states.
The Irish were regarded in America as a great working class group of people. They were compared to Chinese and were put into competition against them in order to increase production. The Chinese were set as role models for the Irish community but the Irish did much more than hard laborers. The Irish were responsible for building one of the most important waterways in New York’s Erie Canal. The Irish were used by those in power to work on many of the needed industrial era. Much like the Chinese and other immigrating ethnicities.
When the Irish were forced out of their homeland, which was plagued with a potatoes famine, they entered America as another ethnicity that would strive to be successful in America. Like the other incoming races, religions, and ethnicities America had seen in this era, the Irish were taken advantage of by the privilege whites. During this time the Chinese was being used to complete railroads, which whites had them doing through putting Chinese into competition with other races and countries such as Japan, Korea, and Puerto Rico? When The Irish entered American they were pinned against the Chinese, who were whites wished them to see as a role model. This resulted in the hard work of a group of people and gave the privilege what they wanted, whites as upper class and minorities working for them.
So why did whites use their privilege to make groups like he Irish into a working class. They did this in order to keep their status as "privileged" and keep any threatening races working for them. Whites were able to make money on the hard work of the Irish just like they did with the Chinese. When whites used their privilege to make the Chinese work for them they had great success, explaining why they chose to repeat this action. By taking advantage of minorities, privilege whites became richer and gained more power, and each time a new minority entered Americas working force whites had another chance to do just that. By putting different minorities against each other whites were able to keep their privilege, which still exists to this day.

Brodkin Jewish

Karen Brodkin’s article titled “How Jews Became White Folks: and What That Says about Race in America” tells the story of how people of Jewish decent went from living in an anti-Semitism America in the 1920’s and 1930’s to now when Jewish people are considered white. Back in the! 920’s and 30’s people like Madison Grant published books like his “The Passing of the Great Race”, which described Jews and other races inferior to whites. However, members of the Jewish community were continually taking prestigious positions in the community but where limited and confined to just a few middle class occupations.
Eventually Jews became more and more prominent until they where associated with being white. After World War II there were countless jobs available enabling the Jewish community to climb the social ladder and accomplish a feat that many minority groups strive to do? That is social mobility or changing social class. Jewish people are a community that pride themselves on hard work and showed this work in their ability to reach a higher social class. As Jews became a higher class they slipped into the white category.
It is wrong for people of other races to be treated so horribly in this country that believes in equality and freedom. To live in a country where there were constant bombardments of against your race, gender, or in this case religion is something that shouldn’t happen. Books were constantly being published to keep other minority groups down and keep whites privileged but the Jewish community rose up and beat the system. They turned their social status around and became prominent leaders in May communities.
Why did whites feel the need to label Jews as a group unworthy of their presence and lesser of a person? During this time many immigrants were coming in from Europe and were all looking to fit into society and make money. It’s the American dream right? But when these people reached America they faced racial and religious hatred by a group of privileged individuals that felt threatened by the new company. That is why once Jews made their mark they became accepted in America’s society.