Mexican Americans and the Golden Door Discussion

Part 1: Chinese, Japanese, Irish, and Jewish Immigrants. Mexican Americans and the Golden Door

Discussion Board 3: Discussion Board 1: This discussion board has three threaded discussions. Select one and write a semi-formal response with a thesis statement, evidence, and significance explained clearly. Then, respond to any instructor feedback and post on two other students’ discussion boards who answered a question different from the one you selected in your initial post. There is no word count as students have different writing styles and but you must demonstrate knowledge of the concepts and readings. All posts must be analytical, not summary, and are required to use and reference required course materials. While additional sources are accepted, they are not required, will not improve your grade, and will not serve as a substitute for demonstrated use of required course materials. Grading: review Discussion Board rubric housed in Student Resources.

Q. 1 – Our nation-building stories tell of brave people who tore up roots to come to contribute to the U.S.A. Most immigrants, we learn, were not welcomed with open arms, but rather faced bitter discrimination.

What were the historical and economic conditions that drove Chinese men immigrants to the U.S.? How did the U.S. benefit from Chinese immigration? How did the experience of Chinese women differ from men? In what ways did the experience of Japanese immigrants differ from their Chinese predecessors?

What attributes did the Chinese and Japanese share that made their ‘welcome’ into American culture more problematic than that of the Irish and the Jews? Which of these four groups was made to feel most welcome, the most quickly? Your answer should discuss race and religious differences, and political policies, and specifically what has come to be known as the wages of whiteness (p. 143). In your answer, reflect upon what you learned from this week’s Takaki Chapters 8 and 10 and Lecture 7, and provide examples from Week One documentary, The Shadow of Hate and this week’s video: A Challenge to Democracy.

Q. 2 –The Jewish people have suffered history’s ‘longest hatred.’ To help you reflect upon this, watch the Week 3 video by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on the Historical Evolution of Anti-Semitism.

Attacks on Jews, Synagogues, and Jewish graveyards are on the rise in the USA and in Europe. Using what you learned from the video, Lecture 6, and Takaki Chapter 11. What do you think is behind this upsurge in anti-Semitism?

Q. 3 – Persons of Hispanic and Latino origins have had a curious relationship with America throughout history.

In Hispanic locales such as Texas and California during the early- and mid-1800s, Hispanics invited foreign American explorers to stay and settle amidst their culture with the expectations that the American would adapt to their language, religion, and customs. This relationship would soon change as the U.S. began to act like the uninvited party guests, ignore rules, and overrun these territories. Ultimately, the U.S. ‘crashed’ and over-populated these Mexican-held territories in California and the Southwest to the point that the U.S. declared war on Mexico in 1846. The outcome of the Mexican-American War (1846-8) provided that the northern half of Mexico was forced in the treaty between the U.S. and Mexico to be sold to the United States (See Week 3 materials showing the shifting borders).

America would then invite Latinos to settle in the U.S. during the 1900s with the same requisites: learn the language and adopt American customs. Latinos migrated en masse during various periods of the early 1900s to toil and labor on behalf of the interests of the US economy – when the economy was good. When the economy turned downward, though, Latinos were often the first populations to be let go from their job, discriminated against, and in numerous cases, forcibly deported back to their home countries.

Based on Takaki Chapters 7 and 12 and the video: Destination America: The Golden Door, what has/hasn’t changed for Latinos in the US in the past few decades?. What are some of the similar struggles Latinos continue to face in America in the present-day? Make the connection between the past and present.

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Part 2: Respond to TWO classmates

Post an initial response Thursday, by midnight, PST, and two responses to other students’ postings by Sunday, by midnight. PST.