Blog #1

For this reflection, I’ve chosen to focus on the section titled Ethnic-Racial Composition, found on pages 13 and 14 in the text. I chose this particular section because it’s one that I feel is relevant to my every day life. My mother migrated here from Ethiopia, and I went to high school in the mission district so immigration is something that I’ve constantly been surrounded by. I’ve always been taught that the United States is a melting pot and that’s what makes this country so unique and so different. But given everything that’s been going on in the past couple of years it seems like that immigration isn’t something the United States is proud of. The textbook states that out of the 300+ million people who live in the United States, “ most Americans owe their nationality to some forebear who came here in search of a better life…” (p13). The statue of liberty has the words “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-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” But now there are talks of a wall, stricter immigration laws, children in cages, and bans against entire religious groups. According to the textbook, “Current U.S. Census figures put the Anglo population at 74 percent, the African American population at 13 percent, the Latino population at 15 percent, and the Asian population at 4 percent. (The percentages total more than 100 percent because of some double-counting)” (13). The fact that the population of the U.S. is 74% caucasian makes me question whether the U.S. is as much of a melting pot as they’d like us to believe & whether immigrants are as welcome and as accepted as they preach. A lot of people come to U.S. seeking the American Dream and the idea that if you work hard enough you can achieve anything. But if the U.S. doesn’t give immigrants the chance to do so, or the level playing field that’s being idealized and sold to many of the people migrating here, then why advertise it? Why continue to preach about how this country is a melting pot when we refuse to let it be so.