What If...All the "Immigrants" Would Leave the US?

You've seen that people are REALLY amped up against illegal immigrants. The situation doesn't seem like it will get solved anytime soon. The irony is that the majority of the people that are against immigration fail to realize how similar they are to each other. For example, they are common in the fact that they are primarily in the same economic class - none of them (white, black, latino, etc.) are rich! Regardless it seems that many "native" americans are happy being anti-immigration. Click on the cartoon on the left first and take a good look at it.

QUESTION:
What is the artist of this cartoon implying about "Nativism" and its beliefs on immigration?

Now, check out the video below!



QUESTION:
How would the United States be different today if the true Native Americans would have treated the original European immigrants in Jamestown and Plymouth like the white people treat immigrants today?

"Nativism" in Modern America

Living in New York and coming to school everyday you must realize that immigration is still as big a topic as it was in the 1800s. There are still people that consider themselves "patriots" if they are against illegal immigration. One group even calls themselves "Minutemen" like the fighters in the Revolutionary War. In the video below they are holding an anti-illegal immigrant rally and a Mexican starts filming.



QUESTION:
Did these people seem "patriotic"? Are they the rebirth of the 1800s idea of "Nativism"?

This second video below provides an example of how the anti-immigrant fervor is growing in the US beyond the support of just white people.



QUESTION:
Is it just white people that are anti-immigration? Have you noticed any tension between non-white and immigrant students in the school?

Political Cartoons

You know that by now immigrants in the 1800s were harshly treated legally (laws) and illegally (violence). Chinese on the west coast were being treated harshly as indentured servants working on the railroad. The Irish settled in New York and Boston, and were factory workers when they were allowed to apply for jobs. Meanwhile, Blacks were suffering yet again during Reconstruction were discovering a new racism in the South. Here we'll look at some cartoons that were originally published in the late 1800s. There are 4 in total and has a question - think of this as practice for the Regents Test.

QUESTION1:
What does this imply about the future for Chinese immigrants in the United States?


QUESTION2:
Why are the Chinese moving East and Blacks moving out West?



QUESTION3:
What does this imply about the difference between Blacks and newly arrived Irish immigrants?



QUESTION4:
What does this imply about the differences between immigrant groups and their acceptance into the US?

Wal-Mart Part 2 --- Unions

We've talked about the formation of unions in class so that workers can use collective bargaining to get higher wages, increased benefits, and better working conditions. If the union doesn't succeed the next step is usually to strike. But how are unions seen by the bosses? Do robber barons want their workers to join unions? Do big business even care about unions in your lifetime today?

Below is a video clip from that explains what Wal-Mart does to its workers that are trying to form unions. Watch it and then read the question below.



QUESTION:
How were these Wal-Mart workers treated when they wanted to form a union. What happened to them at work? What happened at the store that was trying to be unionized? How does this connect to the events happening in the Gilded Age in the 1800s?

Source: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, 2005.

Wal-Mart Part 1---The Low Cost of Power

You remember this cartoon right? It portrays the monopolies and trusts and their relationship to the US senate. The general idea was that these trusts can but the senate and therefore have laws written for them which would increase their profits and get them more power.

What about big business today? Follow the link below and read a bit about how Wal-Mart spends its money.

Wal-Mart in Washington

QUESTION:
What is Wal-Mart buying with its profits? How is this similar to what was happening with Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust or Carnegie's US Steel in the late 1800s?