Author: Sophie Langa

In this chapter of Who Are We  Huntington talks about the renewing of the American identity. He says that there are four main shaping trends that are influencing this; the ending of ethnicity, race is constant, blurring and fading, bifurcation, and a gap between the salience of national identity. 

Huntington says that there is an end to ethnicity in the country. People from all over the world are losing their native countries identity and making one as the American people. This is happening from years of assimilation though multiple generation. There are no longer ethnic separations in education, occupations or residencies. He says that interethnic marriages are creating this melting pot reality, and now we are shifting from a “ multiethnic society of a few dozen ethnic groups into a nonethnic society of tens of millions of multiethnic individuals” (299). 

Race to Huntington is blurring and fading in the new identity. Again, interracial marriages are blurring the lines between races because the offspring is not identifying as one are but both, “More Americans think of themselves as multi-racial rather than as belonging to a single race” (306). Due to the fact that there is an increase and acceptance of multiracial marriages the line of defining oneself to one race has become a tricky situation, so much so that the government has provided the option of checking multiple race options on forms. 

Bifurcation has happened for two main reasons. Firstly, the growing numbers of Hispanics has halted assimilation of the group because they want to keep their identity in a Spanish speaking Hispanic community apart from the Anglo-protestant community. Secondly this is causing a bilingual, bicultural society for the group. 

Lastly Huntington argues that there is a democratic divide between the elites and the public. He says that the elites are more liberal and less nationalistic than the general public causing their bigger influence to push the government their way. The public is more focused on military security and the domestic economy while the elites are invested with international security, and economic development of foreign nations. 

This movie was a very moving experience. Immigration is a topic that has been talked about for so many years in the classroom and in the world. Living in the north east you only experience the after effect of immigration and not the in person constant struggle. The documentary allowed for people to experience in real time the struggles behind why so many people are risking their lives to make the journey to America. The documentary follows the 2,000 mile journey many have made for a better life. 

            In the first half of the movie you see the beginning of the journey start for the people who are trying to escape their lives. In their native country they are struggling economically and socially because of revolts and police brutality. This is no way for any human to live and many have realized that. The one woman talks about the hardships for her family. They are natives of Honduras and she has two little girls. Her husband can no longer work because he is sick, and she is the sole person keeping her family alive. She was driven to America by her motherly instincts. She knew that if she stayed not only would her children starve but they would have no future. She wanted her children to have an education, a basic human right, so they can get a good job and not have to worry about food and money for their children like she has too. 

            The hardships for many of these immigrants does not stop once they have left their country. They face imprisonment in America since they are illegal, because they couldn’t get visas. Starvation and brutality are very strong among these immigrants. Once in America they need jobs and a home, which are both hard to come by since they have to do so secretly. They are subject to the worse types of treatment because they cannot go to the police, or they will be deported. Family drives so many immigrants. Mothers and fathers see that their current situation is not humane, so they take their children and run to what they think will be a better life. 

            The most moving part of this movie is the sections on immigrant shelter. These men and women have dedicated their lives to ending the suffering of those who decided to leave their country. They provide food and shelter for those who are displaced. They see the children suffering on the train and it brings them to tears, all they want it is to help them. They help those who have been captured by Mexican police on their journey to America. Not only were their dreams crushed when the Mexican police, because they didn’t make it to America, but they were brutally treated by them. Many of them lose hope for a better life under the care of the Mexican police when they are shipped back to their countries. This is where these shelters come in, the men and women take them in and try to help them regain a hope for life. The women in the film from the shelter cried when she talked about the children who were on these shipments back. They were alone, hungry, confused. She said that she never wanted her son to immigrate because she has seen this fate for so many that have tried. So she is trying to give him a better life where they are. 

After our talk with Amy Wax, I still find myself disagreeing with her main arguments. I feel that her views on the topic are ones that have been formed after a lifetime of privilege and little experience in someone else’s shoes. She has never been a black American in this country, only a white woman who pity and attraction has followed. For the majority of white Americans, they will never firsthand feel the wrongs that are being done to many black Americans. Two of her main points in our conversation were black’s underachievement in education and family structure. She says that it is up the black community to want a better education so they can have a step up like the rest of us. Yet I find this very hard to believe. Education is run by the government which is notoriously white and whiter. The school districts are drawn to give a ‘fair’ education to all, but in so many cases this is not true. I do not think that is it is a consequence that there are so many districts were 80% or more of the student body is black, and then their neighbor district is 80% or more white. It is all shown that these district that are a majority black have few resources given to them for school supplies and quality of teachers. There have also been so many psychological studies that teacher inherently discriminate toward black students and do not take the time to teach as well because they know that statistically they will be imprisoned most of their lives. So, these teachers focus their efforts on the promising students or better known as the white students. On the note of incarceration, she points out that most black American families are households of one. This has a huge part to do with the racial profiling in the judicial system. If a crime was committed and there were two suspects one white male, one black males, and the witness did not see the skin color of the assailant at the time of the crime, it is statically proven that the jury will convict the black male. The incarceration rate for black males is 5 to 12 times higher compared to white males depending on the crimes. Therefore therefor 5 to 12 times more black families will have one parent homes because their fathers are imprisoned. This cycle won’t stop either because young black men are taught that their future is jail as well, because of their skin color they will be accused of things then white men did. This stigmatize makes black males less likely to go through higher education because they feel that this is a cycle, they cannot break themselves, therefor causing the next generation to go fatherless as well. These two vicious cycles will not change due to a new mind set for black Americans like Wax states. These are cycles of systematic oppression that are driven by the white communities lack of wanting to give up their privileges. Nothing will change like she says it will unless the nation decides to change. 

The first chapter of George Borjas’s book brings up a lot of topics. He touches on ideas of his own personal immigration and the reactions of Americans when the topic of immigration is brought up. It is interesting to see someone’s life story of being an immigrant into a country that has a reputation of being a melting pot, but to see how his interactions with the topic show something very different. 

            Borjas talks about how he was brought up in his early years in Havana. He witnessed the Cuban rebellion and did not seek refuge with his family right away. His father was sick during this time, so they had to endure the hardships that were given to them in Cuba. His school was shut down and the ‘crazy-eyed’ people were the ones teaching them about what was politically happening in their world. His stories bring a new light into why people leave their homelands to seek refuge in another. He came to the USA in the 60’s when he was only twelve years old, after his father had died. As a young teen he was excited to see what the US had to offer him for a new life. Yet he later found out it wasn’t all movie stars and money that awaited him. 

            The early parts of this book showed me a different side to the immigration argument. I always knew that people objected immigrants and claimed that they were stealing our jobs, but Borjas actually found they were helping America. These immigrants that we are trying to run out of the country are rising our national wealth and are actually making us a more productive country. They are taking the jobs that no one wants because Americans believe they are better than those jobs. The immigrant community is our working class. If we didn’t have this working class the economy would crumble, because everything would be outsourced to other countries. I found it very interesting how we are deliberately ignoring as a country that these immigrants are our backbone.