Hard Working Irish

It is always good to see someone overcome a stereotype. In the case of the Irish, according to Takaki, proving that just because someone is Irish does not automatically make them a lazy person. There were children of Irish immigrants that held high positions in the workplace. The way that they would acquire these jobs would be through hard work; whether they worked their way up through the ranks or focused on school. This shows that it took only one generation for the Irish to become "assimilated" into American culture. Not something that a group of lazy people would be able to do in my opinion. Maybe one day people will be able to look at others without automatically attaching a label to each other.

koh.01

The treatment of natives in the early 19th century really got me going. I'm still astonished as to how they were looked down as "savages" for leading a different way of life. Although, in retrospect, it makes sense; Americans still view the world as "us" against "them". Take a look at the "war on Islam". Book burnings? Really? What does burning the Koran do? It creates more animosity [from Muslims] towards America. Similarly, what did pushing the natives out of their land and attempting to 'assimilate' them into 'American culture' do? Created animosity towards Americans. I see a trend growing. 

America was founded on 'white' principles. 'Land ownership' is extraordinarily 'white'. Because the white settlers 'worked' on the land, they thought they had ownership over it, leading to the 'altercations' between the natives and the settlers. Just like present-day Europe, America is beginning to fear the de-whitening of America (or Western society as a whole). Marginalizing the minority is never a good maneuver (French riots 2000's) and it will only lead to more racial tensions and violence.

Freedom?

As we look at local current events, it's extremely difficult to escape the stories about the Native Americans and their plight to remain able to sell cigarettes tax free on their reservation. Throughout the course of history the Native Americans have lived in fear of the white man and their government. I personally believe that the Takaki article demonstrates the Native American history in a neutral light, while at the same time that neutral light casts a shadow on the neutrality of the white man's actions towards the Native Americans. Throughout my recent years of diving deep into music, I came across the band Rage Against the Machine. my favorite song by Rage Against the Machine is actually off of their self titled debut album; the song is entitled Freedom. Normally this would just be considered babbling but the only reason I bring this up is that the music video for Freedom has a powerful music video that narrates a true story between a Native American tribe and the U.S. Government. Please if you have time check out Youtube and watch the video, the story and the music to support it makes you realize how far the government and white man has come as compared to how far it says it has come.

The Irish

As an Irish-American I am lacking knowledge of what really happened when the Irish fled Ireland to American during the potato famine. I like how the author went into detail about what families had to go through. Now you may think 1 million people is not a lot of people in thirty years but in reality it is. You got to think not only were the ships not as big as they are now but they were also competing again other countries. Another thing that shocked me, was the amount of exporting Ireland did as a country. I didn't know they were so heavily involved with trade in the 1800's especially with England. Now I think the Irish could have saved themselves if they stopped worrying about exporting good and worried about there own countrymen. Some 186,483 cattle were exported. Instead of worrying about making some money they should have been worried about saving themselves and there families. I did not know that a lot of Irish immigrants went to Philadelphia, that was something I had no idea. I liked the detail the author gave to me about the 1800 and 1900's and immigration to America. I could also be bias because i am Irish American as well and enjoyed learning about my culture.

The Irish Exodus

There's a quote in the article that said " the migrants were leaving dear old Ireland without warning to shtart for Philadelphia in the morning." This line really stuck with me cause in my life i have lived in Philly, Buffalo, and New York city and i have to say that Philly is far and away the most Irish city in the country. Philly still has Irish pubs on every street corner and most of your big families and neighborhoods are mainly Irish. I also would love to know how Britain could be so selfish during the potato famine. They have a country that is being decimated with half of its population dieing yet still forced them to send sheep and cattle. If all of Ireland died how would they be able to get those without the Irish, they should have let the keep more of those goods so they would have had more people in the land to raise more livestock and to replace the potatoes, that seems like it would be a win win for the British in my opinion.

The Good of Immigration

Immigration has always been a significant part of United States History, and has refelected many different attitudes among the people of the U.S. There has always been a great opposition to immigration. I feel that part of the reason for this is that people are afraid that their opportunities for prosperity will be taken from new waves of immigrants entering the country. This is evident when the Irish came to the U.S. and faced discrimination while trying to find work. This is because all immigrants come for ultimately the same reason: to gain opportunity for a better life than their home country. However, current citizens that are against new people coming to the U.S. should realize that they have the opportunity to be here because someone in their family stepped up and came to the U.S. for the better of their family. Therefore, they should not deny it from others.
Immigratoin is what provides the backbone of the country. I am here because my grandparents came from Ireland. If they hadn't faced discrimination and stayed here, I wouldnt have the opportunities that I do today. After hearing their story, I was able to see that immigration is what made up so much of our country. They took all the hard jobs and grind that peoplealready here wouldn't do. This is a major reason why even today we should accept the people that want to come to our country because it can help us in the long run.

The Immigration Question

Us Americans have a tendency to assume a lot. As that is the case, we have always assumed that this country we live in belonged to us, and that we have always had the right to live here. However that isn't the case. The subject of the article "The Indian Question" really angered me. It spoke about the way we handled the movement of the Native Americans. In the process we managed to ruin thousands of years of culture and tradition. This is more frustrating when taking into account the fact that we are all immigrants to this country, and that they were here first. This country has been more or less built on immigration, but in the process we nearly wiped out an entire culture of people. Yes, I still say that I am an American, and I do love my country. However, it makes me angry whenever I sit and realize what we did to get the land that I call home.