American Jobs

With today's economy, now more than ever, American citizens are concerned with finding and keeping a job. Many people seem to believe that the immigrants coming into the United States are at fault for the many people who are unemployed. In the history of the United States, patterns and needs of immigrants to fulfill jobs and laws and policies regarding immigration have changed frequently and they have all shaped the structure of our country today.
The United States was founded by people who wanted better lives and still today, people are looking to come to this country to do this exact same thing. I ask the quesition, if our ancestors were able to come to the United States to create a new life and find work, why can't other immigrants do the same thing today?
Many may answer this question by saying that it is not okay for these people to come and take jobs away from U.S. citizens, but are they really taking them away? Many immigrants take low paying, dangerous jobs, or jobs that require them to clean or serve others in some way. I wonder who actually shows up for the interviews for these positions. Do white, American citizens actually want these jobs? I do believe that if the choice is between an American citizen (even if it is an immigrant that has become legal) or an illigal immigrant, the job should definitely go to the U.S. citizen but I sill just question whether most Americans would be willing to take such a job. President Bush made a good point by saying that it's a fact that there are some jobs in the U.S. that Americans just are not filling. If Americans aren't going to take these jobs, who else is left to take them but immigrants? I also agree with many of the points that Michele Wucker made in the article, "American Jobs". She explained that immigrants, both legal and illegal have actually helped increased the number of jobs in American and that immigration has helped keep prices down by having lower labor costs and sufficient number of workers to complete the job. I think that it is very true that without immigrant workers, companies may not have had enough employees to produce enough goods to make money and without immigrant labor, wages may increase. Both of these would cause prices to go up, making U.S. citizens pay more for products. Also many products may never have been made and companies may have have been able to expand. There are many immigrants that bring new ideas and skills to higher level positions have have helped U.S. companies improve.
Of course there are two sides to this story and I do agree that American citizens shouldn't be losing their jobs to illegal immigrants but I do not think that anyone can deny that the United States needs immigrant workers to keep this country going.

Have European descents lost their ethnic identities?

America is known for coining the term “melting pot,” which is meant to describe the assimilation of immigrants coming to the United States in the early 1900’s and a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous. However, it seems in many ways that we are becoming a society that is trying to be too homogeneous. We all know that America is made up of many different races, cultures, and languages but most people hide their heritage under the American, socially constructed physical and linguistic standards, which are centered around European Americans. This puts a lot of pressure on people, especially those with nationalities from and around Europe, to let go of their original nationalities and fit into this Americanized mold.

As more time passes from when immigrants first arrived in the United States in the 1900’s, I believe most white American’s see their ancestral nationality being less relevant to their daily lives. This is because if you speak English, look white and no one can physically distinguish your nationality, then no one really cares where your great grandfather was from because you are just considered an American. As a result, most white Americans, whose ancestors most likely came from Europe and its surrounding areas, are becoming so Americanized that their heritage is disappearing. America is supposed to represent the land of the free for a society diverse in culture but it is more and more becoming the land of the homogenious whites.

I was born in the United States and although I know I am part Irish, Polish and Croatian, it is not an aspect of my life that I view as important. No one can tell by my appearance, how I speak or how I act, what my nationality is so it does not have any detrimental influence on my daily life. I also realize that I have no idea what most of my close friends nationalities are, besides them being white, which proves what little effect nationality can have unless it is physical. Although, I try to remain somewhat connected to my nationality by occasionally cooking food related to my ethnicity and celebrating fun holiday’s like St Patrick’s day, I find myself blended together with everyone else who looks white. Americans from or around the European area do not embrace their individual culture as a result of being “Americanized.” This suggests that one needs to look ethnic in order to be considered a different nationality other than American.

African, Hispanic and Asia American’s all have obvious physical features that make them look much different then the broad group of European Americans. As a result, their ethnicities play a much bigger role in their lives here in America. People can tell what nationality they are up front and therefore almost expect them to have certain behaviors, traditions, characteristics, and languages. Although they are “Americanized,” as well in some ways it is their physical differences that constantly reinforce their culture, which they then cannot ignore.

This makes me wonder if people from Europe and surrounding areas each had more distinct physical features then maybe different types of European Americans would embrace their culture better and not be one large integrated group.

White Privilege

There is no question that the advantages inherent in “whiteness” have been socially and historically constructed. Our country is shaped by the concept that whiteness is the ‘norm,’ but in reality it is a system designed to or, at a minimum, that has evolved to maintain gender and racial divisions. Although most people understand that there are obvious problems in our society that put people of color at a disadvantage, very few people notice the inherent advantages that favor white people, even though whites are generally unaware of most of these inherent advantages. And even more to the point, if most white people are not even aware of the advantages our society affords them, how can we move toward a more equal society?

The idea known as white privilege is a consciousness-raising idea that shows how the unearned privilege of being white in America can dramatically shape ones life. Most white people are not even aware of the advantages our society confers on them because of their whiteness. Perhaps this is why the system works so effectively to maintain white privilege.

As Peggy McIntosh discusses in her essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” that most men do not realize the full extent of their privileges based on their sex. Similarly, many white people might are unaware of the advantages of their race and, basically do not even think of themselves as having a racial identity. As a white woman, I know that racism and sexism exist. But I do not get too distressed about it, especially about the race aspect, because I know it does not always affect me first hand. I do not know what it feels like to be oppressed by my race. I do, however, understand the disadvantages that stem from being a woman in society so, by extension; I can attempt to relate my gender-based disadvantages to the disadvantages others endure due to race.

In my opinion, white women have an advantage over white men in understanding the subtle, even unconscious, advantages white people enjoy precisely because they are similar to some of the advantages men have over women. Whether we like it or not, we live in a socially constructed society that is centered on patriarchal capitalism. Although gender equality, like racial equality, has made a lot of progress since the beginning of our country, women obviously are still not seen as equal. Women are often disadvantaged in the workplace. Again, the lack of awareness white people have regarding their racial advantage is similar to the lack of awareness most men have concerning their gender-based advantages.

This lack of awareness has resulted in men continuing to maintain their unearned privilege as evidenced in part by their roles in the workplace. Men control most of the high-ranking jobs including all but 10 of 500 CEO positions in the top corporations. Only 20 percent of the professors at the UW are women and only 17% of law firm’s are women. Part of a man’s “invisible backpack” is the comfort of knowing that most of their co–workers, at least those with real authority, will also be male. Moreover, they know that they will not be put in a position where they have to choose a career over family and they generally know that their gender will not cause them to be not taken seriously on a job. We as a society are so used to seeing men in professionally higher positions that we do not even notice the constructed dimensions surrounding their success.

The subtleness of male privilege is similar to that explaining racial privilege. Everyone always says girls can do whatever boys can do and this is empowering but, in reality, women have to work extremely hard to earn the same respect that men do solely for being born male. This is the same for minorities having to work hard to be seen in the same way as whites. White’s reap benefits daily that minorities do not enjoy due to socially constructed ideals that are ignored because we are trained to think we, white people, are just the ‘norm.’ The real problem is that part of my ‘disadvantage” as a woman relates to subtle, unconsciously enjoyed, advantages enjoyed by men. This is the same deal on the racial front as far as I can tell.

The real question is what do we do to level the gender and racial playing field when most men and white people are generally unaware of their advantages? Some of the “daily effects of white privilege” that McIntosh identifies can be addressed by affirmative effort. For example, a white person (or a male) “can count on my skin color [or gender] not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.” We now have laws that prevent discrimination and even though there are people who can sidestep these laws, these types of situations can be approved by direct intervention of our society setting norms through legislation.

Other types of white privilege are far less amenable to such direct intervention. For example, as a white woman, I can be reasonably sure of having my voice “heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race” whereas a minority might not feel that way. Can we do anything that would help minorities to feel this way as well? Obviously, “legislating” this would not work. But we can individually do our best to listen to others, and to affirmatively draw others out as well.

I could go on with dozens of examples. But what does everyone else think? How can we move forward?