America runs on Immigrants

America Runs on Immigrants

“The truth is, immigrants tend to be more American than people born there.” Quote by Chuck Palahniuk.

Immigrants are the rock of America, yet Americans have often had a tempestuous relationship with newcomers. They have made many positive contributions to America over the years; they enforce uphold American values, contributed to the economy, and enriched America’s culture with their fashion, recipes, and brilliance. Many Americans seemed to forget that they too are immigrates.

Oh! America the great, why are you letting fear destroy you.  Americans are fearful of what may come. And the politicians are not helping instead Politicians are trying to turn America back in time by promising to build a wall and deport DACA immigrants. DACA act stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, basically, if a child came in the United State as an immigrant, they are given a two year period of protection from deportation and are eligible for a work permit. Former President Barack Obama announced it on June 15, 2012, and USCIS started accepting applications on August 5, 2012.

 

Fear is an amazing form of cancer which cripples’ individuals and makes them inchoated. Change is inevitable. Many, Americans are afraid immigrants would change America’s character, identity, culture, and values presumably for the worse.

 

Source: Instagram

 

America’s leaders once let fear manipulate them into passing, the Emergency Quota Act of 1924 was passed by former President Warren G Harding limiting 3% of that county population would have a chance of migrating. For example in Russian in 1924, the population was 96893 so only 2,907 people could migrate to America per year. The data was retrieved from populstat.info.

Instead of weakening the values of democracy America, immigrants seek to enrich and revitalize its institutions, beliefs, and values – a common belief in liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.

Just like the puritans, who fled from England seeking refuge and the freedom to worship freely. Immigrates also migrated to America seeking refuge, a chance to raise children who are given to opportunity to go to school, and to express themselves without fear of government retribution, and to change their economic destiny.

There’s a rumor going around that the cause of the lack of jobs is because immigrants and that immigrants are always looking for a handout. Which is entirely wrong immigrants are most likely to be in the workforce because of immigration fee, lawyer fees and sending money back home to family. Then there’s also the need to realize that the majority of the time immigrants and native Americans are not completely for the same job. Economists Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney wrote for the Hamilton project saying,  “Immigrants and US-born workers generally do not compete for the same jobs, Instead, many immigrants complement the work of US employees and increase their productivity.”

People must realize immigrants are not foreign as it relates to hard work. I have seen my father stubbornly refuse help because he says, “Taking something that I didn’t work for is stealing. Everything I have I sweat for it..” Immigrants are more than likely to start a new business venture than native Americans. They are all about hustling through life.

“There are about 2.9 million entrepreneurs in the U.S. who are foreign-born and these entrepreneurs’ companies accounted for roughly $65 billion in business income in 2014.”According to a report by the New Americans economy.

 

According to Michael Blanding, “One-quarter of entrepreneurs are immigrants.” Many companies that are making America exceptional are founded by immigrants and refugees. For example, Tesla, a manufacturer of electric car, was founded by Elon Musk, who migrated from South Africa. Google, the #1 search engine, was founded by Sergey Brin, an immigrant who migrated with his parents when he was young from the Soviet Union. The following was also founded by immigrates eBay, PayPal, Capital One, Nordstrom, BNY Mellon, Kohl’s, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Kraft Heinz, Comcast and many more. Can you imagine life without Google or Comcast (which has been renamed Xfinity)?

Immigrants are the backbone of America and they too are Americans. So, why is the government making it so hard for them to enter the U.S.A?

By: Jennifer Pierre

 

 

 

 

One People, One Nation

Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Japan, China and Mexico are only a various amount of countries that people travel from to find residence in the United States. The U.S is not only made up of Americans; but Cubans, Haitians, Chinese, etc. The first tribe to be found living in early America were Native Americans. My parents were born in Jamaica, making them Jamaicans. They moved to the United States when they were young adults staying with their siblings.

When my mom was in her early 20’s, she moved to New York to temporarily stay with one of her older brothers. After which, she moved into an apartment in the Bronx before making her move to Florida. She is a hardworking person like everyone else who wanted the best for herself. Immigrants play a vital role in the country.

Presently, “[m]ore than 40 million people living in the U.S were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants in 2017” according to writer Jynnah Radford. When these immigrants arrived in America, they have decided to put the past lives behind and start afresh with a new beginning. They work hard in whatever position they have been able to obtain, whether it may be a cashier or retail sales at a phone company. According to Arloc Sherman et. they state “[Immigrants] geographic mobility helps local economies respond to worker shortages, smoothing out bumps that could otherwise weaken the economy”. Without them, we could be dealing with serious problems that could negatively affect the country.

America is a melting pot full of cultures that groups have brought from around the globe. Among the cultures brought to the U.S are diverse food dishes, music, language, and more. We should appreciate each other despite our differences and find common ground. Everyone comes from different countries and it should be respected and proudly represented in the U.S. Gilles Pison reported that “According to the United Nations, the United States has the highest number of immigrants… with 48 million in 2015…”. That is what the U.S is about, boldly celebrating numerous cultural backgrounds.

Next time when an immigrant moves in your town, be polite and invite him or her on a tour around the neighborhood or take the person out to dinner. You may never know what a small act of kindness can do. It is possible that at the end, the pair might end up as friends. The person can introduce their culture and learn facts never known before. It can make a difference during the person’s transition and also make a good first impression.

By: Marissa Downie

How America takes advantage of its immigrants

Ryan Marin

“America is a nation of immigrants.” It’s a phrase that has been used to discuss our country for many years, and one that many Americans say with pride. The statement is also factually true, as we currently have 44.5 million immigrants residing in the United States. When you account for their U.S-born children it rises to 89.4 million people, or 28% of our population (Migration Policy Institute, 2018).

Immigration has shaped America by introducing us to other cultures, more specifically the Latin culture. We have picked up many things, such as their language, food, and their best athletes. They also provide substantial benefits for the United States economically. Sadly, America has taken advantage of this, as we have stolen many of those ideas and customs for our benefit, while hurting the people who brought them to us in the first place. While we are doing this, we are beginning to see immigrants who have overcome increasingly difficult obstacles and challenges to speak on the issues facing them and their people. This is helping them get involved with the political process, and allows immigrants to tell their stories from their point of view. 

America has picked up many things from the Latin culture. According to the PEW research center (2013), “With 37 million speakers, Spanish is by far the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. today. The number of [Spanish] speakers [is] up 233% since 1980, when there were 11 million Spanish speakers”.  Two years of a foreign language class is now required to go to many colleges and universities in the United States, and the most common language taken is Spanish. It has become increasingly important and beneficial to speak multiple languages as America now has a significant Hispanic population of 59.9 million, up from 47.8 million in 2008 (PEW, 2013). America has also become fond of latin cuisine, as hispanic style fast food chains have spiked in popularity. According to QSR Magazine (2018), Taco Bell has become the fifth most lucrative food chain in America, with Chipotle clocking in at twelfth. We’ve even taken many of their best athletes for our sports, such as in the MLB, where many of the best players in the game immigrate from latin countries. They are discovered as children and teens and go to training academies and work on baseball year round, and eventually go to the minor and major leagues if they are good enough. Many have become stars of the game, such as Javier Baez, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, and many others.

While we have gained many cultural benefits from immigration, immigration also provides massive economic benefits for the United States. First, as American citizens become older and retire, we have to figure some way to keep the workforce young and pay for services in the social safety net such as social security and medicare. Immigration is often a large part of a solution to this problem. Immigrants come here and enter the workforce, unable to access America’s social safety net, while paying taxes such as the payroll tax that helps fund social security and medicare. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, over 75 years “ the fiscal impacts of immigrants are generally positive at the federal level and generally negative at the state and local level.” Immigrants give the federal government more in taxes than they receive in benefits, but at the state and local level they receive more benefits than they pay in taxes due to their native born children going to school. America benefits substantially from immigration, and it is one of the reasons that they are a global power.

While all this may benefit Americans, it is troubling to me is that we often steal from these people and countries and make it our own, actively hurting them in the process. More people are speaking spanish than ever before in America, but when someone who looks hispanic begins to speak spanish, we get angry and tell them to go back to their country. We enjoy spanish food, but instead of supporting small businesses that make authentic latin cuisine. We go to places such as Taco Bell and Chipotle, gigantic corporations with a white CEO who pays poverty wages to their employees, many of whom are people of color and immigrants. In baseball, we take the best athletes from Central and South America, many of them poor teenagers, and pay them extremely low wages for over ten years. As soon as they aren’t profitable and we have no use for them anymore, we send them back to their impoverished countries without a second thought. When we discuss immigrants in the workforce, we believe that they work for little pay to reduce wages for natural born citizens, that they take advantage of the government and the social safety net, and that they commit massive amounts of crimes. In reality, they do the jobs that Americans do not want to do because we feel that we are too good for those jobs, and essentially better than immigrants. Immigrants also pay into the social service system while receiving very little from it and contribute to keeping our workforce young. Most importantly, immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born citizens, despite the right wing media exclaiming the opposite. But even if all of those things were the opposite, and they did not provide a huge economic or cultural boost, we have a moral obligation as a country to be welcoming of people all throughout the world. Immigrants deserve human rights and decency, as they are humans as well, and those who deny it simply have evil in their hearts. We are supposed to be a country where anything is possible, a country of hope and opportunity, but for immigrants it often times is a country of oppression, racism, and false promises. Luckily, more and more immigrants have been able to break through and become part of mainstream American culture, and we have been able to hear a unique perspective on immigration that we have not often heard before: the perspective of the person immigrating to this country.

Until recently, we have lacked representation from latin countries. For so long we have not given these people a voice, as we are often exploiting them and want to continue to do so. We have seen our country slowly allow immigrants and latin americans to enter the mainstream, particularly in music. Today, some of our most popular musicians are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from latin america. Cardi B, an extremely popular musician from New York, is black with a Dominican and Trinidadian ethnicity. What makes Cardi B special is that she is outspoken about her political affiliation, as she is an avid Bernie Sanders supporter. She recently had a sitdown meeting with him to discuss issues such as healthcare and immigration. The importance of this cannot be understated. In America, our young people are extremely disconnected from the political process. They are struggling to get by and are doing worse than generations before them. Sadly, their response is to simply tune out politics, which in effect is only worsening their situations. Cardi B understands this, and is using her voice to influence her followers to get involved politically and learn about the ways that America is rigged against them. As many of her supporters are Black and Latin women, this is extremely important, as they are often the people who are most affected by harmful immigration and labor laws. Rihanna, arguably the biggest pop star in the world, is from Barbados. While she is an extremely successful musician and businesswoman, she consistently speaks out against the treatment and demonization of immigrants in America. She often discusses Donald Trump and his horrible immigration policies, and offers a unique perspective on immigration due to being an immigrant herself. “Wherever I go, except for Barbados, I’m an immigrant. But I think it’s important for people to remember, if you love me, everyone out here is just like me. A million Rihannas out there, getting treated like dirt” (Cut, 2019). The power in those words is undeniable. Until recently, immigrants have lacked representation and people that can speak on issues surrounding immigrants and their treatment in America. Providing a voice for those who have been voiceless for so long in mainstream American culture is extremely important. It gives Americans a new perspective on how America treats its immigrants that we didn’t have before, and allows immigrants to speak about the injustices they have faced in this country.

We are a country that is proud of its diversity, but only when it is beneficial to us. One day, we will begin to make amends for all the harm that we have done to these people, but with the current person in office, I do not see that happening anytime soon. So instead of making amends for our sins, we will continue to demonize and fearmonger immigrants, despite everything they do for our country. 

Sources:

https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/immigrants-have-enriched-american-culture-enhanced-our-influence-world

U.S. Hispanic population reached new high in 2018, but growth has slowed

https://www.livescience.com/28945-american-culture.html

https://www.thecut.com/2019/06/rihanna-takes-a-stand-for-immigrants.html

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/content/americas-25-most-lucrative-fast-food-chains

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#Children

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/08/america-the-continent-vs-america-the-country.html

 

Miseducation of Education

Good grades equal a good career. Good career equals success. Put in work, and you’ll get rewarded. That’s the promise of education we’ve all been fed. It sounds great, simple even, as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. Is it really a promise, or just another fantasy this world has sold? No one can deny that education is important. However, it’s the obstacles within it that make advancement and accomplishment a little more challenging for some than others. People of color face barriers to success every single day that white people wouldn’t dream of having to worry about.

During the era of slavery, education of African Americans was often discouraged. Allowing slaves to read would give them knowledge to information whites didn’t want them to know (i.e., the Haitian Revolution and the Underground Railroad). Knowledge is power, and the whites knew that. Hence, why they did everything they could to ensure that the slaves would remain inferior to them.

I believe that slavery plays a role in how African Americans view education. I also believe that we are not too far from slavery when it comes to education. According to Brian Bridges at UNCF, 45.9 percent of black students complete their degrees in six years. With all the tools and resources that are available to us in this day and age, how is it that not even half of the black students enrolled in school can get their degree? I’ll tell you how. Minority schools are underfunded, undereducated, and mistreated. They are literally doing the same thing they did over 150 years ago—withholding information from us, treating us like we’re not good enough to absorb the same knowledge that they do. People like Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos are at the forefront of that notion, considering they want to cut the budget from public schools, which majority of students of color attend.

Let’s be clear: systemic racism is an obvious and widespread problem in our society, and we all need to do a better of confronting it. There’s this burning desire in the hearts of those—not of color—to see African Americans fail. To see us at the bottom where they’ve always felt liked we belong. Without addressing its historical foundation, we may never be able to fully address the consequences of our history. We may not be at fault for our country’s history, but we are responsible for what we do with it. We determine whether we want to watch history repeat itself, or if we want to look it in the eye and tell it to stay in its place—the past.

 

By: Britney Joseph

The Gilded Age

Image: ARE WE LIVING IN THE GILDED AGE 2.0?                           HISTORY.COM

Evolution is a term that describes the elevation to a new level. Each day an organism or us humans evolve, through our environment, opportunities, and experiences. But what does it mean to evolve? Well as an example within a typical working environment various tasks are given to be completed, at first, it may seem daunting and laborious but overtime those tasks become easier and the completion time shortens. This example truly shows that evolution is an on-going process even sub-consciously, but might you ask can the same be said for a nation? well definitely we are all humans but due to our different perspectives on life and thought processes, we may evolve differently which can be either viewed as positive or negative by others. As most may have learned through either history class or American historical material would have known of the “Gilded Age,” this is the period in which rapid advancement of the United States’ society occurred e.g. economic, technological, political, and social. The individuals described as the pioneers of this period were; Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Mr. John Pierpont Morgan, and Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Although many have said that these men initiated this country’s development. How they did it can be viewed as unethical; through corruption, power, and force which is also inclusive of ill-treating their workers whether natives or immigrants through exploitation because they saw them as unfit humans, due to their lower classes and even possibly their skin color since the air of discrimination still existed in that period even after the revolution. Eventually, this led to them becoming brandished with the title of “Robber Barons.” It can be agreed that no human should be viewed as tools or should harbor feelings of inferiority. Those words may be the foundation of today’s modern society since most humans now have the opportunity to build wealth, but because this period focused on power and wealth, and with a twisted society that had little opportunities for lower-class what could they have done? Not much at all they only had one choice for survival which they inevitably had to choose.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph this period was governed by power and wealth. It is clear that the Robber Barons were no saints but with their drive to continually improve their businesses; it would eventually resonate into assisting in improving their society to bolster their reputations and create more business opportunities. If there are constant improvements within a society then a country will eventually benefit. It will allow for a better economy, improved financial stability, and allow citizens to receive the opportunities they could only wish for. So even if the morals of these men were outdated and prejudiced, they all had a similar goal to make a better life not only for themselves but also to the land that gave them their foundation for success.

The effects they had on society allowed for the rapid accumulation of immigrants for new cities such as; New York, Boston Philadelphia, St. Louis and Chicago. With this influx, housing and other infrastructures would be required which means increased employment rate for construction workers and with more immigrants entering, constant revenue would be generated.

Although this approach to reach supremacy was not ideal, sometimes there must be a sacrifice to extend or improve something already existing. For example, for plants to flourish and grow other plants had to become their nutrients; not implying that sacrifice will ever be a good thing but as shown it can become necessary. The only thing that can be said now is that we should be grateful for our current modern society and only continue to rise to a more positive future and order to mend our severed relationships and co-exist as an advanced species.

By: Nahgeem Annakie

 

 

Immigration is the Foundation of America

The U.S. is the country with the biggest immigrant population in the world. Jose Luis Magana/AP

Settlers, industrialists, inventors, laborers, and artistic masterminds. America is a diverse hotbed bursting at the seams with cultural spirit. Like the thousands of threads that form a finely woven quilt, each immigrant and their contribution is an essential fragment that molds America. Their determined drive, their often-calloused hands, and illusions pump life into the U.S. system. Without immigrants, there would be no continuation of the American dream.

While the propaganda of immigrants being “others” in comparison to those who were born here is a rhetoric that has found no end, I can’t help but scoff at it. Considering that their ancestors didn’t magically fall from the sky onto U.S. soil, none of them, save for the indigenous people who’d always been here, can claim that they don’t have immigrant blood running through their veins.

Some of their ancestors were forced, some came voluntarily. But they all wound up here either way.

Today, America continues to stand on the shoulders of the immigrants who shaped it and they continue to sculpt the American image. According to the Institute for Human Sciences, an estimated 70 million immigrants have landed since the nation’s inception, all of who form the current day population. And currently, they are the backbone of America’s labor force as entrepreneurs and a major player in the stability of the Social Security Trust Fund, with up to $300 billion in contributions. Couple that with their cultural and structural impact throughout the ages and you have a reality that can’t be denied.

If you don’t believe me, then let me run down a short list of some of America’s most transformative immigrants.

Levi Strauss was from Bavaria. Had he not left for New York City at age 18, we would not have jeans—a timeless fashion invention that evolved from standard wear for cowboys, to a statement of rebellion for 1950’s greasers, to a worldwide staple in peoples’ closets today.

Albert Einstein took refuge in America in the 1930s. Spending the remainder of his life in the U.S., he cemented his place in western history as a progressive physicist, pacifist, critic of racism, and supporter of the NAACP. At Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, he boldly denounced racism to be “a disease of white people” when it was unpopular to do so, to say the least.

Dr. James Naismith immigrated from Canada to Massachusetts in 1891. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have wound up working at his local YMCA. It was while working there that he was inspired to create the game of basketball, one of America’s leading multi-million-dollar sports leagues.

More recently, we also have also Sergey Brin. He moved from the Soviet Union to Maryland as a child. He then went on to become a computer science graduate from Stanford University, which paved the way to him becoming the internet entrepreneur who co-founded Google—a vital and interactive search tool that people use daily.

And the list goes on and on.

Immigrants salute the Statue of Liberty en route to Ellis Island. Edwin Levick/Getty Images

It would also be remiss of me to not mention immigrants’ culinary impact on America. According to PBS.org, over 4 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. between 1880 and 1924. Without their contribution, mouthwatering dishes like spaghetti and meatballs would’ve never become an American dinner standard. And without the nearly 6 million German immigrants that settled in the U.S. before WWI, we would’ve never had perhaps the most all-American of foods—the hamburger.

Likewise, if the Chinese hadn’t sought opportunities in California and New York City, despite the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, we would’ve never had a Chinatown on both coasts, much less the string of Chinese American restaurants that exist in virtually every major city in the U.S. There’s also the massive contribution from the Mexican immigrant population in states like California, New Mexico, and Texas. Without them, Tex-Mex—a Southwestern American sub-genre of food influenced by Mexican food—would’ve never been developed.

In short, without immigrants, America would’ve had a serious lack of literal flavor sucked from its soul.

Lastly, in mentioning immigrants’ influence, it would be criminal to overlook the immense impact of the descendants of black slaves who were forced to America. Not only with food but with toe-tapping music that became known worldwide to be distinctly American. Rock ‘n’ Roll, R&B, Gospel, Jazz, and Blues all have roots in African sounds and slave work-songs that gifted the masses with music—music that has become the soundtrack to our lives.

Therefore, we must never forget that America is a nation irreversibly shaped by immigrants in more ways than one. Undoubtedly, the history is often paved with troubling stories of tragedy, inhumanity, and misfortune, but it’s also a history that validates stories of victory and perseverance to which immigrants are a major contributor.

From making lemonade when life has given them lemons to conceiving innovative concepts, diversifying the food we eat, and helping to fuel our economy, immigrants are vital to America. Without them, America, as we know it today, would be a colorless portrait desperate to be painted with vibrant life.

Immigration is the foundation of America.

 

by Anabel Sanchez

Healthy Genes and Longevity

Wasteland Future by Antonis Mavropoulos

Imagine being born and being excluded from life because of a certain gene type. When you are born, you have no control or say over what race or what your DNA consists of. According to the history of Eugenics, it was popular in the late 19^th century created by a man Sir Francis Galton, and the Eugenics movement grew during that time. The idea of Eugenics and its history is that in order to improve and better the human species and the human populations, the people with desired and good hereditary genes and traits are the only ones that should breed. Therefore, this excludes out the other undesired genes and people who are born with bad genes. Those type of people with the undesirable genes and traits being the ones that have a stronger and higher chance to spread diseases, or a chance of having a disability passed down from generation to generation.

What are the negative aspects of Eugenics? According to Eugenics Archive, there is restriction towards people who come from different areas from across the world such as preventing poor immigrants to come to the United States because of their certain genetic makeup like their ethnicity and race. There is a fear that these immigrants have some type of disorder or illness leading to short term life. In order to prevent this situation, people with unhealthy genetic traits should not have any sexual connection, or marriage with those people with healthy genetic traits. Essentially, Eugenics is for the genes that will give out positive and healthy results for the human life. Now to answer the main question: Could Eugenics ever be used in a way that is effective? In my opinion, No I don’t agree with the matter on Eugenics because of how the idea shows discrimination and makes certain group of people get treated differently. However, the concept of Eugenics and the ways it was assumed to be effective is because it promotes healthy and fortunate people with good genes which then leads to having healthy children. If you look at it this way, humanity would be at its best in a world were only people containing good genes could procreate.

In the end, the chances of someone being born with an illness or becoming sick later in life would be lower. Creation would be exactly how Eugenicists would want and desire the human species to be. There are positive and negative effects of Eugenics, and it could be used in way that is effective because the notion of Eugenics aims for longevity.

 

Brian Thomas

The Smiles and Frowns of the Industrial Era

I feel that the success of business titans in the industrial era hurt America more than it helped it.  According to Noah Webster, a robber baron is “a business owner or executive who acquires wealth through questionable tactics.” On the other hand, according to Noah Webster, a captain of industry is termed as “someone who owns or manages a large, successful business or company.” In the time period of the industrial era, there was a mix of robber barons and “captains of industry”.

The robber barons of industry were Dukes, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller. The captains of industry were Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

According to Steve Fraser, in his article about Cornelius Vanderbilt, Steve had said that there was dominance going on when Cornelius Vanderbilt was popular in America. I think that it is horrible that dominance was going on when Cornelius Vanderbilt was popular in America.

According to Sam Parr, “To grow the business, Rockefeller took an approach similar to other business magnets at the time: remove competitors at all costs.” I think that it is horrible that Rockefeller had gotten rid of “competitors at all costs.”

According to Anne Sraders, “In 1907, Morgan convinced fellow bankers to help bail out several failing financial panic to save markets.” Anne Sraders also said that “It was this as well as previous actions that caused Morgan to be called to testify before a congressional committee under Arsene Pujo of Louisiana, which reportedly investigated a “money trust” of some of the Wall Street heavy-hitters who, as the concern went, had accumulated too much power.” Therefore, I think this shows on how Morgan had maybe hurt America instead of helped it. I don’t think that it was a good thing that J.P. Morgan had “convinced fellow bankers to help bail out several failing financial institutions during the financial panic to save markets.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J.P. Morgan/ FGMR

 

According to Lawrence W. Reed, “One of the giant firms” that Andrew Mellon “helped found was the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa. “I think that what was just said here shows on how Andrew Mellon had helped America.  I think that it is wonderful that Andrew Mellon “helped found” “the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa.”

According to Tom Ricci, “Ford suffered through problems with employees, government regulations, unions, and competition, mostly attributed to his opinionated, authoritative personality.” This is a big way in which I do not think that he had helped America. I do not think that it was a good thing that Henry Ford had that “opinionated, authoritative personality.”

According to Patrick G. Porter, “- James Buchanan Duke- succeeded in leading his industry into combination by founding one of the first great holding companies in American history.” I think that it is wonderful and pretty cool at the same time that James Duke “succeeded in leading his industry into combination by founding one of the first great holding companies in American history.”

According to Susan Stamberg, “Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world.” Susan Stamberg also said that “Coming as a dirt poor kid from Scotland to the U.S., by the 1880’s he’d built an empire in steel – and then gave it all away : $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.” I think that it is wonderful that Andrew Carnegie had donated all that money “to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.”

According to Patrick G. Porter, “James Buchanan Duke – succeeded in leading his industry into combination.”  This was because of “founding one of the great holding companies in American history.”

According to Lawrence W. Reed, Andrew Mellon had “exerted his influence to constrain the spending side of the government.” Andrew Mellon had done this to be able to “further his credit.”

According to Camille King, Cornelius Vanderbilt was able to come up with “AN INTERREGIONAL RAILWAY SYSTEM.” This was because as Camille King said, Cornelius Vanderbilt “GAINED CONTROL OF A NUMBER OF RAILWAY LINES OPERATING BETWEEN CHICAGO AND NEW YORK   .”

According to Anne Sraders, “Morgan was called to testify before a congressional committee under Arsene Pujo of Louisiana, which reportedly investigated a “money trust” of some of the Wall Street heavy-hitters who, as the concern went, had accumulated too much power.” Anne Sraders had said that one of the causes of Morgan being “called to testify before a congressional committee was that “Morgan had convinced fellow bankers to help bail out several failing financial institutions during the financial panic to save markets.”

According to Sam Parr, when it comes to John D. Rockefeller, “Standard Oil made ruthless deals with the railroads.” The cause of Standard Oil doing this was to advance what John D. Rockefeller was set out to do.

When things are right, I at least think that it is usually because people are doing the right things and/or having the right attitudes. I would have to say for Dukes that he had helped America. How Dukes helped America was according to Patrick G. Porter where he had said that he “succeeded in leading his industry into combination.” I would have to say for J.P. Morgan that he had hurt America. How J.P. Morgan had hurt America was that he had ended up needing to testify to Congress for multiple reasons. I would have to say for John D. Rockefeller that he had hurt America. I would have to say this about John D. Rockefeller because according to Sam Parr, “To grow the business, Rockefeller took an approach similar to other business magnets at the time: remove competitors at all costs.” I would have to say for Cornelius Vanderbilt that he had helped America because according to Camille King, Cornelius Vanderbilt “GAINED CONTROL OF A NUMBER OF RAILWAY LINES OPERATING BETWEEN CHICAGO AND NEW YORK.” I also think this because Camille King also said that Cornelius Vanderbilt was able to come up with “AN INTERREGIONAL RAILWAY SYSTEM.” I would have to say for Andrew Mellon that he had helped America because according to Lawrence W. Reed, Andrew Mellon was one of the reasons why “the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa” was able to have been discovered. I would have to say that Andrew Carnegie had helped America because according to Susan Stamberg, Andrew Carnegie had donated all that money “to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.” I would have to say for Henry Ford that he had hurt America because according to Tom Ricci, “Ford suffered through problems with employees, government, regulations, mostly attributed to his opinionated, authoritative personality.”

 

Victoria Faircloth

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/robber%20baron#targetText=Definition%20of%20robber%20baron,wealth%20through%20ethically%20questionable%20tactics
2. https://fee.org/articles/andrew-mellon-the-best-treasury-secretary-in-us-history/
3. https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/henry-ford
4. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captain%20of%20industry
5. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3111987?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
6. https://www.thenation.com/article/misunderstood-robber-baron-cornelius-vanderbilt/
7. https://www.npr.org/2013/08/01/207272849/how-andrew-carnegie-turned-his-fortune-into-a-library-legacy
8. https://thehustle.co/the-history-of-john-d-rockefeller-standard-oil
9. https://prezi.com/4m5v37h6a1zv/cornelius-vanderbilt-robber-baron-or-captain-of-industry/
10. https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/who-was-jp-morgan-14650860
11. https://www.fgmr.com/what-did-j-p-morgan-mean/

 

 

A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints, America.

North America was known to the rest of the world as a blank and empty spot of land ready for the claiming after being discovered by Christopher Columbus. Everyone wanted a piece of land. The French, Spanish, and especially the British. Eventually, the British took most control immigrated to its shores to create its own colonies. But, their people rebelled and built the great nation known as the United States of America. America was built on nothing but the hard work of these immigrants. They are what shaped this country to be what it is today. They built its towns into cities, and eventually a nation. They brought new ideas along with new products. They also brought new people to lead forth in a new way of life, free of Britain’s tyranny. These people taught each other to fight for their own freedom and for what is right. If it weren’t for these immigrant leaders, we would have never gotten the freedom we have today.

Photo by: www.theshirtlist.com

An example of an important immigrant, who came to our shores absolutely broke, and became a  leader that helped to shape America to be the “Great symphony” it is today is Alexander Hamilton. Without him we wouldn’t have many of the things the nation still relies on today. The end of the Hamilton musical has its other characters sum up all the big and astonishing accomplishments he achieved while he lived in America. These would include how he founded the Federal Bank and the Bank of New York (America’s oldest and still open bank organization), along with such a strong Central Government, and a driven Federalist Party.  Hamilton brought the country out of bankruptcy, and founded the U.S. Coast Guard. He was one of the most important members of the Continental Congress, he wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist papers to support the Constitution and was the first secretary of the Treasury. And so much more. All of this was done by a single person. Hamilton was always welcoming of immigrants who could better the country and bring prosperous ideas. The teamwork of immigrants, brought the rebel colonies on top to victory.

Elon musk is another important immigrant to the United States that has helped shape it in a large manner. He is the founder of the company PayPal. He also owns the automobile company known as Tesla, which is currently working on decreasing its carbon footprint it’s vehicles produce. Not only is he doing good for America’s economy and its environment as well, he is leading the country into the future. Musk is doing so by taking over NASA’s old space shuttle missions with his new company called SpaceX. This will make him the American and global leader in space travel.

Photo by: purpleheartfoundation.wordpress.com

Although the present immigrant situation that America is facing currently is a big problem, immigrants throughout history have always found a way to come out on top. But, there is an utmost certainty that our systems and protocols for immigration today will change for the better. The fact is that once immigrants are thrown into the mix of any situation, this “melting pot” of a country gets stirred up even more than it already is.

Photo by: Leslie Altman on www.pinterest.com

I have hope that we as a nation, will regulate and find better ways to keep illegal immigrants from coming into our country and make it easier for them to have access to applying for visas and citizenship. Ways to stop separating families and to work with other countries on improving themselves and their situations before it needs to get this bad. Immigration is what makes life exciting and new and is what gives people a fresh start, but only when done the right way. I hope for peace. And I know the situation will settle and be solved in order to create an even better group than what was already there before.

Blog post written by: Valery Barbosa

America Is Immigrant!

Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Are you American? Jordanian? How come I am Palestinian, and I am not carrying my Palestinian passport? Being an immigrant to have or not have an American passport doesn’t resemble my belonging/affiliation to the US. USA is filled with immigrants who truly are knowledgeable of American history and love living in America. They work hard to live in a country with success and peace. On the other side, some might be different and are racist, which doesn’t result in them being able to represent US immigration… Immigration has influenced America in many ways.

Immigration is the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. Immigrants have created America economically and culturally. Immigrant Russian Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America”. Immigrant British Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female doctor. Immigrant Russian Sergey Brin the co-founder of Google. Immigrant Taiwanese Jerry Yang the co-founder of Yahoo. All of these intelligent young generation immigrants have impacted America positively. As Nalini Krishnakutty said, “visionary immigrants they use their abilities and the opportunities they had here to create companies that shape not just the US but the whole world “(Youtube; How Immigrants Shaped the US). Immigrants helped develop the US with their inventive ideas and assisted in making America great again.

Now the US is filled with Immigrants. People are learning other cultures and traditions. It’s very important for a person to meet new people with different cultures and backgrounds because it acknowledges a person’s mind to listen and accept different backgrounds. Freedom is what I’m stating for. America is known for “the land of freedom” whereas it accepts people all around the world to enter the country and have the freedom to share their background and traditions. New businesses and companies offer job opportunities that are open for everyone. Due to so many immigrants moving to the US, there has been a decrease in employment.  Without immigrants, the lack of employees would occur. The US needs immigrants to create and further develop their businesses and companies. Now that there has been a lot of immigrants coming to the US a job gap occurs, making it harder and challenging to find a job because of the large number of immigrants.

Unfortunately, with the constant increase of immigrants coming to the US, hatred, and racism has also increased towards minorities. Racism has increased by differentiating a person’s color, language, ethnicity, and even religion. For example, the three Muslim students that were killed and shot in their own house in North Carolina. The three Muslim immigrant students who came for peace to the US in hopes for a better life and education we’re tragically shot by a racist white man over a parking dispute. Unbelievable!

Thanks to the inventors, co-founders and new businesses America is viewed positively by many other countries that engage and interest foreign people to live in the US. Diversity has impacted the US in a large way. This kind of diversity has major positives and minor negatives. It’s a good thing to meet new people and learn about their cultures and traditions. A person is more open-minded and can learn new things never knew would learn before.

 

Ala’a Al-Uoisi