A Personal Opinion on Immigration, The American Dream, Conformity, and Race

Through the readings we have had since our last paper we have changed the topic a little bit and have focused more on values, how life can make you compromise and possibly lose yourself just to fit in America’s ‘Melting Pot’, and how America’s version of great” seems to be a synonym for white. We also talk about what different people see as valuable since there is a huge difference in what is valuable between races, gender, economic status, etc. After reading an article by The Enquirer. I think I realized that I didn’t truly understand the definition of value sol couldn’t really say what was valuable until now.

In the article Our Society Should Reconsider Values I realized that immigrants are starting to realize what some Americans have been saying for years, that America isn’t that great. I was shocked at first to find the author Clara Matonhodze (who works with Immigrants) to discover this, it confused me on why they still decide to come over to America even if they know the truth. I later realized that over in different countries they have a more “it takes a village to raise a child” mentality. They make sure everyone feels like family and everyone works together to try to bring each other up so they rise as a community. Over here in America we o bodies just to get by and because of how hard it is to survive above water I believe we have become selfish and independent. We are all about trying to get to the top. So that we can finally feel like we have accomplished the “American Dream” when in reality the American dream can’t be achieved by a lot of people since it was made in the mindset of white being ‘right’ and ‘great’. Ms. Clara also mention something that I am still struggling to figure out in the article she mentioned that most immigrants that commit crime in America would never do such a thing back home because unlike in America they would be welcomed with open arms and considered a part of the community. As a country are we driving immigrants to tur violent due to our overall independent and selfish ways of keeping immigrants as an outcast or outsider?

Something that I was oblivious to until recently was how popular “passing” actually is, especially in American culture. In Waters article he mentions how people would rather pass as white than just saying they are American, which isn’t shocking but is rather sad. Over the past years I have seen beautiful black people bleaching their skin so much that they look like. A completely different person or they disown their race all together because being black has such a negative connotation to it. Magazines, movies, tv shows, and the media as a whole doesn’t exactly help. When they always promote having lighter skin as being pretty and just ignore darker skin all together or make fun of it because it is different. This also shows our values due to the fact that we will idolize and admire what the media has brainwashed us to see as beautiful. Most people’s role models or celebrity crushes tend to be lighter skin. So along with trying to fix this problem we must first acknowledge there is a problem.

In the Charleston Shooter is the New Face of Far-Right Terrorism. It talks about a grown white man taking matters into his own hands and shooting nine black people in a church as if he was doing something good. Now one thing I can’t seem to understand is why when black people do anything wrong. We are pretty much crucified for it and punished but when a white person does something wrong. They are given poor excuses for why they did these horrendous acts. It has been proven time and time again that white is right and great’ because they do no wrong but black is ‘wrong’ and ‘bad’. Whites can literally get away with murder while blacks can lose their life just for being black and that will never sit well with me or make sense in my mind.

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