Advanced Essay #2

              ThEy'Re StEaLiNg OuR JoBs

In today’s political climate, Republicans, in particular, happen to hold a very inaccurate thought regarding immigrants (especially ones of Latin American descent). That thought is that they cross over the border as rapists and murderers. It’s fascinating they believe this because statistics suggest otherwise. There are more whites incarcerated than there are Latinos. So that whole argument is really invalid. The primary reason immigrants enter the US is to create a better life for not only themselves but also their families. They aren’t stealing our jobs, they’re simply working the ones that we don’t want. On June 16, 2015, during a speech, Donald Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” With the leader of our country saying this, it’s no surprise that his followers agree with him. Trump ran his campaign on anti-immigration before he was elected he would say refer to Latinos as gangsters and Muslims as terrorists. And that’s how he won. He fear-mongered his way into office. And we must remember that fear-mongering is not new. In the nineteenth century, Americans would say that African American Men were sexual beasts, and if you weren’t careful they’d rape your white wife. And to no surprise, this led to various acts of violence against black men. And history has repeated itself in this country, mosques are being vandalized and hardworking people are being locked in cages, separated from their families, and deported. The fact that this still worked centuries later brings to light a much bigger issue in this country. And that problem is bigotry. As Americans, we love to talk about how progressive we are and how far we’ve come as a country. Now even though America can be considered progressive compared to MANY MANY countries, and we have been more and more welcoming of time. We’re still quite far from being a truly progressive and welcoming country. The 2016 presidential election did a great job of bringing this issue to light. The ugly truth is that more than 62 million Americans voted for an open bigot. And the reason why those (at least) 62 million Americans are so easily manipulated is that they’re isolated both physically and mentally. They either aren’t around enough minorities so the only experience they have with them comes from Fox News. Or they’re so stubborn that they’re really a lost cause. The primary reason I feel so adamant about this topic is because of my personal experiences. I grew up around a lot of Bengali Muslims, and interestingly enough it was always my American friends getting me into some kind of trouble. While my Muslim friends were always trying to get me to make better life decisions. The notion that Muslims are violent is factually incorrect. The Quran preaches peace. The only reason the middle east is such a war zone right now is because of US involvement. We took their natural resources and killed so many of their loved ones, they have a valid reason to not like our country. Yet, the only Muslims committing acts of terror are the extremists. The everyday people have nothing to do with it. The truth is that a lot of immigrants who come to this country (documented and undocumented) tend to work harder than the rest of Americans. They’re forced into lower-paying jobs due to their immigration status, level of fluency in English, etc. They survive with these lower-end jobs and still have to pay similar living costs as everyone else. Thus, they work much longer hours and take whatever jobs they can get. If you go out into the countryside and into the farms, you’ll see that the staff of farmhands consists of many immigrants because other Americans just don’t want to do that kind of work. When my mother first came to this country with a two-year-old daughter and not a word of english, she needed a job to provide for my sister. And she ended up working as a maid in a hotel making $4.25 per hour. She wasn’t lazy, she wasn’t stealing anyone’s jobs, she was just doing what she could to support her family just like everyone else. The only jobs she ‘stole’ was when she was picked for promotions due to her punctuality and impeccable work ethic rather than her Americans coworkers who’ve worked there longer but didn’t work as hard. Calling Immigrants violent and lazy is a slap in the face to every single hardworking American Immigrant who came here for a better life.

Citations:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-later-annotated/