Immigration, Race, Ethnicity and Gender

A study in Stereotypes

Stereotype

an image or idea that has become fixed by repetition or acceptance, to the point of cliché

“Image” can be either visual or metaphorical – i.e. – the actual physical appearance

or – the impression being suggested

Dominant Culture

Dominant cultures are often not designated by having the most members, but by having the most economic and political influence over an entire society.

They can also have individuals as members that cross ethnic, racial, gender and other lines.

racistcartoonclips – YouTube

Whether its been immigrants or African-Americans, pictorial stereotypes have been used to maintain the dominant

culture’s power.

Stereotype • A pictorial stereotype is an image that conveys misinformed perceptions that have the weight of established facts.

Although African Americans are more fairly represented in the media today, the most common pictures still relate to crime, sports, and entertainment.

Immigration History

• 1840-50: Irish Potato Famine – mostly Irish Catholics come.

• 1850: U.S. seizes 1/3 of Mexico • Mexican border relatively open until

1920 – Mexicans come and go freely – 1910: Mexican Revolution seizes land – 1920: Cristero Movement repressed

“Push” to U.S. Immigration

Chinese rush to U.S. in 1840-1870 – 1839-42: Opium War with Britain – Loss of Hong Kong to Britain – Taiping Rebellion 1850-64 – Agricultural crisis and rice shortage

“Push” to U.S. Immigration

• 1890-1924: Period of greatest immigration • Ellis Island: 1892 – 1924:

– 5000 enter daily, maybe 1 in 50 rejected – 12 million had entered by 1954 when

closed • WWI generates Italian, Slav, Greek, Polish,

Jewish immigrants (Southern Europe)

“Push” to U.S. Immigration

Historic “Pull” of Immigrants

Immigrants satisfy US economic needs -> Nativism 1864: 1st comprehensive federal immigration law to work frontier (RR, mining, farming, e.g., Chinese recruited for Ca. gold rush 1848-1882). 1870s: Companies recruit in Mexico in part to replace Chinese, but mostly seasonal. 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act, denies more entries, no return if leave, sponsoring relatives and citizenship denied. WWI: Government, industry and agriculture contract Mexican labor.

Orientalism and Stereotypes

Orientalism is "a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient."

It is the image of the 'Orient' expressed as an entire system of thought

Asian Immigration and Stereotypes

The Oriental is a person represented by such thinking.

The man is depicted as feminine, weak, yet strangely dangerous because poses a threat to white, Western women. The woman is both eager to be dominated and strikingly exotic. The Oriental is a single image, a sweeping generalization, a stereotype that crosses countless cultural and national boundaries.

• Limits usually accompanied by anti immigrant, xenophobic campaigns e.g., anti Chinese movement in midst of 1870 US depression.

• Up to 1850s – 85% of immigrants were English, Scotch Irish, and German; all other groups suspect because “Not like us.”

• After WWI: door slammed shut: – 1900-1915: 15 million enter U.S. – 1915-1930: 5.5 million enter U.S.

U.S. Limits Immigration

• 1918-1921: Red scare aggravates fear & anti-immigrant reaction.

• 1921-1924: Quota Law – 1st time numerical limits; uses 1910 proportion, favoring north Europeans.

• Border Patrol created; Mexican border becomes a tangible reality, though still permeable.

U.S. Limits Immigration

1924 Immigration Act severely limits because

– Racial superiority of Anglo Saxons – Immigrants cause lowering of wages – Do not assimilate – Threat to national identity & unity – Limits immigrants to 2% of their national

group in 1890, thus against south & east Europeans

U.S. Limits Immigration

Statue of Liberty Give me your tired,

your poor, Your huddled masses

yearning to breathe free.

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I life my lamp beside the golden door.

Emma Lazarus

In the 1990s: over half of US workforce growth was from immigrants.

• 2000-2005: immigrants accounted for 86% of increase in US employment (about 50% were Hispanics of which 50% Mexican).

• For next 20 years, no net increase is predicted in the number of prime working-age natives (ages 15-54).

Immigrants satisfy a U.S. demand

• 1996: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) hastily passed on eve of threatened government shutdown (9/30). – Harshest law in U.S. history

• Retroactively increased grounds of deportability • Greatly limited judicial review & political asylum • Mandated 10-year bar to return for residing illegally

in U.S. for a year or more. • Permanent bar for false claim to U.S. citizenship • Greatly restricted waivers.

Contradictions of Push, Pull & Limiting

Despite social progress for women in the 1960s and beyond, media stereotypes of women in news, entertainment and advertising context constantly remind viewers of society’s male-dominated view.

FEMALE STEREOTYPES

SEXISM IN ADVERTISING

Images in magazine ads and television commercials show women as sexual objects to attract the attention of potential customers.

The objectification of men as sexual beings is also becoming increasingly common in advertising.

NATIVE AMERICAN STEREOTYPES

Portrayed as bloodthirsty savages, alcoholic indigents, romantic princesses, and silent but wise sidekicks, Native Americans have long been a staple of paperback, movie and television stereotypes.