Walls

                                        

Walls. Walls can have such a powerful influence. The division of territory has always been a part of society and used for a range of many reasons. They are used as simple structure to separate the gardens of people’s homes to huge construction projects like the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall with the main purpose of defending a country for invading armies. One of the most famous walls in history is the Berlin Wall as this was what split the City in half. Centred around Communism and Capitalism with its destruction in 1990 it helped along way to end the Cold War In 1990. But today you most active and topical wall is that of the USxican (United States and Mexico) border. Should the US Government make it a wall like Berlin 50ft high all the way across from coast to coast rather than in some just in specific located areas or have no wall at all? Should the US spend Millions of Dollars on border control police? Should more responsibility be handed over to the Mexican Government?

Many Mexicans illegally or legally immigrate to the USA to for a better quality of life as they believe that there is more opportunities in work/ pay/ social activities, along with the fact the crime rate drops dramatically. This has an inverse relationship with the life expectancy rate. Whether all s true and good is hard to tell as circumstances change on family to family.

 An interesting website: http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=935 gives facts and figures on the Latin America to US Immigration and goes through how the immigration on rise and will evidently carry on this way in the future. The Latinos already count for 16% of the US, 4% of which is from Mexico alone. Some obscure ones include,

• Mexican immigrant men outnumbered women in 2011.
• The foreign born from Mexico were more likely to be of working age than the US born and foreign born overall.
• In early 2011, 59 percent of all unauthorized immigrants in the United States were from Mexico.

There are some US citizens that would say, “Block off the Mexican border and send them all back, The US is meant to be a White Nation.”  But Immigration has always been a part of the History of the United States. http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-the-u-s-stop-all-immigration is a website that debates: should immigration to the United States be stopped? One person argued,

Serious Drain on Americans

Most homeless and impoverished people were born in this country. They need to be housed, fed, clothed, educated, and employed! Many have fought wars and paid dearly for their loyalty to a government/system which has exploited and trashed them, a system which preferentially allows corporations to import educated, privileged foreigners to thrive in the land Americans have fought to build, even die for. It is a disgrace.

So it would seem that this debate on border control will always be a controversial topic in the Nation’s future. One that will cost Billions of US Dollars, hundreds of man hours of discussion, and split opinion in the nation.

http://www.nps.gov/latino/latinothemestudy/immigration.htm

K-12 Immigration

Source: http://www.walworth.k12.wi.us/3-4%20Team/Stelling/Immigration%20Web%20Quest.htm

This K-12 Immigration lesson plan comes from a school in Wisconsin. The aim of the lesson is to allow the students to gain an understanding of what it was like for immigrants throughout the years 1890 to 1920. The students are able to this by reading a primary source called 'A boy's journey' this way students are able to engage in the young boys story. His story describes America as a 'Melting Pot' as the boy states that when he enters New York he was welcomed with open arms and at school he was required to sing 'My Country 'Tis of Thee' which implies that people were becoming infused together to become an American.
Furthermore, the students were required to write a friendly letter as if they were an immigrant. This allows the students to relate themselves to immigrants, allowing them to understand how immigrants were able to turn their life around when they entered America, by becoming an American and creating an enhanced  lifestyle for themselves. The brainstorms which they had to participate in allowed them to be able to compare the immigrants past life with their new way of life as they had to discuss what their new life in America was like. 

Immigration to USA

                                       

http://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/schools/rjh/marneyg/05_history-projects/05_mccune_Immigrants.htm

The project that I have found online supports the Idea of the ‘Salad Bowl’ The project talks about how crucial immigration on the whole has been to the United States over the last hundred years, explaining that without  it you wouldn’t have the diversity that you have today, in some ways making the USA bland.

The project talks about how immigrants to the United States localized in certain specific areas, which created clusters of them – whether this was for safety in numbers, familiarity or if it just naturally happened that way. This highlights that there could have been tensions between communities, which doesn’t support the idea of the melting pot. You have ‘Little Italy’s’ forming on the East coast as they came from Europe, along with British, Irish and German clusters forming. Then on the West coast you have the clusters of China as they looked for gold hoping to get rich quick.

Surprisingly it shows with competition for jobs, it was the white British that always won – resulting in the Chinese to be banned from coming to the States as they were seen to be stealing jobs and carried with them a negative atmosphere – another point which shows that not all the different nations immigrating to America were seen as one.     

GLAAD

http://www.glaad.org
 GLAAD is the Gay and Lesbian association against Defamation. It was founded in 1985 as a media advocacy organisation originally created in order to combat the homophobic presentation of the HIV/AIDs aids epidemic in the New York Post and other publications at this time. The association now works to challenge companies and businesses that discriminate against individuals who are not straight or cis-gendered.
They work within the news and entertainment industries to help the visibility of the LGBT community. It is important to have this as these minorities are not often shown in the mainstream media, and if they are it they are often portrayed with a negative or mocking attitude.
GLAAD also uses social media to push for marriage reform and works within faith groups for LGBT acceptance in the USA.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/racist-roots-arizonas-immigration-law

The reason that I choses this web page is because it shows the power and domanice that those who believe that WASPs or white anglo-saxon protestants are the only true Americans.

the Arizona papers please law which was past as an ant immigration  law. this law tells police that if in there work they meet someone who they believe to be in the country illegally then they can ask them for proof that they are a citizen of America or that they are in America legally.
the only defence that there was agents the accusations that this law was not racist was the line that the police will be using there discretion to decide.

Two people have made satisfactory posts... Lucy? Lydia?

Womens Rights| American Civil Liberties Union

ACLU or the American Civil Liberties Union has acted as an advocate for women's rights and equality since 1972. They work to ensure gender equality, and believe that there has been great progress towards this. They claim that 'today gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many, especially poor women, women of colour, and immigrant women.' So are also advocating minorities in a sense. They aim for an America where all women and girls have equal access to quality education, employment and housing. Regardless of their race, class or even immigration status.

This site itself offers things such as a timeline for the voting acts rights and a timeline of the ACLU itself working towards bettering women's rights. It also provides a few info-graphics which are useful, and help to show what has happened in history so far towards women's rights, particularly there is a useful one in regards to women and education. The site is kept up to date, and continues to be relevant today, with topics such as sex discrimination in the workplace, which unfortunately still take place today.

Additionally, one of ACLU's main causes is to end the practice of separating boys and girls in public schools in America based on discredited and outdated gender stereotypes.

Although the female population is in no way a 'minority' as such, there is still a long way to go before true equality is reached. It is still quite rare to find women in positions of high power as opposed to men, and the idea of enforced diversity is interesting in this case as well as others. Some might argue that that is the only way to successfully make these changes in America

However, while the site supports gender equality, it also supports many other issues, and aims to support and extend rights to any segments of the American population which have been denied their rights, such as people of colour, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, prisoners, and people with disabilities. Because of this, they are likely to receive support from many communities, and may be able to help make further changes towards equality in America. 

https://www.aclu.org/womens-rights

National Minority Aging Organizations Technical Assistance Programme

The National Minority Aging Organizations (NMAO) Technical Assistance Centers Program has been established by the Administration on Aging (AoA). The organizations aim is to 'increase awareness of citizens of all ages of the need to assume personal responsibility for their own longevity.' they aim to eradicate health disparities among racial and ethnic minority elders by encouraging them to endure a more healthy lifestyle.

The website includes reports each year to illustrate how successful they have been in enhancing elderly minorities lifestyles.

They especially target individuals who are harder to reach, with limited English. The National Minority Aging Organization Assistance Programme has provided 2.8 million elders with support. The organization promotes strategies that enables to elderly to live in their communities, as well as providing a wide range of support. A new strategic plan for 2013-2018 has been introduced which claims that they will ensure to protect their rights and prevent abuse and neglect and also to promote control of their independence in order for them to live a more comfortable lifestyle.

Gay Civil Rights

1950s -1980s America is a time when Gay Civil Right groups began to protest and strive to have their sexuality accepted. This sparked protests, caused violence and political tension throughout America. Many organisations were formed to be the voice of these people.

Founded in 1980, Human Rights Campaign advocates on behalf of LGBT Americans, mobilizes grassroots actions in diverse communities, invests strategically to elect fair-minded individuals to office and educates the public about LGBT issues.

As the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, the Human Rights Campaign represents a force of more than 1.5 million members and supporters nationwide — all committed to making HRC's vision a reality.

The company keeps up to date information on the equality movement in America, dealing with issues at hand on a state to states level, and is one of the main organisations that pushing the right for ‘Same Sex Marriage’ in America. With their blogs all the members from across the country are able to communicate, helping support their cause.

Furthermore the website, doesn't just look at Gay Civil Rights in USA, it does also have international section, where members from all over the world can communicate – enabling their cause to have a united front.

The organisation main plan to have Gay Civil Rights accepted all over America, and have them seem as equal by having equal rights. It would seem there plan is working as more and more states are passing rights to now allow same sex marriage. Eventually they will move more and focus on their international objectives. 

Welcome to the blog. First post Locate, post and analyse any example of a website which acts as an advocate for a minority or other self-defining group (for instance, as defined by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, age, location or any other marker of identity. What is asserted by your choice about the importance of an “identity” beyond simply being American? REMEMBER – a site that contains a video or images that you can use in your post is the most helpful for discussion.