APUSH Journal #7: "Immigrants Are Destroying America"...Uhmm, Really??

I don’t believe Nativists have very much support to back up their argument; immigrants aren’t endangering the American way of life, they are helping to shape it! American culture, in my opinion, barely exists- everything we call American has most likely been taken from somewhere else. Let’s face it; we have always been, and will always be, a melting pot. We don’t really have anything that’s original or uniquely our own, but the fact that we are really the first and only country to be a little bit of everything is in fact, in a different way, original and unique.

Do we really want complete assimilation? Our culture almost depends on people not assimilating all the way. It is very difficult to measure if a person has assimilated or not, and thus there isn’t really strong evidence supporting either side for whether immigrants assimilate today. Many people believe that in the past immigrants have tried their best to “Americanize” themselves, but these days that is not happening. I, on the other hand, believe that the same amount of assimilation is occurring today as it did previously in history- the only difference is though that immigrants today are holding on to their own customs as well; they can balance both. For example, my grandmother grew up not even wanting to speak German, all she wanted was to be a “normal American”; in contrast, my best friend Payal, who is first generation Indian, said that “in a way I feel American because I speak a different language at home- I speak English to people who speak English, but I can also keep a part of me true to my heritage”. America is a mixture of a million different types of people, and I believe that we are starting to embrace that as actually a unifying factor. According to the article “10 Myths About Immigration”, two thirds of immigrants older than 5 years of age can speak English “well” or “very well”. Maybe instead of having their children only grow up speaking English, they’re also making it a point to have them be bilingual in whatever language they spoke in their homeland. Another good point in “10 Myths About Immigration” is that “the typical pattern of assimilation in the United States has remained steady”, it may have even sped up due to “public education and mass media”. I believe this because in order to be successful in the United States, people must assimilate to a certain extent. At the same time though, there isn’t nearly as much pressure to do so because our culture is becoming more mixed and thus more accepting, and our country really tries to accommodate everyone now. People are becoming capable of being both!

Nativists are also wrong because I believe diversity is a good thing. Do we really want total homogeny? When people are isolated from those who are different from them, that’s how bigotry is created. Conversely, by being exposed to differences, we learn about and understand other people better, and thus are able to live in harmony with them. We really don’t want immigrants to conform to what we want them to be! They help us by being different. America has become more and more tolerant and accepting of different cultures because of the huge amounts of immigrants living in our country. Pat Buchanan expressed concerns of the possible “balkanization” of the United States because of our huge miscellany of peoples, but I believe that by being so greatly mixed, we learn more about our similarities rather than our differences- our diversity unites us! Socially, immigrants, in my opinion, help America because they unintentionally make Americans more open-minded. Economically though, there is more than just my opinion to back it up; immigrants actually help the American economy! They keep prices low, take for the most part unwanted jobs (only away from high school drop outs, creating more motivation to attend college), and immigrants here illegally actually pay taxes, yet don’t get the benefits of doing so, and thus are just pumping money into the economy. Everybody wins! So, in my eyes, Nativists need to seriously rethink their position.

LC Exercise #7 Part 2: Brett's "Most Amazing Music" Playlist

I asked my friend Brett, who is a huge music nerd similar to myself, to create the playlist of his “most amazing music”. The list was short and simple, but I actually really enjoyed listening to it, and it also gave me the chance to get to know him a little better through his favorite music. A few of the songs I knew already and are some of my favorites as well, but I also fell in love with a few other new songs that I had never heard before. This list was as follows:

1) Acrobat by As Tall As Lions [NEW FAVORITE]

2) No One's Gonna Love You by Band of Horses [ALREADY LOVED]

3) Play Crack the Sky by Brand New [GOOD]

4) First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes [NEW FAVORITE]

5) The Glorious Nosebleed by Circa Survive [EHH NOT SO MUCH]

6) Delirium Trigger by Coheed and Cambria [EHH NOT SO MUCH]

7) Day Old Hate by City and Colour (Dallas Green) [EHH NOT SO MUCH]

8) Title and Registration by Death Cab for Cutie [ALREADY LOVED]

9) Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky [ALREADY LOVED]

10) Boy With a Coin by Iron and Wine [NEW FAVORITE]

11) Gravity by John Mayer [ALREADY LOVED]

12) Sleeper 1972 by Manchester Orchestra [NEW FAVORITE]

13) Paranoid Android by Radiohead [NEW FAVORITE]

14) Samson by Regina Spektor [ALREADY LOVED]

15) Another Leather Lung by The Sound of Animals Fighting [GREAT UNTIL THE SCREAMING]

I feel like when people are moved by the same song they have some sort of understanding; they feel basically the same things for the same things. Through even one song, people can have a connection. That is why music is important; that is the basic purpose of music: to be able to express and understand something you can't otherwise. When listening to these I felt as if I knew what Brett was feeling when he listened to them, and thus better understood him. Some pretty terrible things have happened to him, and his favorite music actually reflects that- which is kind of hard to hear. Most of these were very deep, emotional songs, many of them meant to be really sad. All of them though were very moving, which is why I also was drawn to them, even if I personally can’t relate. We may not have the exact same taste, but we are fairly close, and I actually believe that's why we are able to be such good friends- emotionally we are very similar.

LC Exercise #7 Part 1: Matt & Kim Concert

Recently, on December 9th, I went to a Matt & Kim concert with a group of five other friends- and of them, I was probably the biggest Matt & Kim fan. Their music doesn’t really fit into a specific genre, but it’s alternative to say the least- tickets were only $30, even though some of their music is on the radio. Matt & Kim songs are just so carefree and happy-go-lucky; their personalities definitely shine through their music. Seeing them live, or even just in their music videos you’d think that they’re like constantly on ecstasy or something- but they are honestly THAT happy.* It’s impossible to listen to their music and not smile; and being in a bad mood: impossible.

After waiting for what seemed like forever at almost the front of the line outside the House of Blues, we went inside- only to wait for forever again. Finally a band I had never heard of before called Mean Creek came on. I wasn’t expecting much from an opening band I didn’t know, but they were incredible! I went home that night and got their album right away because it was so good. We were standing really close to the front a little left from center, and it just made the whole experience so much more intimate. Rather than having to watch the blown up version of the concert on a TV screen next to the stage, you could actually look directly at the band members, make eye contact, really feel like you were singing along with them. Of course I love the music, but the actual experience of the concert is what I’m really there for- to feel a part of it. Let’s just say after my first general admission concert, I never went back. 

Next another opening band, who I had never heard of until I purchased the tickets, came on, and they also surprised me by being amazing. It was a band called Mutemath, and they were just unbelievable. At one point the lead singer crowd surfed, and a few of my friends got to touch him (but my arms were slightly too short to reach!)! They were just so into it, so it was impossible for the crowd to not be into it! I’ll admit I participated in some serious head-banging. 

Next came the bad part. Matt & Kim came on- which you’d think I’d be ecstatic about, but the crowd (which I normally love because I feel a part of something and you can just all go crazy together) got WAY too obnoxious. I didn’t really expect to have that much room, but this was just ridiculous. There was sooo much pushing and squishing, I was so uncomfortable, I couldn’t move by my own will, but the crowd could move me however, and it was just completely unnecessary. I started to get pissed; I was getting pushed down and knocked about and basically stampeded on- it was just out of control. Eventually though I just decided that I couldn’t be mad about it anymore or I’d waste the whole concert being upset, and it worked; as soon as I got into it and didn’t let it bother me, it didn’t, and it became fun. I’m guessing it was the bad mood thing I said earlier; I just physically couldn’t stay unhappy listening to them! Also, the crowd slowly calmed down to a reasonable level, and although still squished, it wasn’t too much to handle. Matt & Kim were fantastic; their energy was untamed and super contagious. Even though their music is incredibly simple- it’s just the two of them playing drums and keyboard- it still sounded amazing and just so much fun! I danced like crazy the entire time; even by just the second song I was covered in a mixture of my own sweat and everyone else’s around me (in a good way though, if that’s possible.). Everyone just went insane, it didn’t matter that you were in public; you just did what ever the music told you to basically! (And that meant for me having a seizure haha.) Matt & Kim’s music is just so upbeat and wonderful that it forces you to let loose. Because the crowd was so rowdy, our group was split up the entire time because you basically floated wherever the crowd pushed you- but that ended up being okay because you’d just go dance with other random strangers! Just the fact that you both liked Matt & Kim made you friends for a little while; you’d have a bond. The night was just so much fun, I can’t even describe it- just awesome. I screamed out the lyrics with the people who wrote them (always my main reason for going to a concert), a few of my friends and other random people- and Kim!- crowd surfed, my friend started a mosh pit (weird for a Matt & Kim concert…), there was confetti at some points (which I’m obsessed with), I literally danced until I couldn’t, Matt and Kim as people are just hilarious and so genuinely nice…. the list could go on forever for why that concert was one of the best.

Their music may not be the absolute most inspiring; people a lot of times find their music annoying actually- but while most artists focus on the deeper, more depressing emotions, Matt & Kim still bring out a ton of emotions, but just tend to only stick to the positive ones! Plain and simple, they just make me happy. 

Music has such an impact on our lives because it connects us and also makes us feel something. Like I described a little earlier, everyone in the crowd could be friends for a bit because we all had something in common, that we loved this music! And why do we love this music? Because of the emotions it brings out in us! For this particular band it of course is happiness and liveliness, but as long as it brings out some sort of emotion- even if it’s the deepest depression!- you love it! Music is capable of forcing people to feel things- people who write music have the most power in the world! It’s impossible to express some things with out music; it’s really a necessary part of life. And if music through headphones makes you feel something, then hearing, and seeing, and experiencing it live is just that much more intense.

Kim dancing on top of the crowd!

**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsomXlyTyaQ

Watch that and tell me you’re not it least five times happier!

(Also, just as a side note, my next concert is Jack’s Mannequin- as in Andew McMahon- as in the person I wrote about in exercise #4 who inspires me!!)

APUSH Journal #6: Women Are Slowly Taking Over

“Women live longer than men. They do better in this economy. More of ‘em graduate from college. They go into space and do everything men do, and sometimes they do it a whole lot better. I mean, hell, get out of the way- these females are going to leave us males in the dust.”-Ericsson from “The End of Men”

To me it is unfathomable how women were not given equal rights and social equality from the beginning. After learning about how deeply rooted racism was in our country, I found it extremely shocking how African American males got voting rights 50 years before white women did, and also how outlawing sex discrimination was only added to the civil rights bill to stop it from making race discrimination illegal! With that said, it is amazing how far we’ve come, yet also amazing how much further we have to go before truly reaching equality. After this unit, I was left feeling unsure; should I pity myself for being a girl because of the way the media portrays us and the expectations society holds us to? Or should I be proud because, it least economically, we are beginning to race ahead? I started out pessimistic, but now I see there really are things to be hopeful about.

People are predicting now that women are starting to catch up with men, and will soon control the economy. Things are changing; “thinking and communication have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina”, so women are no longer biologically handicapped- in fact, women tend to be better at that kind of stuff! We are more social, flexible, focused, and considerate, and now we are the final ingredient: empowered. Although still present, the wage gap is slowly closing, and more and more women are going into previously male-dominated careers. Women were not hit nearly as hard by the recession, and for the first time women hold the majority of jobs in the US, which reading about gave me great pride. The fact that a country’s economic success seems to be so closely tied to women’s involvement in the work force and government shows our power, and should give more incentive for true equality to be met! There may be more women in college now, but there still needs to be more women in politics; we’re moving in the right direction, but we are definitely not there yet.

Before we delved into how brainwashing and horrible the media is towards and about girls, I felt like we had basically reached equality. My whole life I have felt that I have had the same opportunities as boys; I don’t fear not getting a job or not getting into college because I’m a girl, I could technically try out for wrestling if I chose to, I don’t feel pressure to take my husband’s name if and when I get married, etc., etc. I obviously notice the slight inequalities and the very prevalent gender stereotypes, but I don’t feel that those are really holding me back at all. This was not so true for my mom’s generation. In high school she did sports like cheer leading and synchronized swimming because most sports were not available to girls. Now I play soccer and lacrosse (although our uniforms still consist of skirts and we are not allowed to check people like in boys lacrosse), and although I do not exercise it, I do have the right to try out for boys-only teams like football. Also, when my mom was in high school, all girls were required to take home economics while boys were required to take wood working and metal shop- classes we don’t even have at Sharon High School! My grandma, who never went to college and was “actually incredibly subservient now that [my mom thought] about it” wanted my mom to become a real-estate agent or an art teacher- but she wanted to follow her father and go into business. Now I really don’t think there are anymore guidelines for what females can be- in fact I think there are far greater barriers for males! I feel like it is far weirder for a guy to want to be a nurse, or a dancer, or a stay-at-home dad, than it is for a girl to want to be a doctor, or an engineer, or a police officer. When I read the quote “What’s college? That’s where girls who are above cooking and sewing go to meet a man so they can spend their lives cooking and sewing” in a Digital History reading I realized that that was sort of what my mom did! I mean, she didn’t mind becoming a stay-at-home mom, but I feel like all those years of college and graduate school were wasted because she just chose to fold laundry and cook for the rest of her life! Maybe I’m just against it because that is not something I would ever want for myself, but the fact that it’s not just expected that I become a housewife is something to be proud of I guess.

As more women start to compete- and win against men, I believe these gender stereotypes we are so accustomed to will begin to fade away. Everything should be “equal opportunity”, and being a feminist I would like to focus on all the ways we have not yet reached that, but I’m happy to say that I actually believe we are inching closer.

LC Exercise #6 Part 2: Just Friends?

I believe that females and males can just be friends without the possibility of it becoming more, although I will admit that this is quite rare. For the most part I actually believe that there is always it least a tiny bit of attraction or flirtation between girls and guys, and that idea of maybe making it into something more is always in the back of people’s mind, even if it’s only a teeny tiny possibility/desire. There are those few people though that aren’t like that, you really truly only see them in that friend light, not because they’re not great, but because you really only think of them as more of a brother or sister. You could like them so much, but the idea of becoming more is almost gross to you! Almost everyone I talked to about it agreed with me; it is definitely possible to for girls and guys to just be friends. On Facebook I posted a poll and 11 out of the 12 people who answered said they could, and most of them justified it the same way: “you just don’t see some people like that”.

Brett: UNSURE

Originally he answered that they can be friends, but later slightly changed his answer… “I thought about the question more… It’s not that easy of one to answer if you think of it more… I think that on a macro scale it’s probably true that you can just be friends, but that’s only because other love options are available- I think if you put a male and a female on a deserted island, they’d either fall in love or kill each other!”

Ilana: CAN BE FRIENDS

“I don’t know… it’s just- you don’t find every guy you’re friends with attractive! You may be good friends with someone, but still never see yourself in a relationship with them or anything.”

Bryan: CAN BE FRIENDS

“I understand how a lot of times people start going out because they were originally friends, but not everyone you’re friends with is someone you would go out with. I may like a lot of things about a person, but that doesn’t mean necessarily that I’ll start to like them.”

Jacqui: CAN’T BE FRIENDS

Jacqui was the only person I found who doesn’t think that females and males can only be friends; her point was that if you’re friends with someone, you must like a lot of things about them, and if they’re of the opposite sex, then you’re most likely going to develop feelings for them. “Well I just think that whether or not you’re attracted to someone you become friends with them because you enjoy their company, and then finding more in common and other aspects of them that you like makes them attractive and then… ba-da-bing ba-da-boom: love!”

Raichel: CAN BE FRIENDS

Raichel had a hard time explaining her point of view, but basically what I think she was trying to get at was that you can’t like everyone enough to want a relationship with them; some people you just like less than others, but you can still be friends. “There are just some guys that you don’t hate but that you would never want something more with!”

LC Exercise #6 Part 1: "F is for Friends Who Do Stuff Together"

1. Purposely get lost in Boston and have to find our way back

2. Go to the movies with a blindfold on and draw what we think the main character looks like afterwards

3. Go “coning” at McDonald’s (order a soft serve cone at the drive through and only take the ice cream not the entire cone)

4. Sleepover in a random place like at Ames Street Playground, Borderland, or one of the sheds for sale at this place in Cobb Corner (not sure how legal this is…)

5. Build our own tree house

6. Go cow tipping!

There are literally so many things that we’ve said we want to do but have never actually done. This is mostly because they’re really weird or hard to do, but some of them actually are pretty doable I realized, so we really needed this to get us to actually go through with it. I decided to try the exercise with my two best friends, Payal and Raichel, and also Jared, Brett, and Eric because we hang out basically every weekend, but never do any of the things we say we want to, and instead just end up just at someone’s house normally. It took us forever to come up with this list, even though we’ve definitely said maybe a million different things that we should try one day- so these are only the few that we could remember. We could definitely do more things like this, just somehow we always end up just hanging out normally because it’s the least effort. Without a doubt though, we will definitely start doing more activities like this because it’s worth the effort, and it’s really fun to switch it up sometimes.

Since a bunch of us finally had our licenses we decided that we just had to go “coning”, so one night we all drove all the way across town to McDonalds only to find that they ran out of ice cream…Of course, the one day we finally decide to try it. So we picked our next favorite on the list to try next time: getting lost in Boston. We took the train in, grabbed a late lunch, and literally just walked around until we found another subway station, got on that not knowing if it was inbound or outbound, got off at a random spot, walked around some more, and then after a while decided it was time to start finding our way back. It was really fun just not caring where we were going, not having a set destination, and just, you know, being kind of stupid and weird. We would try to find strange looking people and force each other to ask them for directions, or just close our eyes and spin in a circle to figure out which way we would go- just like random, funny things. At one point Payal dropped her water bottle accidentally and this random guy walking on the sidewalk screams out “NO!! WHAT A WASTE OF WATER! HOW COULD YOU!?”, just to be obnoxious, and the look on her face was maybe the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. Later on the green line a group of drunk- and still drinking (on the subway)- college kids were trying to give us directions, and it was literally so entertaining. It was odd experiences like these that made it worth doing, and just being all together while these things were happening obviously made it even more amusing. Getting back home wasn’t very difficult since we knew the T pretty well, but it was still a fun process just because of the spontaneity.

Not much was really said that I can remember besides Raichel saying, “I’m glad you made us do this, Gabi!” and everyone agreeing, but it was obvious that everyone enjoyed themselves. Everyone also agreed that we should continue to add things to the list, and obviously continue to try and cross things off of it. Before I guess it was sort of laziness that prevented us from doing things like these, but now that we see how much of a success it can be we definitely have a lot more motivation to keep trying them. Instead of just hanging out, sometimes we can do something different and exciting like this.

APUSH Podcast #4: The Civil Rights Movement

In Clarence Taylor’s speech, he started by pointing out how the popular view of the Civil Rights Movement isn’t completely accurate, and I can definitely say that I originally had this view myself. I too thought that most of the civil rights issues were focused in the South since slavery was previously concentrated there, but the North needed to make some changes as well. Abolitionism may have begun there, but discrimination towards African Americans was also extremely prevalent. When we watched the documentary about the problems with desegregation in South Boston, I was completely shocked and ashamed by what happened there. Although learning about the unbelievable racism in America made me upset, thinking that it was mostly in the South made me feel slightly better, but after learning more about it, I lost that tiny bit of solace because African Americans struggled everywhere, including Massachusetts, a seemingly liberal state. I also previously thought that the Civil Rights Movement was mostly in the 60’s, when really it could be argued that it started as early as the 1890’s with the end of reconstruction. It is absolutely appalling and pathetic that it took America so many years to finally give African Americans the rights they deserved.

What ended this movement was ultimately the backlash from the spreading of the black power ideology. Things simply seemed too “crazy” at that time, so white Americans began to become more conservative, and a division between the different civil rights groups made them weaker. The black power movement allowed violence, which angered both whites and other African Americans working for the same goal in a non-violent way. Although I am not necessarily against violence in self-defense, to me it is very unfortunate that this is what caused the Civil Rights Movement to gradually disappear. There was still work to be done (as I’ll talk about later), yet their campaign lost the support it needed to be completely successful because they couldn’t agree on how exactly to win the rights that they all wanted. Even groups that both supported non-violence such as SNCC and SCLC were rivals to each other because they couldn’t agree on who would lead the movement, the group or specific individuals, as Taylor briefly talks about. The competition and lack of cooperation (which I understand was basically unavoidable) lead to too much disunity for the movement to continue on.

A major debate that I wished Clarence Taylor addressed further, was “phase four” of the Civil Rights Movement: “post-civil rights era”. Was the Civil Rights Movement successful? Before this class, I believed yes, but now I definitely believe we still have a ways to go before completely achieving racial equality. Many people believe it was a success because they ended legal discrimination, but Taylor argues that the movement had other goals as well such as ending economic and social discrimination for African Americans. This even today has not been accomplished, although America has made great progress. Taylor also reasons that although they did finally legally have rights, those rights were still commonly violated. Racism also still prevails in America, as much as we try to ignore that fact, or even deny it. For these reasons I have to say that I side with Clarence Taylor; it is the unfortunate truth that we cannot label this current time period the “post-civil rights era”. A positive from this though, is that it “helped spark other social protest movements” such as trying to obtain equal rights for all genders and sexual orientations.  The Civil Rights Movement should have continued though, as African Americans still face challenges because of their race that they shouldn’t have to.