“The efforts to civilize the Indians failed”, was President Jackson justification for Indian Removal. He believed that the Indians weren’assimilating well in the newly European communities. Yet, how does one race determine another’s destiny because of their refusal to assimilate to “traditional culture”. What human being possesses that much power and control to remove one person and place them in an isolated setting? Nonetheless, President Jackson conspired and cooperated to remove the Indians and push them further South. “Deprive the chief of the power they now possess...reduce them to plain citizenship…and then there will be no difficulty in getting the poor Indian to give their consent…all this will be done by the State of Georgia”, were the tactics that were used to manipulate the Natives. President Jackson assumed he was protecting the Indian from “mercenary influenced white man”, thus ignoring the affects his decision would have on the country years to follow.
It is vital that a person in power makes decisions that are motivated solely on improving conditions for everyone not just one set of persons. Considering that everyone will be affected in some way or another. Government officials should thoroughly think about decisions before they enforce laws that will affect and alter people’s lives for years to come. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer justified SB-1070, as a means to control crime in Arizona. Arizona's immigration law will require anyone whom police “suspect” of being in the country illegally to produce "an alien registration document," such as a green card or other proof of citizenship. After reading Takaki I wasn’t very surprised about the similarities between the Indian Removal and SB-1070. It is very clear that the law in Arizona isn’t as severe as Indian Removal, beside the sole purpose for the law is to “prevent so called crime”.
However, I believe that the law institutionalizes, discriminates and is a violation of one’s character. By forcing Latino Americans that look suspicious to present a card deprives them of their independence to freely exist. What does one look like when they are suspicious? Do they walk around with all black on as if they are ready to rob a bank or are they Mexican Americans? There is a beginning to everything; President Jackson didn’t just wake up one day and decide to remove the Natives, things progressed over a period of time. Beginning f with the “discovery” of their land and continuing with their “removal”. In my opinion the SB-1070 is the beginning of an accepted means to discriminate against and control Latino Americans in Arizona. Yes, that statement is a long shot but ask yourself this? What will be the end result for the Latino Americans? No, their destiny doesn’t have to be as extreme as the Indians Removal, but will it affect mankind in the same way?
SB-1070
Your post is very powerful and i enjoyed reading it. Its almost as if we share the same opinions as far as the way we think about the whites and how they just always tried to come and overcome an or take over ones lifestyles and cultures for only one set of people. the thing that gets to me Is that they(whites)dont even look back. Its like they have no sympathy or remorse for the peoples lives that they are ruining and taking control of! ”What human being possesses that much power and control to remove one person and place them in an isolated setting?" These were some of your words that stood out to me. First of all because i totally agree! I still sit and read and think upon the subject and i have yet to find or figure out who or what it was that made the whites so superior and undefeatable. i thinks its a great question to debate about in class! _Dynasty Hill
ReplyDeleteThank you Dynasty for commenting on my blog. I have yet to figure out what makes one group superior and another inferior; I guess it all boils down to power and wealth. I think it is a good idea that we raise that question in class.
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