Reply to each classmate

Please reply to each classmate's post. with thoughtful and relevant comments and/or questions. Additional relevant replies are strongly encouraged to improve your learning and discussion grade. In your replies, you may wish to include: Follow up questions Supplemental information Connections to your own relevant views and experiences 1. Damien Kaminsky posted: Ethnicity in Labor Ethnicity and race became associated with certain jobs though labor agents, according to page 128 and 129 of "Natives and Strangers." Even after they were outlawed by congress, they continued to have influence over how many immigrants would get their jobs. Some would even travel directly to Europe to recruit. These agents would try to put certain groups into certain jobs, but other times the immigrants knew the areas they would be accepted in. Like, for instance, the Irish being considered "manly," giving them jobs in construction. The people who benefited the most from this was the management. They could get away with paying the immigrants lower wages then they would pay non-immigrants. It was even worse for African Americans, who were paid even less then immigrants. Labor Organizing The benefits of having groups within a corporation is that it gives you leverage. Unions, for example, give workers a way to openly call for changes in their workplace, if it's better conditions, or lower hours, a union gives them a way to express this to their bosses. As for other organizations, such as the ones for immigrants and African Americans, they often had different objectives. Immigrant groups, such as the Polish, which are mentioned on page 141 of "Natives and Strangers." They had an organization called the Polish National Alliance who generally helped Polish immigrants settle into life in America. Some of the downsides about these groups is that their existence could make it easier for them to be targeted, for example, unions being targeted by union busting methods. The stakes change, when the workers organize because they are given more power about how they work. That, and as I mentioned above, they are given actual influence. So the stakes change, where now the management actually need to keep their workers in mind when they make decisions. American Dream According to "Native's and Strangers" assimilation, and the American Dream only come with distancing yourself from your ethnic heritage, as said in page 164. This also can be said for getting a higher income, as mentioned in the book. So, it could be said that the American Dream needs immigrants to distance themselves from their culture. The video, "The Disturbing History of the Suburbs" also goes into these topics. Places like the suburbs are the result of racist federal policy that favored those seen as "white." This would sometimes push immigrants to drop their culture, while redlining areas with large populations of African Americans and other minorities. The white areas would get more opportunities for loans, while the black areas did not get those opportunities. Housing developers and white people benefited from these policies the most. The federal government allowing developers to have openly racist policies that stopped African Americans from living in the area. Sources: Dinnerstein, Leonard, et al. Natives and Strangers. Available from: MBS Direct, (6th Edition). Oxford University Press Academic US, 2014. “Organizing America: The History of Trade Unions.” Films On Demand, Films Media Group, 1994, https://fod(dot)infobase(dot)com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=16071&xtid=8049. Dropout. (2017, October 4). The Disturbing History of the Suburbs | Adam Ruins Everything. YouTube. https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=ETR9qrVS17g 2. Christina Robinson posted: Race and Ethnicity in Labor Historically, race and ethnicity determine the types of jobs people were assigned. This was due to the discriminatory practices in our nation. For example, after the civil war African Americans were often restricted to low-wage farming jobs in the south due to the JimCrows laws. Other immigrants such as the Irish in the north were given dangerous low paying jobs in the industrial field. Both races were seen as expendable. Over time this racial division became so engrained in our history reinforcing horrible stereotypes about certain ethnic groups being suited for specific kinds of labor. Employers benefited the most from dividing the laborers by race and ethnicity. By keeping the workers divided in low paying dangerous jobs this kept people in a suppress state. Keeping people divided also stopped people from collective organization like unions. Unions and strikes would increase the cost, but if the employers are able to stop this from happening they can pay them little to nothing all while lining their pockets. Labor Organizing When workers organized across racial lines they gained bargaining power, and could demand safer, healthier, and better wages. However even if they were to unionize the racial and ethnic divide was so deep that the unions were also not always inclusive. early on African Americans and immigrants were not able to join the unions. When strikes did happen though, they did see a united front for employees where they pushed for better wages and better working conditions. American Dream Policies made it impossible for minorities, African Americans to own homes, or land. Where as white Americans were able to do so. Policies were always in favor of the white American to build upon their wealth and they depended on the racial divide to keep others down. the division of labor among the races and ethnic lines has historically (and still to this day) benefit from inequality.