First of all, the primary reason why there were even shifts in sentiments in the first place is because of the drastic expansion of European immigration, causing a prevalent presence of whiteness. In “The Day We Celebrate,” published by Thomas Nast in 1867, a horde of Irish immigrants is illustrated brutally beating defenseless police officers, as can be inferred by the labels “brutal attack on the police” and “Irish riot.” Nast presents historical context to this cartoon by placing “St. Patrick’s Day 1867” at the top. The date indicates the time period in which European immigration flourished. In the early to late 1880s, there was an influx of European immigrants arriving in America from northern and western Europe, and one notable group of immigrants included in this demographic was the …show more content…
The words serve to present to the audience the image that the Irish are essentially ferocious drunkards who are hungry for destruction. In a text titled “Reflections on a Multicultural Society” written by Arthur Schlesinger, the American public sentiment is perfectly expressed. Schlesinger writes, “As Theodore Roosevelt's foreboding suggests, the European immigration itself palpitated with internal hostilities, everyone at everybody else’s throats… And the non-Europeans, or at least their self-appointed spokesman, bring with them a resentment, in some cases a hatred, of Europe.”3 This secondary source discusses how Americans viewed the European immigrants as people who were filled with animosity, causing the Americans to hate and be disgusted by immigrants like the Irish. This concept is clearly reflected in the cartoon through the presentation of the Irish as barbarian brutes who only exist to spread violence. Next, the cartoon “The Immigrant,” created by T. Bernhard Gillam in 1910, also centers around the expansion of European
During the 1900’s, it was common for people to immigrate to America. They saw it as a land of freedom and opportunity. Some thought that this was a great way for the US’ economy to boom, but some thought otherwise. With the shortage of jobs, many believed that the immigrants were stealing their precious jobs. Because of the competition over jobs, immigrants became the new public enemy to many.
Taylor (Puck, 1889) portrays how Columbia is stirring a bowl labeled “Citizenship” with a spoon labeled “Equal Rights” and a pained expression on her face indicating that she is trying to keep the immigrants under control. The labelling plays a part in identifying the problem that America is having with full assimilation. America has had the reputation of being seen as a melting pot, but in this cartoon the Irish man is being shown as a strong supporter of Irish nationalism rather than assimilating into society. There are many different nations represented in the bowl, but primarily an Irish man that jumps up yelling whilst waving a dagger and a green flag. He is wearing a sash which reads “Blaine Irishman”, which refers to the republican politician who attempted to lure Irish voters away from the Democratic Party with a combination of anti-British rhetoric and lip service to the cause of Irish nationalism. (2) The rest of the men within the bowl are Racialized and under control, but the symbolism of the colors the Irishman is wearing along with his labeling shows how the Irishman is “the one element that won’t mix”. The process of assimilation was crucial for the government at this point because they believed it would make immigrants more loyal and moral citizens. “During the war…interest focused not on the old objective of restriction but rather on new policies of repression, Americanization, and deportation.” (Closing the Gates). Newcomers were pushed to learn English and to change their cultural customs, which in turn led to prejudice against immigrants. The implementation of Americanization demonstrates the anti-immigration attitudes that were present in the country. Assimilation was used in order to make the immigrants fit the American standards so that they didn’t stand out in the crowd, it was used to bring the country closer together and retain the sense true patriotism. However, with the arrival of so many European
The Irish were refugees from disaster, fleeing the Irish potato famine. They filled many low-wage unskilled jobs in America. German immigrants included a considerably larger number of skilled craftsmen as compared to Irish immigrants. Many Germans established themselves in the West, including Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee or the "German Triangle." The heterogeneity that had been a distinctive characteristic of American society since colonial times became more pronounced as some five million immigrants poured into the nation between 1830 and 1860. The Irish and Germans were numerically the two major immigrant groups during this period. These immigrants often faced the prejudice in American society. They were blamed for urban crime, political corruption, alcohol abuses, and undercutting wages. The growth of immigration caused the rise of nativism. The influx of Irish during the 1840s and 1850s led to violent anti-immigrant backlash in New York City and Philadelphia. Those who feared the impact of immigration on American political and social life were called "nativists."
Meagher, Timothy. “The Columbia Guide to Irish American History.” Columbia University Press- New York, 2005
We see this most notably socially, but also politically. Very often, Irish describe the a form of abuse they endure at the hands of the “native” Americans. This is unfortunate, but the reality of immigrant live for the Irish in the 1800’s. At the core of “natives” concerns was a shift from political power in the hands of “natives” to political power in the hands of the Irish immigrants, who could be loyal to the pope in Europe. Despite this, the Irish still enjoyed the benefits of the United States nation state and celebrated in the benefits, far superior to those of Ireland at the time.vi As was seen in the movie Gangs of New York, many corrupt politicians persuaded immigrants for support in elections and often employed illegal and manipulative tactics on election day to cast multiple votes.vii There were even political cartoons included in immigration reading excerpts depicting the irish as barbaric monkeys and blaming them for election day violence as well as showing them tear apart the democratic system established by “native” Americans.viii These were likely intended for distribution amongst “native” Americans,
In the early 1920's, many generational Americans had moderately racist views on the "new immigrants," those being predominantly from Southern and Eastern Europe. Americans showed hatred for different races, incompatibility with religion, fear of race mixing, and fear of a revolution from other races. At the time, people believed the Nordic race was supreme. John Higham explains in "Racism Immigration Restriction" that in Americans at the turn of the century already had a dislike for the new immigrants and now with more entering America after World War I, the personal dislike intensified. He writes: "...
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
There is particular consideration given to the political climate in this story. It is incorporated with social and ethnic concerns that are prevalent. The story also addresses prejudice and the theme of ethnic stereotyping through his character development. O'Connor does not present a work that is riddled with Irish slurs or ethnic approximations. Instead, he attempts to provide an account that is both informative and accurate.
As more and more people traveled from Europe and Asia to America, anti-immigrant hate grew as well. The United States was in the middle of an economic depression, and immigrants were blamed for taking jobs away from the Americans. Racist articles were springing up in the press, making these theories that the immigrants were childish and criminal more and more popular (Wikepedia.com, 2007).
Perea, Juan. Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States. New York or London: New York University Press, 1997. Print.
INTRODUCTION The history of Ireland "that most distressful nation" is full of drama and tragedy, but one of the most interesting stories is about what happened to the Irish during the mid-nineteenth century and how millions of Irish came to live in America (Purcell 31). Although the high point of the story was the years of the devastating potato famine from 1845 to 1848, historians have pointed out that immigrating from Ireland was becoming more popular before the famine and continued until the turn of the twentieth century. In the one hundred years between the first recording of immigrants in
Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. Due to the Great Depression, Malachy could not find work in America. However, things did not get any better back in Ireland for Malachy. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are based. Week after week, Angela would be home expecting her husband to come home with money to eat, but Malachy always spent his wages on pints at local pubs. Frank’s father would come home late at night and make his sons get out of bed and sing patriotic songs about Ireland by Roddy McCorley and Kevin Barry, who were hung for their country. Frank loved his father and got an empty feeling in his heart when he knew his father was out of work again. Frank described his father as the Holy Trinity because there is three people in him, “The one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland” (McCourt 210). Even when there was a war going on and English agents were recruiting Irishmen to work in their munitions factories, Malachy could not keep a job when he traveled to England.
Garrett, Peter K., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Dubliners. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 1968.
...ion. Saying even though Irish people are the enemy, it's best to have a few of them to help advance the economy and the countryside. This is also ironic because the writer doesn’t even accept that the concept of eating one-year olds is morally wrong.
McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109).