Pro&Anti

http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/

This particular website here is a pro Hispanic/Latino for the most obvious reasons being it is a website about the Hispanics heritage month that is held every year in the US. The nation Hispanic heritage month is so the citizens of America to be able to recognize the Hispanic and Latino culture. It happens for thirty days as it was expanded in the year 1988 just so it would cover a thirty day period. But in 1988 it was then acted into the law approved by the Public law of the united states.  The reason for it starting in September was so Hispanic and Latinos had a chance to celebrate the independence of there countries in 1821.

http://brown-face.com/

The anti Hispanic/Latino site I chose is this because the fact is discusses the racism that is used against them and shows the stereotypes of the Hispanics/Latinos, whether that be stereotypes be in movies or kids programmes. These percific kinds of people are never shown to be in the best of light.  There are a lot of stereotypes that are shown there is the male buffoon who is very childish and very baboon like or  the harlot who is lustful and a slave to her passion. These are two of the very types that the Latino and Hispanics both get categorized into because of the media today. Hispanics and Latinos are shown in such a bad light because of the media, they have been portrayed into a unbroken image and this stereotype began with the battle to take over Mexico.

Pro and Anti Immigration

http://reformimmigrationforamerica.org/about-us/our-principles.html

This is a website in favour of reforming immigration laws in order to make them more friendly to immigrants. Specifically, it references the "11 million undocumented persons", referring to illegal immigrants. Interestingly, however, the term "illegal" is not mentioned on their About page - even on their Our Principles page, the wording used is "those working and living in America without papers", suggesting a reluctance to acknowledge the fact that these people are criminals as perhaps they fear this would render people unsympathetic. While one of their aims is "securing the borders", this seems almost a token entry. The main focus is on letting illegal immigrants gain citizenship and making the borders more open to more legal immigrants, as well as protection for them as employees. Sympathy for these people as human beings is emphasised.

https://www.numbersusa.com/content/

This site makes its intentions clear from the moment it loads, the header reading "Call & Tell your House Rep. NO LEGALIZATION for Illegal Aliens". However, on another page pains are taken to clarify that the site is not about "immigrant bashing": "illegal aliens deserve humane treatment even as they are detected, detained and deported." The focus is on the perceived overpopulation problem presented by the immigrants ("deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl, congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions on their individual liberty"), and wishes for policy changes to discourage immigration (legal or illegal) and toughen up on illegal immigrants. The front page is occupied by news reports relating to the issue, as well as a blog. Statistics are also provided. This site sees immigration, particularly illegal immigration, as a major problem and emphasises its effects on "Americans", indicating the immigrants should not be viewed as American.

These sites are slightly different in function and so cannot be directly compared, but their differences are nonetheless intriguing - NumbersUSA's use of terms like "humane treatment" almost sounds like they are describing captured animals, whereas Reform Immigration For America attempts to downplay the fact that illegal immigrants have committed a serious crime. One can certainly imagine the fireworks if representatives of each site met.

For and Against US Immigration.

Against:
http://www.fairus.org/

"The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organisation of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest."

Founded in 1979, FAIR is an organisation in favour of more immigration control. One of it's advocates is "there should be no favouritism toward or discrimination against any person on the basis of race, colour, or creed; that all admissions of immigrants come within a single, stable ceiling which is periodically reviewed on the basis of reasoned, explicit population goals for the United States". It seems to show that although it wants to reduce immigration it is not being specific of what immigrants (just all) so it is not seen as racist. 

It features a fact page where maps are shown of population narrowed down by different types of immigrants even including foreign student enrolment. 

Overall this is a fairly normal and fair organisation for immigration reform, it is not extremist or racist. It mostly suggests more control over illegal immigration and minimal legal immigration. 


For:
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/ 

Comparing the sites together the most prominent feature in both is the donations. However this page seems to focus more on donations placing it in the centre of the page in bright colours and boxes. I think this takes a way the key issue which to this page is supposed to be Immigrant rights. It does feature newsletters and posts of recent events but the against immigration site is easier to access and get in contact/communicate with. A good thing it features is the "know your rights" section which would help immigrants if they are involved in a situation where these would be needed.

Overall the first site is more of an action organisation that likes to get things done (reform) and the second is more informative of rights, events and news then actually doing something.  

Pro and against hispanic immigration

http://www.fairus.org/

The first website I have chosen to talk about is the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). This website is an anti illegal immigration website set up by activists or 'concerned citizens' who share a common belief that Americas immigration policies must be changed and illegal immigration should stop. FAIR seeks to improve boarder security and with over 250,000 members nationwide it has often been called upon to testify on immigration bills before congress. This shows that this organisation is a very active one that is seeking results and change. Something i noticed about the website is that their key slogan, 'A policy that serves the interests of the American people' is all over the website.
This website gives the audience and citizens of America facts about immigration as well as current immigration issues and the press. For example; under the title of Immigration Facts, we can hover over a map of the USA and find out (e.g.) that the state of California has a population of 38 million and of that over 10 million (27%) is foreign born. FAIR believe that in the state of California there are over 2 million people living there illegally. The website also discuses issues within America relating to immigration and talks about national security, labour and economics and the environment among other topics. FAIR has local groups within each state and members can join up and become part of the riots and you can also find your local members of congress' email and phone numbers through the website so you can voice your opinion with them.

https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/about-aclus-immigrants-rights-project

The second website I have chosen is a branch off a website called the American Civil Liberties Union. The website link I have put in this blog is for the ACLU immigrants' rights project (IRP). This is a project dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of non- citizens and to combat public and private discrimination against immigrants. For more than twenty years, the IRP has been at the forefront of almost every major legal struggle on behalf of immigrants' rights through class action lawsuits, law reform litigation, judicial rulings and legal advocacy. The key thing i noticed about this website that I did not about the previous one is that the IRP focuses on the constitution and Bill of rights that says that we are all equal. They believe the constitution applies to every person and should not be limited just to citizens. 

For & Against Hispanic Immigration

For

http://www.nclr.org/index.php/about_us/faqs/the_truth_about_nclr/

http://www.nclr.org/index.php/about_us/

NCLA- National Council of La Raza, founded in 1968 (two years after the 1965 Immigration Law)
The term 'La Raza' is spanish for 'Community' - implying they treat the Hispanic people as a close community, but also links to the idea of America depserately wanting Americans to have a sense of community, which they find so hard to achieve due to the sheer size of the country and that there are many minorities. They support Hispanic Americans in optimising their opportunities, this organisation work as a support for the people against the opposition. Interestingly, it has state and regional offices in  Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix, and San Antonio. These are all typical places which Hispanic people mostly live, linking to Huntington's point of the lack of dispersion of immigrants in America. This is proof, despite wanting rights for Hispanic Immigrants, they feel they have to disperse to only these specific areas as these are the 'comfort zones' for Hispanic people.

This particular quoation indicates that Hispanic's believe, depsite being immigrants, they are just as much a part of the American Identity and believe they should have a share in the 'American Dream'. Proving, they should have equal rights to being an American jsut as much as any other culture in the US. 'Our mission is to create opportunities and open the door to the American Dream for Latino and other families.'

NCLA state they help many Hispanic and Latino families educate their children and buy their first homes, implying that they are a minority within America, fighting for power, despite the factual figures in percentage of Hispanics in comparison to the rest of the American population. They work towards providing the equal rights Hispanic's should have that White Americans already have.

Against

http://www.americanimmigrationcontrol.com/

AIC- Americans for Immigration Control, Inc. An organisation founded in 1983, many years after the 1965 Immigration Law. When comparing the two websites they were founded at very different times, indicatiing when there may have been a distinctive rise in immigraiton, therefore causing upraw with Americans (preferrably White Americans), which can be shown in the graph below posted on this website. NCLA claim they to be deserving of a part in the 'American Dream', whereas in this website they catagorise the Mexicans to be only be entering America illegally calling them 'illegal aliens'. This organisation calls Mexican immigrants 'aliens' because they want one specific culture occupying America and its identity, idealy British.

This term is repeated voilently throughout this websites objectives, showing their anger against Mexicans as they also accuse them of being terrorists and drug smugglers, this being due to the heavy drug crime in Mexico. This may explain why there are negative stereotypes of Mexicans, hence why there may be aggrovation from existing Americans to Mexican/Hispanic immigration.

Lesson Plans for Immigration

http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/educators/6thgradelessonplan.php

When researching school immigration projects, the lesson plans also appear which are just as interesting. More so, it specifies the aims and achievements that are targeted as an outcome from this learning experience for students. For example,

When just observing at a glance upon this website, you notice that its an 'Introduction into Immigration' which starts in the 6th grade (11-12 years of age), which seems to be a fairly young age. Alongside this, this lesson is taught in U.S History which poses the question of whether Americans believe immigration is a thing of the past? Or believe it is becoming less significant in terms of the future? To try and answer these questions, there seems to be another motif for these teachings as they are trying to relate immigration experiences to the problems young children are facing. For example,  ' By having students understand the difficulties immigrants face while also recognizing that everyone at sometime becomes the“new kid,” ' Comparing the change of immigrates to the change young children are going through.

In the interest of the melting pot or a salad bowl, it barely mentions anything related to a changing or moulding of an American, which could suggest it may be a sensitive subject being discussed in this class. Due to the lesson plan being aimed at 6th graders, it seems they are using immigration as a relatable subject to the students personal issues rather than looking at immigration contextually. Therefore the depth in discussion, in terms of the 'melting pot' or 'salad bowl' could be down to the age group/ grade it is targeted at.

k-12

http://blog.chron.com/immigration/2008/05/fifth-graders-write-about-nation-of-immigrants/

The project i looked at was the project that was able to get published which is why it is someone else describing America at first. But the paper that this particular fifth grader was such a big deal that it was able to get published online. The paper that the girl wrote she shared her thoughts on the different immigrants that lived in America in present day. The way that this particular fifth grader has wrote about all the different immigrants that now live in the USA is like they have changed just to fit into America and made to see America to be a better country to there very own country. The paper relates to the melting pot because of how there culture is melted together so that they can become an American. The fifth grader that writes this paper doesn’t see immigrants in a bad light she just simply see’s them like an ordinary American.

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

This is a project done by an 8th grade American History student, and provides a summary of the main ethnic groups that immigrated to the United States from 1830 up until the 1950s. Immediately this brigns to mind a subject touched upon in the lecture - the idea of viewing immigration as a thing of the past whereas actually it is ongoing. At the end the conclusion given is that this immigration shaped America for the better and was essential to its development, pointing out a selection of small things generally taken for granted that would not be present otherwise (such as Chinese restaurants). This seems to follow the idea of the salad bowl: many cultures integrating and taking influence from each other but not wholly merging into a new single culture. Much attention is also given to the hardships suffered by the immigrants, but ultimately their decision to move to the US is presented as a good one for both parties. If this project is indicative of the general US consciousness, then, the country is not unwelcoming of the idea of foreign cultural influences but it is somewhat unaware that new ones are still being added to this day.

K12

http://www.slideshare.net/alionacara/history-of-us-immigration-policy-2589785

The american project i have chosen to talk about is an internet powerpoint project on American Immigration policies. The project was constructed by a student at Moldova State University and has 30 slides about the immigration into migration.

The first topic that the slideshow talks about is key historic dates within U.S immigration history. These include the opening of Ellis Island in New York Harbor  in 1892 and the 1907 immigration act of 1907 which increased the stem flow of immigrants coming in from mexico and other bordering countries. The project then begins to talk about the negative policies reinforced by the United States Government, for example the 1917-1924 restrictions on immigrants into the United States which introduced the quota system and imposed passport requirements. Other restriction acts then followed and in 1952 the modern day immigration system was introduced, this included a more harsh quota system which limited people on a per-country basis.
The powerpoint also looks at immigration to the USA by decade via a bar chart and the projected US population growth if immigration laws in todays society were to not change. This chart shows that if immigration was to climb and continue rising within America today, by the year 2050 the American population will be at 400 million. Issues such as why people are not allowed into the country are also brought into this powerpoint. Statistics such as the USA's immigrant population and how many immigrants the states offers visas too each year is also shown. The project categorises immigrants into 5 different categories of background and why they immigrated. These are; Immediate relatives of United States citizens, Family sponsored immigration, Employment based immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and Diversity immigrants. I think this project definitely shows immigrants to be moved well into America culture and society (Salad bowl effect).

K-12 Project

http://sites.bergen.org/BCA/immigration/

My chosen project was created by a 10th grade American History class. "The American Immigration Home Page was started as a part of a school project for a 10th grade American History Class. The project was meant to give information as to how immigrants not only were treated, but also why they decided to come to America". It explores Immigration in the US from 1607 until the present day, so it is safe to assume that these students think that Immigration is still a current issue.

A common assumption in any country experiencing immigration will have the same worry of if the immigrants will get better 'treatment' then the 'native' people. It is the same for America, even now. People will worry that their jobs are being taken for example. "This situation is razing people who are willing to work for virtually anything. This in one way benefits the US because it makes the produce cheaper for the consumer but on the other hand it takes away the jobs from an average American who is not willing to work for such low fees."

Underneath the same paragraph it says "Everybody that came here wanted to assimilate as fast as they could and become Americans" this is a clear example of the melting pot theory. As soon as people were arriving they were already americanising themselves, 'boiling away' their old self to become an American. This was probably done to avoid any racial issues and to get a better life faster; "when they saw someone who was different racial tensions occurred.". The title of one page "Assimilation? If so, to what degree?" also again supports this theory.

However, on the page just mentioned it is said how some languages were kept and even had an impact on English.

"Language - If any group made much of an impact on English, it was Hebrew
Many Jews speak both Hebrew and English and try to keep Hebrew alive in America
Some of the Asian languages are still going strong also
Italians, Jews, and Asians have kept a lot of their customs alive in celebrating Holidays and parties"

This supports the tapestry-mosaic theory. In conclusion this suggests that some immigrants fully americanised themselves either to start fresh or to avoid any racial tension and some did americanise themselves but still kept some of their identity, making the idea of being an American mean a variety of things.

National Organisation of Women and racism.

http://www.now.org/issues/diverse/ending.html

The website for "National Organisation for Women" has been taking action since 1966. But they had been dealing with racism which is the same length as the rest of the issues that this particular website debates.  The meaning of the website is to allow the audience to read particular racism stories and how that racism can affect everyday life, they may of done this for many reasons but one reason they may have is to advertise racism so it will persuade the audience to join the petition to fight against racism in America. Racism is not something anyone can prevent or stop but this website can be like a place for people to come together to help stop racism in North America. 

Now the reason I chose to analyse this website was because of the statements that are made by the different races. It shows how different the times are considering what American’s were like with the black people back in the 18^th century. Although times with the black people have changed they haven’t completely changed and the statements are from some important people there is a women who talks about the media stories and how they shine a bad light on coloured people? How can racism stop if media continues to assume they are criminals or thugs when in fact they could just be a nice person in a really dodgy area.

Native American Rights Fund

http://www.narf.org/

The Native American Rights Fund, or NARF for short, is an organisation that describes itself as "dedicated to asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide." It aims to preserve the existence of the native American tribe and culture and to protect the ethnicity from discrimination. It is non-profit, so it relies on donations to continue existing.

It is interesting that the original inhabitants of North America have become enough of a minority to require an organisation like this one, and especially interesting that their issues are not as widely known or discussed as those of other groups such as African-Americans or LGBT Americans (especially considering the greater scale of the oppression they faced). The organisation's work includes the "tribal supreme court" project (meant to strengthen tribal litigation strategies against the supreme court) and setting up the National Native Arts and Cultures Foundation to combat what they see as "Government suppression of Native American language, religion, and culture". The promotion of a non-normative culture to the USA, and a focus instead on the traditional culture of the people in question, could be seen as asserting the idea that a Native American should identify as a Native American first and an American second. Certainly, the idea presented is that it is important to retain Native American culture & identity so that it is not wiped out and replaced entirely by contemporary mainstream American culture.

Advocate.com

http://www.advocate.com/ 

The Advocate is both a magazine and website for the LGBT community of America. It was established in 1967 and is the oldest and largest LGBT publication in the US. It's the only surviving one of its kind and was founded before what is usually recognised as the beginning of the LGBT movement, the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York.

Both print and online versions have editorial focus on politics, news, arts and entertainment, parenting, comedy and many other things of interest to the LGBT community. It also offers advice and features sensitive articles such as

"Op-ed: The Most Ignored LGBT Issue

Domestic violence affects more LGBT couples than most people think."

This is a great media source for this minority as many other media outlets would not include all of these news stories as they are probably not seen as the most important issues, or if they are covered they're in not as much detail. This publication and website allows the recognition of such important issues and offers help.
Although it has been around for many years, it represents a positive change in the media towards gay people, lesbians, transgenders, etc. Slowly but surely there will be more news and articles like these posted on more mainstream sites and publications.
Another thing it offers is also global news. For example, there is a recent story from Japan: http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/television/2014/01/14/sailor-moon-reboot-likely-feature-lgbt-characters 

Integrity USA & LGBT Rights.

 Integrity USA is a website that works and aims for LGBT (Rights- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights.) to be allowed in an episcopal church, but on a broader scope, in general American society. LGBT are an organisation that work towards a discrimination free environment against sexual identity. The website is written by a group of reverends, vicars and other holy members of the episcopal church in the USA. One of their main focus points when looking at a first glance onto their homepage, and further, onto their 'about' page is the word "inclusion". They use this word in such statements as 'We pray that through our work the church will become a beacon of God's love and radical inclusion to the world around us.' The word 'inclusion' indicates this minority to be longing for acceptance, also linking to the words such as 'melting pot' and 'rainbow', which actually represents specifically LGBT rights as the rainbow represents them as a minority.

In terms of identity, specifically factors affecting identity, there are multiple factors within LGBT as they are representing themselves through sexuality and religion. This link may have been made as a united identity as religion plays a big factor not only in America (Christianity) but the acceptance of gay relationships/marriage.This identity looks beyond being an American, but looks more specifically at being accepted in Christianity, which in some ways is on a larger scale than Americas acceptance of minorities. They are no longer wanting to be considered a minority, hence the repetition of 'inclusion'. When looking at the LGBT Rights website, their slogan 'Because freedom can't protect itself' shows these people to be in fear of the identity, or lack of. Likewise, the implication of freedom being exposed to ridicule implies these groups of peoples feeling of lack of individuality and significance, in terms of their identity. It seems to be that, the rights of a non-conventional sexual identity goes beyond being accepted as an American, but as an individual, so they can be included as 'normal'.
http://www.integrityusa.org/welcome
http://www.integrityusa.org/
https://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights

National organisation for Women

http://www.now.org

The National organisation for women is a website that works towards the equality of women within American society and has been running since 1966. It is the largest organisation of feminist activists in the USA and now has 500,000 contributing members. 

NOW works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society. For example; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promoting equality and justice in American society.

NOW has organised marched within capital American cities since the 1960's in areas such as equal rights, reproductive rights and the issue of violence against women. NOW is also involved in the action against lesbian rights and is committed to fighting  discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in all areas such as; employment, health services, child custody and military policies. The website i have chosen has a lot of support compared to other race or religious minority groups, for example it now has 550 chapters in all 50 states, something that other groups do not have. This shows that feminisim is becoming less of an issue within American society, and in particular the modern American society.

This image which is situated on the 'about NOW' page is representative of the message the organisation is trying to portray. The slogan "we want it all.NOW" is telling everyone that the organisation is fighting for woman equality which should already be equal in todays world. The issues should be resolved already by now.

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.