“We are a nation of immigrants.” This quote comes from almost every president in the new age. This is their way of beginning the conversation of immigration reform, but what happened was America became selfish, only wanting the American Dream to their selves. In the city of Clarkston, Georgia, a woman by the name Luma Mufleh started a soccer team designed for local immigrants to work together in order to accustom themselves with the American culture while embracing their own. Sadly, the local government saw this soccer club as a threat to their city and barred them from practicing in the local fields. In Warren St. John’s Outcast United, he shows how in a small town that is rushed with such an intense change of demographic, immigrants need
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So the community begins to shift toward a new way of life, it tends to scare the original citizens and they begin to retract from the local environment and doing everything in their power to stop change. In Clarkston, Georgia, a once predominantly white, conservative city, found itself in a very unique situation; they became a major landmark for many refugee charities in the late 1980’s (St. John, 35). With this alteration of community, led to patrons of Clarkston to withdraw themselves from communal participation and to revolt against the refugees in local government. An obvious divide between refugees and citizens of Clarkston formed. The community of Clarkston elected a mayor that preached about holding on to tradition and not letting anyone change who their city was fundamentally. In doing this, Clarkston residents were trying to take a stand against a relatively positive change because it went against their norms. This made the refugees feel excluded, and betrayed by the false promise of security from the United States. After all of the war and suffering the refugees succumbed to in their home country, they came to America to be dehumanized and treated like unwanted peasants by the local government. If the immigrants had the right to vote, many of these issues would have never materialized in the first …show more content…
Racism and white privilege run deep in the American culture and Luma, with her soccer team, tried to defy the odds. The odds of becoming a fully independent citizen that contributes to the community from a refugee is all too thin, and the fact that we aren’t offering this opportunity to all, is a disgrace the American dream (Guerrero). While the Fugees soccer program was successful, they had to fight way harder than they should have to be able to find some stability in their new home country. Refugees and immigrants deserve more from the United States because they were America’s past, they are America’s present, and they will be America’s future. As a nation, it’s time to stand up for those who bring new ideas to this great country. After all, we are a nation of
So the community begins to shift toward a new way of life, it tends to scare the original citizens and they begin to retract from the local environment and doing everything in their power to stop change. In Clarkston, Georgia, a once predominantly white, conservative city, found itself in a very unique situation; they became a major landmark for many refugee charities in the late 1980’s (St. John, 35). With this alteration of community, led to patrons of Clarkston to withdraw themselves from communal participation and to revolt against the refugees in local government. An obvious divide between refugees and citizens of Clarkston formed. The community of Clarkston elected a mayor that preached about holding on to tradition and not letting anyone change who their city was fundamentally. In doing this, Clarkston residents were trying to take a stand against a relatively positive change because it went against their norms. This made the refugees feel excluded, and betrayed by the false promise of security from the United States. After all of the war and suffering the refugees succumbed to in their home country, they came to America to be dehumanized and treated like unwanted peasants by the local government. If the immigrants had the right to vote, many of these issues would have never materialized in the first …show more content…
Racism and white privilege run deep in the American culture and Luma, with her soccer team, tried to defy the odds. The odds of becoming a fully independent citizen that contributes to the community from a refugee is all too thin, and the fact that we aren’t offering this opportunity to all, is a disgrace the American dream (Guerrero). While the Fugees soccer program was successful, they had to fight way harder than they should have to be able to find some stability in their new home country. Refugees and immigrants deserve more from the United States because they were America’s past, they are America’s present, and they will be America’s future. As a nation, it’s time to stand up for those who bring new ideas to this great country. After all, we are a nation of