Ugly Robot, And The Battle For The American Dream: Summary

Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis is the retelling of the true story of four undocumented teenagers and their journey to compete in the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) underwater robotics competition. Davis does an impressive job at telling this raw and brutally true story of these kids who are here illegally but have lived here more of their lives and had to constantly worry about being found out and deported. The book doesn’t just tell their struggles to even make it to the competition but there personal struggles of being illegal immigrants and how in the following years our country made it harder and harder for them to get an education for being here illegally. Oscar actually deported himself and was banned from the United States for ten years before he even had a chance to try and gain citizenship. Even though these kids won the competition and beat a team from MIT that had plenty of resources, it didn’t do much for them once they graduated from high school. My main focus in this reflection is discussing …show more content…
Like we had discussed in the in group, out group discussion we had in class, they are trying to dehumanize them because it makes it easier to get people to rally with them. To blame them for taking jobs, spots in schools or on the flip side, bringing drugs, crime and freeloading with them. As Nussbaum, a professor at University of Chicago Law School, quoted in the article ‘Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism’, “We should regard all human beings as our fellow citizens and neighbors.” (Nussbaum 117). Illegal immigrant or not they are still people who have families and personal struggles, we should not treat them like monsters or something that isn’t