Immigrant: The Role Of The Hashtag In Social Media

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Immigrants from all over the world have been migrating the United States since the beginnings of this country. Lately, the term ‘immigrant’ has been used as an identity word to classify people of a certain race. Michelle Obama once said, “Immigration is the heart of how we develop as a nation. In every generation, immigrants have earned their place as part of ‘We the people’”, but many individuals have used this word as an insult towards the Hispanic and Latino population. With that said, as the hashtag, #IamAnImmigrant has been part of the social media for quite a while, it has brought me to analyze the use of the hashtag in social media in a cultural studies lens. After researching and analyzing many posts, the hashtag #IamAnImmigrant, challenges …show more content…
According to the second edition of the book The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts and Social Science, by Jeffrey Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux, ideology is the “material” study of ideas, and that it is also a false consciousness. With that said, the ideology that lingers upon the users of the hashtag is to protect defend, and fight for “silent” immigrants. For instance, twitter user, @theJenMartin made the following comment; “For Pamela, Zaira, Gaby, Ainee (…) I will never stop fighting for you. I love you. #IamAnImmigrant” This user follows the ideology of using the hashtag as a defense act for immigrants, while also sharing the agency of going against negative comments towards all subjects that fall under the term …show more content…
With presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, openly making racist comments towards immigrants, many other individuals openly promote racism towards immigrants as well. However, there are individuals who challenge the racist comments, proving that there is an opposition to that ideology. An example if this, is a video in Twitter, by twitter user @gaaabycx, “EDUCATION, NOT DEPORTATION! Proud to have stood in solidarity with the rest of my peers. #IAmAnImmigrant…” This post is a video where students stand outside a building, protesting against immigrant deportation. This particular tweet emphasizes the performance and agency of the word immigrant by displaying actions being taking in response of the negativity towards immigrants. The Twitter user focus on the overall meaning of the word immigrant, referring not only to Hispanic/Latino immigrants, but to immigrants in general, completely excluding races out of the context. The user also promotes the video of the protest as a sign of a social movement that is in search of expanding the agency of their actions in order to inform the public of their ideology of ‘education, not

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