Thursday, November 10, 2011

Walker and "nativity"

How do you understand Walker's use of the term "native"? He uses the word "native" in the following sentence: "The population of 1790 was almost wholly a native and wholly an acclimated population, and for forty years afterwards immigration remained at so low a rate as to be practically of no account; yet the people of the United States increased in numbers more rapidly than has ever elsewhere been known . . ." (417). In reflecting on the effect of immigration on this "native stock," he later writes, "The appearance of vast numbers of men, foreign in birth and often in language, with a poorer standard of living, with habits repellent to our native people, of an industrial grade suited only to the lowest kind of manual labor, was exactly . . . [the] cause" of a population slump among the "native" population (418). What do you make of Walker's theory? Can you see any evidence that such theories persist today?

14 comments:

  1. Walker uses the term "native" to refer to the early Americans. However, these "native" people were immigrants too. America has been called a land of opportunity. It is not right for people to follow Walker's beliefs that people should not be allowed into the country because they are foeigners, or have a poor standard of living. It is only their previous circumstances that gave them that way of living, and coming to America could give them a new life. As for Walker's argument that poor immigrants are making Americans lazy and are lessening their work ethic, the blame would be better placed on Americans themselves and their pride and prejudices.
    In America, people should be thought of as Americans, not as Italians, Irishmen, Russian Jews, or any other nationality. Then, every job would be a job for an American. Instead, Walker describes it as being seen that some jobs are only good enough for certain kinds of people. These type of prejudices still exist today. We still sometimes see what some people think of as "lesser people" working in jobs that are thought of as "unimportant." This can start to destroy the nation. However, restricting immigration - as Walker suggests - is not the best fix to this problem. The blame lies not on the immigrants but on the Americans themselves.

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  2. Throughout our history America has been called the Melting Pot of the nations; Walker greatly disagreed with this idea. He focused on the idea that those who were apart of the first colonies or born should be termed as "native" and immigrants were a bane upon our country. He wanted to keep America "pure" from these people who come into the country with a different culture and different language. A key point to be remembered throughout this essay though is that these "native" Americans were a melting pot of European settlers, explorers, and criminals. It is these very immigrants that diversify and enrich our culture. Granted, it does make somethings, such as the economy, difficult, but these are things that can be worked through. Immigrants have it a lot harder to day then ever before. The requirements to pass into this country require more knowledge of our history and values then any normal american "native" would know.

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  3. Walker talks about native as the people who where here before the revolutionary war and born on this continent in regards to the quote on page 417. The Us has always been seen as an opportunity to those of other countries. The Americas prior to the the revolutionary war was made up of people from all over Europe, and was and still is a melting pot of nationalities.
    Their is still evidence of Walkers theories today, there are still jobs that seem to be open to certain groups of people, and then there are the requirements of immigrants coming in today and some of the problems with the process of naturalization.

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  4. Walker employs the term “native” in a manner that makes its definition double barreled, on the surface level native means those whom grow up and possibly were born in America. These natives thus fully grasp what is it to be American Walker contends, while the immigrants do not understand American culture or identity. There is a subtle secondary definition of “native,” walker, as many of his contemporaries, envisioned the American identity as a product of Northern European and Anglo-Saxon origin. Thus native references this belief in the Anglo-American identity. This subsidiary definition is naive and ignorant of American history, and directly contradicts the accounts of the early Americans such as Crevecoeur. Although Walker is unashamedly xenophobic, it would be foolish to not consider his arguments and evidences. Though the racism of argument a careful reader can see some bits of his essay which ought to be contemplated. One of these is observation that each wave of immigration tends to place most of the new immigrants on the lower tiers of society. This is certainly not to say either that all immigrants enter the lower class on their arrival or stay in that position. If the lower tier of society is already full, the immigrant on the whole may arrive to find no vocation or place in this society. This is certainly not to say that immigration is negative, on the contrary, it has created the American identity. In the end America needs to be aware that immigration has societal cost, but these costs are out weighted by the gains brought by immigration. We can see these in the immigration debates about Latino-Americans. They typically, but certainly not universally, fit into the lower tiers of society such as day-labors and construction workers. The question remains whether there exist enough of these vocations to employ the quantity of immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere. Whatever the answer is, the solution will and should not be as simple, and un-American, as Walker’s

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  5. America has always been defined as the Melting Pot of the world. Walker, on the other hand, disagrees with this because in his belief, people born or apart of the beginning colonies should be considered “native” while those who are immigrating to America brought along troubles. Even though these “native” people were a combination of European explorers, settlers, and dishonest thieves, Walker wanted to keep America “pure” from those who look, sound, or even perform everyday tasks differently.
    In today’s society, evidence of Walker’s theory still shows. As stated in previous comments, there are certain requirements immigrants must pass in order to gain citizenship into this country and even then, most of these immigrants have to wait months upon months, even years upon years, to hear back if their access was granted.

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  6. Walker's use of the word "native" refers to Americans of Western European descent. "Native" to Walker means a lineage from the Americans who colonized in the 17th and 18th century, fought the revolutionary war, and drafted this country's founding documents.

    Part of Walker's argument involves the belief that this "native" stock of people were biologically superior to the current immigrant populations. Xenophobia is largely responsible for many of Walker's points. He takes what seems to be objective evidence to provide an irrefutable proof for his argument. Careful reading can help differentiate what is fact from what is opinion. However, we still see people today using Walker's same basic style of a journalistic platform to propagate heavily biased views.

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  7. Walker does have good points. Even though the people he was refering to were not "native", they were immigrants just like the people he was saying were not "native", the people who were here already had figured out how to live in the environment. The people who were immigrating new had not known as much as people who had been living here for generations. He was worried that these people would come with false hopes an expectations, as well as lower standards of living, and ruin the lives of people who were already here. He was worried the people would expect the people who were already here to help them, and would not strive for the level of living, bringing down everyone's living standard in the process.

    What Walker was worried about is happening today. Illegal immigrants from Mexico have a lower standard of living, and take really low wages from companies. This in turn makes the companies not want to pay any higher wages, lowering other American's wages. This is exactly what Walker worried about, and it is happening today.

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  8. Walker uses the term "native" to mean English decedent Americans who's families had been here since the revolutionary war. If we could go back and talk to walker i bet he would defend the idea that by fighting the revolutionary war those men earned the freedom for their families, and others do not deserve to take what they had earned. Walker is something of an elitist wanting only the most prime immigrants to be allowed. He probably thinks that because America is largely populated by English speaking individuals, anyone immigrating should have learned to speak English as well.

    To this day some of Walker's bias against immigration has carried over. Not everyone in America welcomes immigrants to this new land. Although Americans have a variety of excuses about why they do not want new people coming to america these excuses boil down simply to we do not want to share our lifestyle with the rest of the world.

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  9. When Walker uses the word "native" he is referring to Americans with a European descent. I disagree with his use of "native" because the group he is referring to is not actually native to America.

    I do not support Walker's theory that immigrants have "habits repellent to our native people"(418) because just because their culture is different does not make their traditions repulsive. I would agree that there are some individuals who would agree with Walker and find the cultures of others repulsive. I think that there are some people today who still support Walker's theories, but the amount of people who do not agree with Walker's theories is greater.

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  10. As others have pointed out, America has always been considered to be a "Melting Pot." America as a country was founded entirely by immigrants coming to a land of new opportunity. Unfortunately, this fact seems to be ignored by Walker. Walker's use and description of the word "native" is both inaccurate and pretentious. The people he is claiming as natives are the English-descended immigrants who trace their American identity back to the early colonial era. But there lies the problem. Walker's supposed "native" population can only trace their American lineage back to the mid or late eighteenth century. We all know of course that the many Native American tribes are the true natives of this land. Walker's belief that immigrants are of an inferior genetic stock conflicts with the idea upon which America was founded - that people looking for a better life could come to America to make a better future for themselves and their families.

    Unfortunately, I think that certain aspects of Walker's philosophy still linger. We certainly see it during any sort of debate involving the Mexican illegal immigration issues. Some people simply have a false sense of superiority when comparing themselves to "foreigners." But such attitudes are counter-productive for social growth in our country. America's strength comes from its diversity and unique blend of both native and alien cultures. Anyone who says otherwise (*cough* Walker *cough*) is deluding themselves.

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  11. Walker uses the term native as the people that colonized this continent first, these people being WASP. Walker's idea of a pure country would have resulted in a very small country that would not have survived. One of the major reasons America has been so successful is due to it's immense cultural diversity. Walker also states that these people that have immigrated are ruining the country because they are poorer. The fact is that the first people to cultivate this country were poor as well and rose above it. It can be concluded that most immigrants have to start from somewhere, and some eventually break the barrier of the lower class, essentially achieving the American dream that is so sought after. These theories unfortunately exist today and can be seen in world leaders such as Hitler.

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  12. walker's idea of native were associated with the people that first inhabited the country. i think that his idea of native stems from a European point of view in which all the native people of a certain country were born there or have an ancestral background in the country. this would have resulted in a much smaller nation in terms of population which would not have allowed us to be the great nation we are today.

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  13. Walkers theory is clearly based on a blissful ignorance of the fact that white people are not native to america, and in fact ruthlessly invaded the territory of the true "native" people. Thoughts like this are all too prevalent today especially with the idea of "american exceptionalism". People too often assume that we are allowed to bomb anyone or to wiretap everyone because we, as a people, were set apart. This idea is blatantly untrue and only leads to america continuing to misuse power for our own financial gain. Walker's idea is based more on racism then facts and is more akin to propaganda then a ell reasoned argument. He generally ignores facts and bases his opinion on opinions as opposed to anything actually substantial.

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  14. Firstly, I don't think that you, Professor Newmark, can really justify yourself in calling that a theory at a technical school. Maybe back home in Kansas that would fly, but something as simple as noticing a negative correlation between immigration and population growth hardly deserves the title "theory," and asserting that one causes the other places it almost in the realm of "hypothesis," perhaps with even less evidence backing it than most other hypotheses. You should know better than to call that a theory. Jeez. >:( If there is one bit of terminology that I love to nitpick about more than anything, it's that one, because having that distinction ingrained in one's mind is useful in knowing what is going on, more so than even the definition of "irony," which my 10th-grade English teacher loved to nitpick on so much that he joked that if he ever heard one of us use that word incorrectly, he would personally materialize Batman-style behind that one and steal his or her pants.

    Now that I have successfully belittled and alienated everyone, let me follow that by saying that I found this particular selection very difficult to read. I'm not sure whether it was the Chartwell's I had eaten or the subject matter of the writing, but when I read this I had a vague queasiness about me in addition to the slight drowsiness that I get when I read something that doesn't emit light.

    In any case, correlation =/= causation, and I have seen plenty of hypotheses of equal or lesser quality on a regular basis, fundamentalism being at the root of many but not all of them, and a strong confirmation bias and maybe a couple of other things can make correlation equal to causation in someone's mind, and they can, in fact rather than in mind, never be the same things.

    Definition hipster, away! whoosh

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