Gives us rights or gives us death!

Manuel Paredes

Dear Mr. President

There have been many differences throughout history that have affected the great people of America. These differences have destroyed the fibers that hold society together. By destroying these fundamental fibers we as a society have drifted apart. Only you can stop the demoralization of our great country. By our people being prejudice to each other we have influenced the next generation of our children. They too have absorbed our evil ways. Influencing the teens we are now ruining their futures, corrupting them to an extent that cannot be fixed. Students from my junior high school persecuted us because of the way the school was international and so they thought we were all immigrants. You should stand up for immigrants because just like in the Constitution all men were created equal. Although we have gone through radical changes such as the Civil Rights Movement people still hold grudges against people who have differences. We are in the 21st century for God sakes there should be some changes and fast.
Before the Civil War people from Africa were taken hostage and brought to this country and for what? They were made into slaves with no rights to protect them. Working for their masters they were tortured with grueling manual work that could break anyone’s endurance. Finally few years later they were made free from their horrible masters because of the Civil War. This freedom came with great restrictions, restrictions such as the Jim Crow Law. This is where the differences began to appear. As written on “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” it showed how African Americans were freed but still had to face the effects of the Jim Crow laws, “Here my Jim Crow education assumed quite a different form. It was no longer brutally cruel, but subtly cruel.” (Wright, 27). Years later after lynching over unworthy causes African Americans gained more rights but also with a cause. Separate but equal was the motive. Now African Americans no longer faced the brutality of the Jim Crow laws but the prejudice that racists had for them. With segregation of cultures powerful figures began to rise from the darkness of the past. Figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr began making movements. These movements made a great change for many people of different races. It changed the American history forever. African Americans finally had rights that they deserved. There was no more segregation but more rights were applied to them.
Although it might not be known there is still some kind of cultural conflicts with immigrants. This is still affecting America, prejudice towards immigrants. You might think that this is absurd but it’s not. Just like the people that faced the hardship of segregation this also applies to immigrants. During the Movements of Martin Luther King J.r. and Rosa Parks they were fighting for a cause, a change if you will. A change so that African Americans could have rights. This does not apply towards immigrants now. Right now immigrants are considered as a burden to this country. You know well enough that this is not true but to a lot of people they don’t think the same way as you do. This is why people who care for the rights of immigrants are defending the rights of immigrants. They too are trying to make movements. Movements that can help many immigrants escape that prejudice that they always face. Although the immigrants are being defended there have been no great movements because of intimidation of being persecuted. All they need is support from you and there could be a great difference.
I have witnessed a lot of racism during my life but not personally until I was in middle school. During middle school I went to Ditmas IS62 in Brooklyn. The school was broken up into four different institutes, IMS, LCS, SES and APVA. IMS represented International Middle School, SES represented Studies for Environmental Science, LCS represented the school of Law and Community Service, and APVA represented the school of Academic Performance and Visual Arts. Nobody messed with APVA because of their “talents.” They were considered immaculate. LCS was highly respectable because of their studies of Law. SES was considered as the outlaws of the school because whenever trouble appeared so did the students from SES. IMS was considered as the “goodie two shoes.” There was an only problem. The problem was that IMS was a school just for students who arrived from another country. SES was fast to assume and began to call us immigrants. This is where problems started to arise. The students from IMS were not all immigrants some got offended. This was the start off for the many brawls but what really got to me was that it was cultural differences that separated us.
Just like the times from the Jim Crow era we too were persecuted. During the time I was in IMS we had to use uniform and this is how the students from SES could identify us. In “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” the kid had to get back to his house because of the attacks that the white kids made on him “Having no fortifications we retreated to the brick pillars of our homes. During the retreat a broken milk bottle caught me behind the ear, opening deep gash which bled profusely.” (10) The same way he was chased we too were chased by the SES students. Just because they thought that we were immigrants they attacked us. As you can see society has been too corrupted up to a level that they hold hate and racism towards immigrants.
As you can see under some people eyes people were not created equal. Just because people come from different countries doesn’t make them any lesser than anyone else. It actually makes them a person of valor because the way they had to leave their culture behind and had to pick up a new one. They should be given equal rights that would protect them from ICE. Green cards should be given to all immigrants this will give them a right to live in this country legally and not be considered as “illegal aliens.” One last thing that you should do for them is give them support in anything they need. At times immigrants are considered as people who are considered as the unknown. I am appalled at this. After taking jobs that no other person might take this country still treats them as garbage. By giving them more rights you are opening their doors, doors that they seek. Although people think that immigrants do not contribute to their society they do. They pay taxes, respect the law, and most of all they break their backs under the searing sun, doing manual labor with a low wage. Nobody, nobody should be discriminated like this. Just imagine all of us living in harmony. This would stop the persecution, this would stop any hate crimes, and most importantly this would bring peace. Mr. President violent deaths have occurred from the hate crimes that people have done on immigrants. We’re not living during those times that racist people killed others just by the way they looked but it sure feels like it. Immigrants actually fear walking on some parts of a town or city because of that feeling of being persecuted. Why should immigrants walk with fear if we are the country of liberty and freedom? It all lies on your hands Mr. President.