Module 5 Reflection: Immigration & Workplace Safety Issues

Immigration

After reading the assigned chapter this week, I can see many similarities in how things were back then versus now. The U.S. economy needed immigrants for its factors and in todays' economy we really on immigrants to do some of the lower paying jobs. Many immigrants flee to the U.S. in hopes of pursuing the "American Dream," but never really get to fulfill that dream. For centuries, the United States has aimed to restrict immigration because of the fear that the "influx of foreigners would undermine the racial, economic, and moral integrity of American society." History has shown that the "American Society" only cares about Americans who have attained the highest level of civilization, which is marked by whiteness sadly. 


Nativist sentiment intensified in the late nineteenth century as immigrants streamed into American cities to fuel the factory boom. “Uncle Sam’s Lodging House” conveys this anti-immigrant attitude, with caricatured representations of Europeans, Asians, and African Americans creating a chaotic scene. Joseph Ferdinand Keppler, "Uncle Sam's lodging-house,” in Puck (June 7, 1882). Wikimedia, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_F._Keppler_-_Uncle_Sam%27s_lodging-house.jpg.
Nativist sentiment intensified in the late nineteenth century as immigrants streamed into American cities. Uncle Sam’s Lodging House, published in 1882, conveys this anti-immigrant attitude, with caricatured representations of Europeans, Asians, and African Americans creating a chaotic scene.

Workplace Safety Issues

Fire Chief, Edward Croaker predicted that something disastrous would occur. He pleaded with many people to improve safety working conditions in factories. After examining Triangle building, it was discovered that a major reason for loss of life was due to the lack of fire escapes. Knowing that this could have been prevented or the aftermath could have been less severe must of been hard to come to terms with. Fire drills were not mandated and many companies believed it would cut into the working time, so they were never practiced. Sprinklers were not implemented into buildings and no one could force companies to install them. All of this resulted in companies and business owners to cut corners. The would receive no penalties for not implementing safety features, so they were neglected. As a result, hundreds of people to lose their life and company owners faced no consequences. In my opinion, there was no remorse for what occurred within Triangle building that afternoon. That incident was a clear cut reason to change safety measures within the buildings, but I do not think the change happened as quick as it should have. 



Bibliography 

https://fod-infobase-com.jcsu.idm.oclc.org/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=115038&tScript=0
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/19-american-empire/


Comments

  1. GREAT reflection Jordan, as I read your s and a few more before this it was the same topic. But, as I told one before the most that stood out to me about these topics and what I learned about was how the workers were working and they were just very passionate about working for less.

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  3. Hello Jordan, I loved your reflection, through it makes me feel sad. We in fact still relay on cheap labor and its true that the labor-intensive work is still performed by immigrants. I would make the arguments it was terrible for every race and it's still awful for today. I do believe what happened in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was extremely deliberate, considering how slow the authorities reacted to the fire.

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