I owe many thanks to Propellerhead and Shirley Bassey vocals for many a dancehall daze. But the wisdom of the lyrics cannot be denied. Thanks to an American history course I'm revisiting the Reconstruction of the South. As I am a native of Utah, the history of the South was foreign to me, as history is largely biased by locale. Religious leaders who settled the Utah valley placed great emphasis on the intolerance and persecution they recieved. After eight years in the south, I feel I can also be considered southern. The civil rights movement still breathes as equal opportunity and status statistics highlight continued prejudice.
The current debate over illegal immigration reitterates how fear and difference can polarize a country. I in no way want to incite a war of words but many of the jobs which are held by immigrants are sitting vacant while native-born workers believe that labor positions are beneath them. That is not to say that those who hold such jobs are demeaned. But many farms, hotels, restaurants, and landscaping companies rely on those willing to work for low wages in backbreaking and dirty conditions.
This expansion of the west was fueled by the desire to carve out a new life and new opportunities, away from eastern power centers and the social limitations of life in Europe. Similarly the freedmen's desire would be to better their lives and to map out an independent course in life, free of the master's prerogatives. One of the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence is "inalienable Rights (granted by a divine creator), that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" it continues "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Are we surprised that the economically and politically disenfranchised both here and abroad are inspired by these opportunities, today, just as they were then?
The current debate over illegal immigration reitterates how fear and difference can polarize a country. I in no way want to incite a war of words but many of the jobs which are held by immigrants are sitting vacant while native-born workers believe that labor positions are beneath them. That is not to say that those who hold such jobs are demeaned. But many farms, hotels, restaurants, and landscaping companies rely on those willing to work for low wages in backbreaking and dirty conditions.
This expansion of the west was fueled by the desire to carve out a new life and new opportunities, away from eastern power centers and the social limitations of life in Europe. Similarly the freedmen's desire would be to better their lives and to map out an independent course in life, free of the master's prerogatives. One of the basic tenets of the Declaration of Independence is "inalienable Rights (granted by a divine creator), that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" it continues "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Are we surprised that the economically and politically disenfranchised both here and abroad are inspired by these opportunities, today, just as they were then?
Photograph: Robert Mapplethorpe, photog. Arkady Ippolitov, Jennifer Blessing & Germano Celant
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