I think the most remarkable aspect of the last remaining chapters of Fit to be Citizens was the parallels that can be drawn to our current immigration reform debates and the same radicalization that has been common theme in the book so far.
First I think it is important to point out some of the arguments that people in the late 1800's into the early 1900s brought up. In the beginning of chapter 3, Molina brings up a common narrative "They argued not only that Mexican women had too many children but also that both mothers and their offspring were likely to end birthing and medical service and reliant on charity" (142). In an Washington Post article from August of 2017 that collected statements from Donald Trump. In one statement he says "“...They’re not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare. That doesn’t happen under the RAISE Act. They can’t do that.” Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/08/04/president-trumps-claim-about-immigrants-immediately-collecting-welfare/?utm_term=.1afe63ed1528
The similarity between each of the arguments and rhetoric is remarkable and telling of the current feelings of immigration.
In chapters 3-5 of "Fit to be citizens?" what stood out to me in my reading was the extent to which the city of Los Angeles went to making sure that Mexican immigrants would never become a part of American civilization. It started with the public health discourse that created a narrative that all Mexicans and Asians as carriers of disease (156). For legislation to be passed, it was purposefully made that Mexicans would be seen as dangerous (120). But of all of it, what really caught my attention is how they depicted the Mexican mothers of that time. It started with the collection of infant mortality rates (IMRs) that began the attack on Mexican mothers. Health providers consistently failed to relate the limited resources and underdeveloped infrastructures to the IMRs (95) but instead blamed it on the mothers and the Mexican's natural genetic weakness compared to the whites. These mothers were not even able to go to charity hospitals because of the fear and thus created a stereotype that all infants were going to die because of the poor nature the mothers possessed (145). When public officials tried to care, there idea was to "train the foreign mothers" (97) and when it came to the outbreaks of disease "foreign children only received a fraction of the resources compared to white children" (161). This idea to attack mothers and children really showed me the sort of hatred between the Mexican immigrants and the white occupants of LA.
In Molina’s Fit to be Citizens?, I found that the Mexican population was seemingly the most scrutinized as they immigrated to California, and more specifically to LA. Mexicans were aimed to be at fault for the spread of disease, overpopulating health centers, being bad parents, taking jobs from the whites, and being uncleanly. Two of the most specific points that stood out to me were, the diseases they were blamed for spreading and the view of Mexican women being bad mothers. Based on the opinion of someone working for the California state board of health, Molina wrote, “...Mexicans are irresponsible and diseased(121).” The spread of the smallpox, the plague, and TB, led to Mexicans being deported if they ever came down with the disease within the first year of immigrating. Another opinion that formed, of the Mexican women in particular, is that the high IMRs indicated that they were bad mothers. Because of this, Mexican women were encouraged to go to hospitals or take birthing classes, as well as attend classes to educate them on healthy parenting, such as how to cook an “American” meal. This was later viewed as taking charity and advantage of the LA government. Regardless of the reason, Mexicans were scrutinized. As the chapters further, Molina writes about the sterilization as well as the deportation of Mexicans for very insufficient reasons. Although Molina focuses primarily on Mexicans, the Chinese and Japanese communities were also facing racist stereotyping and scrutiny from the LA governments. The Chinese, once again, came across the issue of the government harassing their laundry businesses. They were given stricter health regulations that were nearly impossible to follow, because in the time of the depression, they were doing better business than a lot of whites. Molina writes, “...the Chinese were too successful as entrepreneurs(150).” Eventually, they appealed this case to the government and succeeded. After reading Fit to be Citizens?, I came to the conclusion that a lot of immigration issues today stemmed from reasons similar to these, and it was interesting to learn of all the biases created against these populations that still affect the way they are viewed in America.
In Natalia Molina’s “Fit To Be Citizens?,” a new narrative was shown that was no longer white people against black people, but a new social hierarchy that represented a sliding scale of racism. How Japanese and Mexican immigrants were treated by medical personnel illustrates the ignorant nature of those in charge. Because they believed Japanese immigrants had no way of assimilating into American culture, they focused on the Mexican immigrants. Through the WBCs, “one aspect of what typically were multipronged efforts to Americanize newcomers,” medical leaders attempted to combat the high rate of infant mortality and to train and teach new mothers how to be take care of their children through hygienic efforts (98). The WBCs represent the idea that these medical personnel believed Mexicans were dirty and spread disease through their uncleanliness. By training the mothers like children, they attempted to assimilate Mexicans into the American way of being clean. However, when they gave up on assimilating Mexican immigrants while “confidently declaring, in the words of one female writer in California, that ‘Mexican peons can never be assimilated with white Americans’,” they focused on stopping Mexican immigration altogether (124). The notion that Mexicans easily spread disease perpetuated this idea that Mexicans do not belong in America. The overcrowded environment that the Mexican immigrants lived in allowed disease to be spread rapidly, but when it came to the suggestion of public housing, the city of council did not want to ruin the picture-perfect depiction of Los Angeles as a safe haven and paradise. The city council was slow moving in deciding whether to build public housing or not, and in considering funding and location. El Congreso stepped up and demanded public housing be built and that Mexican immigrants and descendants should no longer be discriminated against. Yet, political leaders sought funding for deportation as “this revival seemed to be, at least in part, a response to Mexicans’ growing demands for social membership” (175). This whole book seemed shocking mostly because of this sliding-scale of racism and the orchestration of new reasons that white people made up so that they would still seem superior.
While reading Chapters 3 through 5 of “Fit to be Citizens”, I found myself becoming increasingly intrigued, as well as shocked, at some of the statements being made and points being presented. Of all of the material read, I think that the segment towards the end of chapter 3 titled “The End of the White Race in California” was most definitely the part that peaked my interest the most. In the beginning of the segment mentions how the United States wanted a larger population in order to be superior to other countries, but more specifically, they wanted more white woman to reproduce. This came as a shock to me because the world we live in today, we take great pride in the cultural diversity of our country. It is often argued that our nation’s cultural diversity is what sets us above others. So, to see that just shy of 100 years ago, we use to shun the idea of our population being boosted by those of a different ethnicity is incredibly shocking. I also found myself interested in our president, at the time’s, viewpoints on this all. His criticizing of white middle-class American woman was something that left me appalled. I could not believe that women use to be criticized publicly in that manner over the simple fact that they did not want to have children, as that is nobody’s business but their own. This also leads me back to being shocked over the United States not being proud to include Mexican women and their children with our population. Since white women did not, on average, did not want to reproduce, one would think that the United States would be happy that their population was still growing. While their were definitely many other points of interest throughout these chapters, I found this to be my peak of interest due to the extreme difference that this past century has made.
There begins a shift from the Japanese immigrants being the worst to the Mexicans being the problem within the United States. During this time, Americans are racializing issues like diseases being “imported,” such as the plague epidemic, and deflecting the blame onto other groups of people. Americans focused on quarantining the “contaminated” Mexicans. Americans are utilizing statistics to fuel their racist thoughts, such as the Infant Mortality Rate comparison among White and Mexican Women and paying most of their attention to the Mexicans that had the plague. They justify that Mexican women are neglectful and dirty because they have almost triple the IMR of White women. It is not fair to make that accusation because many of the Mexican families were too poor to afford a hospital. Thus, Mexican women were subjected to risky birthing procedures in unsterilized places, possibly with a midwife present or simply the training that they learned. With the outbreak of the plague and high rates of IMR, it was easy for Americans to justify their Darwinized superiority as a race, which was not accurate because of the poor conditions they were given and inability to access resources. Even the Japanese use and abuse the Mexicans on their farms, thus the creation of a hierarchy that consisted of Whites, then the Japanese, then Mexicans, and “everyone else.” Finally, Mexicans began to assert their citizenship by fighting for civil rights. Their focus was to gain health and housing benefits and dealt directly with getting government support. Mexicans made a permanent place for themselves within the United States.
In Natalia Molina’s novel Fit To Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1939, I found Molina’s evidence on the relationship between infant mortality rates and its influence on the superiority of a “race” to be an intriguing point of this reading. In chapter 3, Molina expresses how infant mortality rates(IMRs) were a way of “indexing an environment’s overall health” (Molina 93). Because IMRs were seen as a way to determine the cleanliness of an environment, if one’s “race” had higher IMRs than the groups of people it was compared to, health officials were able to claim that “race” unsanitary and ignorant. These negative classifications would stamp that specific “race” inferior to those who had lower IMR statistics. In Los Angeles, the comparison between Mexican women and white women revealed that Mexican women had a higher IMR. This data supported the “racial hierarchy” that we have discussed in class and is seen in Los Angeles, which places whites as superior and the Mexican population as inferior. Los Angeles health officials at the time ignored the presence of limited resources that placed Mexican Women in unsanitary conditions that contributed to their ability to attract viral and bacterial infections. This disregard did not surprise me. If health officials did recognize the poor resources Mexicans had as the underlying cause of the Mexican women’s IMRs, then that would have placed the blame for the high IMRs on whites and not on Mexican women. since Mexican women were projected as the ones in the wrong, they were classified as “bad mothers” placed the beneath whites and as “outside the bounds of social membership in the United States.” (Molina 97) essentially not a United States citizen. Due to the inferiority associated with “unhealthy” Mexican women, health officials saw these women as lacking knowledge to keep themselves and their children clean. These negative stereotypes of inadequacy placed upon Mexican women led to the institution of classes on how to parent rather than supplying them with better resources.
I think the most remarkable aspect of the last remaining chapters of Fit to be Citizens was the parallels that can be drawn to our current immigration reform debates and the same radicalization that has been common theme in the book so far.
ReplyDeleteFirst I think it is important to point out some of the arguments that people in the late 1800's into the early 1900s brought up. In the beginning of chapter 3, Molina brings up a common narrative "They argued not only that Mexican women had too many children but also that both mothers and their offspring were likely to end birthing and medical service and reliant on charity" (142). In an Washington Post article from August of 2017 that collected statements from Donald Trump. In one statement he says "“...They’re not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare. That doesn’t happen under the RAISE Act. They can’t do that.”
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/08/04/president-trumps-claim-about-immigrants-immediately-collecting-welfare/?utm_term=.1afe63ed1528
The similarity between each of the arguments and rhetoric is remarkable and telling of the current feelings of immigration.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn chapters 3-5 of "Fit to be citizens?" what stood out to me in my reading was the extent to which the city of Los Angeles went to making sure that Mexican immigrants would never become a part of American civilization. It started with the public health discourse that created a narrative that all Mexicans and Asians as carriers of disease (156). For legislation to be passed, it was purposefully made that Mexicans would be seen as dangerous (120).
ReplyDeleteBut of all of it, what really caught my attention is how they depicted the Mexican mothers of that time. It started with the collection of infant mortality rates (IMRs) that began the attack on Mexican mothers. Health providers consistently failed to relate the limited resources and underdeveloped infrastructures to the IMRs (95) but instead blamed it on the mothers and the Mexican's natural genetic weakness compared to the whites. These mothers were not even able to go to charity hospitals because of the fear and thus created a stereotype that all infants were going to die because of the poor nature the mothers possessed (145). When public officials tried to care, there idea was to "train the foreign mothers" (97) and when it came to the outbreaks of disease "foreign children only received a fraction of the resources compared to white children" (161). This idea to attack mothers and children really showed me the sort of hatred between the Mexican immigrants and the white occupants of LA.
In Molina’s Fit to be Citizens?, I found that the Mexican population was seemingly the most scrutinized as they immigrated to California, and more specifically to LA. Mexicans were aimed to be at fault for the spread of disease, overpopulating health centers, being bad parents, taking jobs from the whites, and being uncleanly. Two of the most specific points that stood out to me were, the diseases they were blamed for spreading and the view of Mexican women being bad mothers. Based on the opinion of someone working for the California state board of health, Molina wrote, “...Mexicans are irresponsible and diseased(121).” The spread of the smallpox, the plague, and TB, led to Mexicans being deported if they ever came down with the disease within the first year of immigrating. Another opinion that formed, of the Mexican women in particular, is that the high IMRs indicated that they were bad mothers. Because of this, Mexican women were encouraged to go to hospitals or take birthing classes, as well as attend classes to educate them on healthy parenting, such as how to cook an “American” meal. This was later viewed as taking charity and advantage of the LA government. Regardless of the reason, Mexicans were scrutinized. As the chapters further, Molina writes about the sterilization as well as the deportation of Mexicans for very insufficient reasons. Although Molina focuses primarily on Mexicans, the Chinese and Japanese communities were also facing racist stereotyping and scrutiny from the LA governments. The Chinese, once again, came across the issue of the government harassing their laundry businesses. They were given stricter health regulations that were nearly impossible to follow, because in the time of the depression, they were doing better business than a lot of whites. Molina writes, “...the Chinese were too successful as entrepreneurs(150).” Eventually, they appealed this case to the government and succeeded. After reading Fit to be Citizens?, I came to the conclusion that a lot of immigration issues today stemmed from reasons similar to these, and it was interesting to learn of all the biases created against these populations that still affect the way they are viewed in America.
ReplyDeleteIn Natalia Molina’s “Fit To Be Citizens?,” a new narrative was shown that was no longer white people against black people, but a new social hierarchy that represented a sliding scale of racism. How Japanese and Mexican immigrants were treated by medical personnel illustrates the ignorant nature of those in charge. Because they believed Japanese immigrants had no way of assimilating into American culture, they focused on the Mexican immigrants. Through the WBCs, “one aspect of what typically were multipronged efforts to Americanize newcomers,” medical leaders attempted to combat the high rate of infant mortality and to train and teach new mothers how to be take care of their children through hygienic efforts (98). The WBCs represent the idea that these medical personnel believed Mexicans were dirty and spread disease through their uncleanliness. By training the mothers like children, they attempted to assimilate Mexicans into the American way of being clean.
ReplyDeleteHowever, when they gave up on assimilating Mexican immigrants while “confidently declaring, in the words of one female writer in California, that ‘Mexican peons can never be assimilated with white Americans’,” they focused on stopping Mexican immigration altogether (124). The notion that Mexicans easily spread disease perpetuated this idea that Mexicans do not belong in America. The overcrowded environment that the Mexican immigrants lived in allowed disease to be spread rapidly, but when it came to the suggestion of public housing, the city of council did not want to ruin the picture-perfect depiction of Los Angeles as a safe haven and paradise.
The city council was slow moving in deciding whether to build public housing or not, and in considering funding and location. El Congreso stepped up and demanded public housing be built and that Mexican immigrants and descendants should no longer be discriminated against. Yet, political leaders sought funding for deportation as “this revival seemed to be, at least in part, a response to Mexicans’ growing demands for social membership” (175). This whole book seemed shocking mostly because of this sliding-scale of racism and the orchestration of new reasons that white people made up so that they would still seem superior.
While reading Chapters 3 through 5 of “Fit to be Citizens”, I found myself becoming increasingly intrigued, as well as shocked, at some of the statements being made and points being presented. Of all of the material read, I think that the segment towards the end of chapter 3 titled “The End of the White Race in California” was most definitely the part that peaked my interest the most. In the beginning of the segment mentions how the United States wanted a larger population in order to be superior to other countries, but more specifically, they wanted more white woman to reproduce. This came as a shock to me because the world we live in today, we take great pride in the cultural diversity of our country. It is often argued that our nation’s cultural diversity is what sets us above others. So, to see that just shy of 100 years ago, we use to shun the idea of our population being boosted by those of a different ethnicity is incredibly shocking. I also found myself interested in our president, at the time’s, viewpoints on this all. His criticizing of white middle-class American woman was something that left me appalled. I could not believe that women use to be criticized publicly in that manner over the simple fact that they did not want to have children, as that is nobody’s business but their own. This also leads me back to being shocked over the United States not being proud to include Mexican women and their children with our population. Since white women did not, on average, did not want to reproduce, one would think that the United States would be happy that their population was still growing. While their were definitely many other points of interest throughout these chapters, I found this to be my peak of interest due to the extreme difference that this past century has made.
ReplyDeleteThere begins a shift from the Japanese immigrants being the worst to the Mexicans being the problem within the United States. During this time, Americans are racializing issues like diseases being “imported,” such as the plague epidemic, and deflecting the blame onto other groups of people. Americans focused on quarantining the “contaminated” Mexicans. Americans are utilizing statistics to fuel their racist thoughts, such as the Infant Mortality Rate comparison among White and Mexican Women and paying most of their attention to the Mexicans that had the plague. They justify that Mexican women are neglectful and dirty because they have almost triple the IMR of White women. It is not fair to make that accusation because many of the Mexican families were too poor to afford a hospital. Thus, Mexican women were subjected to risky birthing procedures in unsterilized places, possibly with a midwife present or simply the training that they learned. With the outbreak of the plague and high rates of IMR, it was easy for Americans to justify their Darwinized superiority as a race, which was not accurate because of the poor conditions they were given and inability to access resources. Even the Japanese use and abuse the Mexicans on their farms, thus the creation of a hierarchy that consisted of Whites, then the Japanese, then Mexicans, and “everyone else.” Finally, Mexicans began to assert their citizenship by fighting for civil rights. Their focus was to gain health and housing benefits and dealt directly with getting government support. Mexicans made a permanent place for themselves within the United States.
ReplyDeleteIn Natalia Molina’s novel Fit To Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1939, I found Molina’s evidence on the relationship between infant mortality rates and its influence on the superiority of a “race” to be an intriguing point of this reading. In chapter 3, Molina expresses how infant mortality rates(IMRs) were a way of “indexing an environment’s overall health” (Molina 93). Because IMRs were seen as a way to determine the cleanliness of an environment, if one’s “race” had higher IMRs than the groups of people it was compared to, health officials were able to claim that “race” unsanitary and ignorant. These negative classifications would stamp that specific “race” inferior to those who had lower IMR statistics. In Los Angeles, the comparison between Mexican women and white women revealed that Mexican women had a higher IMR. This data supported the “racial hierarchy” that we have discussed in class and is seen in Los Angeles, which places whites as superior and the Mexican population as inferior. Los Angeles health officials at the time ignored the presence of limited resources that placed Mexican Women in unsanitary conditions that contributed to their ability to attract viral and bacterial infections. This disregard did not surprise me. If health officials did recognize the poor resources Mexicans had as the underlying cause of the Mexican women’s IMRs, then that would have placed the blame for the high IMRs on whites and not on Mexican women. since Mexican women were projected as the ones in the wrong, they were classified as “bad mothers” placed the beneath whites and as “outside the bounds of social membership in the United States.” (Molina 97) essentially not a United States citizen. Due to the inferiority associated with “unhealthy” Mexican women, health officials saw these women as lacking knowledge to keep themselves and their children clean. These negative stereotypes of inadequacy placed upon Mexican women led to the institution of classes on how to parent rather than supplying them with better resources.
ReplyDelete