This unit, Unite, in our Humanities class Rhetoric, we studied how to bring people together, how to start movements. For a Field Experience this unit, we got to meet and speak to Troy Laraviere, a rhetorical challenger who got fired from his job as a Chicago Public School Principal for challenging the government. Not only did he speak to his experiences as a challenger, he also spoke about he brought these issues to light, with a strong group of people who believed him and trusted his findings. For this Action Project, we created a piece of artwork meant to unite people on an issue. I worked together with my partner, BM, to create an audio piece that we truly hope with allow some unity within the issue of immigration, which has been a widespread issue for hundreds of years in the United States.
Artist's Statement
Throughout my whole life, and hundreds of years before, there has been an almost constant divide in America around the issue of immigration. I am exhausted after hearing so many nonsensical arguments, where actual recent immigrants never seem to be allowed to speak. No one can seem to agree how many people should be able to live here, how they get here, why they're allowed to come, or how to stop or discourage illegal immigration. People separate themselves from people who are originally from different countries, and it can even lead to violence and discrimination. I think people tend to forget that we are all human. We all have families, things we love, things we hate, a body, a brain, and a heart. It shouldn't matter where anyone came from, what they look like, who they worship, we are all in America for a reason and we all deserve to be here. You have to remember: Every single American, besides Native Americans, who only make up less than 2% of the American population, are immigrants or descended from one. Every single one of our ancestors came to America searching for a safe place to start their lives anew, a home where they could celebrate their own cultures. America has not offered that to the majority of people who have come searching for that safe, open place. Xenophobia seems to be woven into the cloth of America, and it is dangerous and ignorant to keep relying on the same people in our country year after year. Immigrants provide new cultures, new points of view that move our country forward and keep things running. This art piece was meant to represent that no matter our origins, we are all American and human now, and that's all that should matter. By using different instruments and sounds, we represented those differing origins and starting places, and by using the common rhythm of the heartbeat, we brought it back to the base: we are all human. I don't believe that any human could be illegal simply because of where they were born. No human being can be considered illegitimate by an entire government simply because they emerged from the womb in a different place. Americans tend to search for the divisions among us when the similarities are so glaringly obvious. We are all American, we are all human and we all descended from somebody. Last year, 13.5% of our entire population were immigrants who moved here in the past 5 years, and yet, we still treat recent immigrants like they are rare or not a big enough population to care about. To give you perspective, only 2% of people in the United States have red hair, something no one thinks is out of the ordinary. The simple truth is, immigrants, deserve everything any other human does: healthcare, education, safety, freedom of speech and religion, and I don't think anyone should have the power to tell people that they somehow don't deserve basic human rights.
Conclusion
This project really helped me express my specific feelings about this very important issue, and I am glad I was given the opportunity to spread this invaluable idea that humans are humans, no matter what. I truly hope my project can make at least one person think more about immigration, and I hope you, the reader, can clearly understand my point of view. While making this project, I had some issues with the editing of the audio. Though my partner and I recorded more sounds than ended up in the final, it was really tough to decide which sounds were most important and added most to the final product. Thank you so much for listening and reading, I hope you enjoyed!
Works Cited
“Facts for Features: American Indian and Alaska Natives.” United States Census Bureau, United States Census Bureau, 2 Nov. 2015.
Zong, Jie, and Jeanne Batalova. “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.” Migrationpolicy.org, Migration Policy Institute, 8 Mar. 2017.
MDS and BM, We all have a Heartbeat, Soundcloud, 2017.
Throughout my whole life, and hundreds of years before, there has been an almost constant divide in America around the issue of immigration. I am exhausted after hearing so many nonsensical arguments, where actual recent immigrants never seem to be allowed to speak. No one can seem to agree how many people should be able to live here, how they get here, why they're allowed to come, or how to stop or discourage illegal immigration. People separate themselves from people who are originally from different countries, and it can even lead to violence and discrimination. I think people tend to forget that we are all human. We all have families, things we love, things we hate, a body, a brain, and a heart. It shouldn't matter where anyone came from, what they look like, who they worship, we are all in America for a reason and we all deserve to be here. You have to remember: Every single American, besides Native Americans, who only make up less than 2% of the American population, are immigrants or descended from one. Every single one of our ancestors came to America searching for a safe place to start their lives anew, a home where they could celebrate their own cultures. America has not offered that to the majority of people who have come searching for that safe, open place. Xenophobia seems to be woven into the cloth of America, and it is dangerous and ignorant to keep relying on the same people in our country year after year. Immigrants provide new cultures, new points of view that move our country forward and keep things running. This art piece was meant to represent that no matter our origins, we are all American and human now, and that's all that should matter. By using different instruments and sounds, we represented those differing origins and starting places, and by using the common rhythm of the heartbeat, we brought it back to the base: we are all human. I don't believe that any human could be illegal simply because of where they were born. No human being can be considered illegitimate by an entire government simply because they emerged from the womb in a different place. Americans tend to search for the divisions among us when the similarities are so glaringly obvious. We are all American, we are all human and we all descended from somebody. Last year, 13.5% of our entire population were immigrants who moved here in the past 5 years, and yet, we still treat recent immigrants like they are rare or not a big enough population to care about. To give you perspective, only 2% of people in the United States have red hair, something no one thinks is out of the ordinary. The simple truth is, immigrants, deserve everything any other human does: healthcare, education, safety, freedom of speech and religion, and I don't think anyone should have the power to tell people that they somehow don't deserve basic human rights.
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| Solidarity march with immigrants & refugees, Fibonacci Blue, Feb. 2017. |
Conclusion
This project really helped me express my specific feelings about this very important issue, and I am glad I was given the opportunity to spread this invaluable idea that humans are humans, no matter what. I truly hope my project can make at least one person think more about immigration, and I hope you, the reader, can clearly understand my point of view. While making this project, I had some issues with the editing of the audio. Though my partner and I recorded more sounds than ended up in the final, it was really tough to decide which sounds were most important and added most to the final product. Thank you so much for listening and reading, I hope you enjoyed!
Works Cited
“Facts for Features: American Indian and Alaska Natives.” United States Census Bureau, United States Census Bureau, 2 Nov. 2015.
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