US chapter 3 & 4 (pt1)

Indigenous peoples

The peoples (and their descendants) that inhabit a country or region prior to colonization or establishment of state boundaries. They often maintain certain distinct social, economic, cultural and political systems, often with strong ties to their lands.

Bracero program

After a series of immigration restrictions, the war came, After the second world war and the cold war, the government signed a series of agreements between US and Mexico that allowed Mexicans to go to the US for temporary farm laborthey also lifted the ban on immigration from China because it became an American Ally

‘old’ immigrants

(= the second wave of immigrants 1820-90) A range of factors pushed Europeans from their homelands: Religious persecution drove German Jews to emigrate, political unrest forced out some European intellectuals and political activists, but the biggest factor was the economic push factors = Europe’s population doubled between 1750-1850 which caused large scaled production based on farm machinery, eliminating smallholdings and enclosing common lands = they could not make living in countryside anymore = heard about positive experiences in US = emigration soared. (around 15.5 milion)

stage migration

A process where individuals or groups move from one location to another in a series of stages, gradually settling in a new area. (in this gradually and in 4 waves)

Virginia (history)

The English established their first permanent settlement in Jamestown, in X (1607) at first floundered, until tobacco provided a profitable export because of the scarcity of plantation labor, in 1619, Colonists imported the first African laborers as indentured servants. They imported 1500 laborers a year by 1680s and had a population of 75.000 white Americans, and 10.000 Africans in hereditary slavery by 1700.

Push and pull factors

the first are factors are conditions because of which an origin country is seen as undesirable to live in, while the second factors are conditions in the destination country that make it more attractive to live there (EX: opportunities, environmental factors, political factors,…)

Northern Colonies

the New England colonies  (located in present-day US with current states like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut = largely hostile

Middle colonies

also called Mid-Atlantic colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennysilvania, Delaware = more tolerant, diverse, mix of farming and trade.

First wave

(1680-1776) = founders’ goal: economic and religious freedom. descendants of the founders = welcomed only immigrants willing to conform to Anglo-American culture and supply needed labor (more hostile in Northern colonies, more tolerant in middle colonies) : came In because conditions of homeland as well as the encouragement from the crown (while there was opposition only from England and Wales) = biggest group of immigrants were Scots-Irish (with encouragement from England) (most paid for the passage across the Atlantic by becoming indentured servants, and later settled on cheap frontier land)

1965 Immigration act

Immigration restrictions are loosened : Abolished national origins quotas that had been in place since 1920s that had favored immigration from Western Europe. = significant increase of immigration from Asia and Latin America. = however all nations had limit of 20.000 anually. ( selecting immigrants based on Family reunification)

Fourth wave

(1965- now) = highest immigration totals. Included many immediate relatives, refugees. = Due to the 1965 immigration act.

Nativism

America is a land built by and for white Christian people: everyone else is a visiter/ outsider they want to kick out. = nativism = xenophobic term. Anti-everything that is not white and Christian

Melting pot

American settlers play with idea that their society is based on migration = differences melt into new type of person: languages, beliefs = America is a mix of cultures (Until it got all racist)
LATER (1908) : Israel Zangwill play: ‘The melting pot’ popularized the idea that diverse groups in the US would eventually fuse many races and cultures through intermarriage and become a new people.

2002 USA patriot act

signed by Bush in 2001 = aimed at expanding federal law enforcement powers to combat terrorism

Pluralism

the idea that the nature of the nation should be a composite of many national backgrounds, races and cultures (faces opposition).

National origins quotas

(from 1921-65) immigration policy passed by congress that restricted immigration based on national origin, effectively limiting Immigration from non-Western European countries. It drastically impacted the annual Number of European newcomers (less than 1/ on pre-war levels) , in 1924 came the Asian exclusion act,, stopping all Asian migration.

The DREAM act  

Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors act (2010) was Obama’s administration attempt to rally congressional majorities by carefully limiting its aid to deserving children and young people whose entry or birth in The US was not their choice but their parents’ = applicants had to come when they were still minors (under 16) who couldn’t legally decide for themselves. = they couldn’t have criminal records and must be enrolled in school  or graduate, or enrolled in American armed forces. = in 2010 bill failed by one vote in senate.

IRCA

= attempt to reduce illegal immigration while expressing acceptance and giving rights to people already inside the US.

Executive orders on immigration

In early 2017, Trump issued orders in funding the  building of his wall to end refugee flow, and place a three month travel ban on all entries from seven North African and Middle-Eastern nations.

DACA

(2014) : Act by Obama after DREAM failed. If one was qualified for the program, it would delay deportation to allow them 2 years to adjust their status and qualify for work and education at that time. DACA operated for the rest of Obama’s term.

Equality of opportunity

an equal chance to develop one’s abilities and reap rewards for them for everyone no matter what background/ gender. (equality of opportunity has , in most cases, failed or been short-lived)

Seneca falls convention

is when two abolitionists (Lucretia Mott & Elizabeth Cady Stanton) led (the first, 1848) women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY.  The convention’s declaration called for property and divorce rights, educational and employment opportunities and the vote. (after this the women’s movement held regular conventions) (= 1^st wave of feminism)

Equal rights amendment

as early as 1923, the feminist activists proposed this as a constitutional change to remove remaining illegal inequalities between men and women as a reaction to the protective measures that categorized women as the weaker sex. (ultimately failed)

Stonewall riots

a series of violent protests by gay bar patrons and neighborhood residents against a police raid that had happened at the stonewall inn in NY; Greenwich village on June 28, 1969, where police arrested patrons and staff (the riots lasted 6 days)

Indian New deal

by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1930s: attempted to correct mistakes of the past and aimed to improve the conditions of Native Americans. (such as better staffed-hospitals for Native Americans, instead of boarding schools, local schools with religious freedom and bilingual education and programs to nurture native culture)

Anti- miscegenation laws

: Laws that made it illegal to marry or engage in sexual relations with someone of a different race. = part of Jim Crow laws  that helped keep up white supremacy.

Glass ceiling

A phrase introduced by Marilyn Loden (around 1978) that symbolized the invisible barriers that prevented women (and minorities) from advancing to higher positions in the workplace. (like managers / executive level positions)

Plessy v. Ferguson

Case (1896) that established the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine approving segregation (= setting someone/ something apart from others)

Non-violent revolution

often mass mobilization and various non-violent tactics to challenge the power structure. (for ex: boycotts, civil disobedience, non-cooperation, protests = to disrupt way of the functioning of the state)

Bilingual education

students are taught in two or more languages instead of just one. (= proficiency in both the native language and a second language)

Lily Ledbetter

Activist for women’s rights, who had been turned down for her case on wage discrimination on a technicality in 2007 by the supreme court.  In 2009 congress passed the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act in her name:  The act made challenges against gender-based inequality much easier by loosening time restrictions on filing discrimination cases (when before the act she had to file her case within 180 days of her first unequal paycheck, Ledbetter had worked there 20 yrs)

Protectionist legislation

government policies and laws that are supposed to restrict international trade for the purpose of shielding domestic industries from foreign competitors. = to boost domestic production and preserve jobs (some measures are tariffs and subsidies)

Affirmative action programs

aims to address past and present discrimination by providing special consideration (to groups that were historically excluded) in areas like education and employment.

Domestic dependent nation

refers to the legal status of native American tribes. = tribes are within US, yet retain a degree of sovereignty and have a unique relationship with the federal government.

sanctuary cities

Cities in which municipal Laws protect unauthorized immigrants from deportation or prosecution despite federal immigration laws. (ex: NYC, Washington D.C, LA, Seattle, Boston, Chicago,…)

Urban ghettos

part of a city/ neighborhood where members of a minority group, (usually refers to African Americans/ Asian Americans in modern days)  often due to poverty, prejudice or discrimination, live closely together.

Black codes

Laws enacted (in primarily southern states) after the civil war to limit rights and freedom of African Americans and, with no land or education, most black people had to work as sharecroppers or lease land and equipment from their former masters. Rent was so high that they had little hope of getting out of debt.

NAACP

founded by a group of black and white people to fight for African American’s civil rights in general and to win repeal of the separate-but-equal doctrine in particular. (founded in 1909) = national association for colored people

illegal immigrants

Immigrants that are undocumented/ unauthorized: individuals that enter and remain in a country without legal authorization. = either because they never had legal permission to enter or because said legal permission has expired. (the largest nationality group of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. are Mexican and after that, other south American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador,…)

Abolitionists

Individuals who wanted/ actively campaigned for slavery to be abolished.
Then came Lincoln: who decided that to keep the country united, slavery should either be generalized or abolished: southern states wanted to keep slavery and decided to leave the union (stupid) which led to a 75% majority on abolishing it in the house.

Immigration law

law that governs who can enter, stay and become a permanent resident or citizen of the US

Roe V. Wade

case of supreme court that allowed for limited abortion rights. (which was overturned in 2022, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion and allowing states to regulate or ban abortion) (= 2^nd feminist wave)

Forced assimilation

Involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced to adopt language, national identity, norms,…

Asian contract workers

A large group of Asian Immigrants settled in Hawaii, where most worked as recruited contract workers on plantations, where they did backbreaking stoop labor under military-style discipline and the supervision of abusive overseers. Planters segregated nationality groups in different camps and pitted them against each other to keep wages low and to prevent a unified labor movement.

Model minority

the popular media have depicted Asian Americans as the model minority = with remark on their high median family incomes, high level of academic achievements and low rates of unemployment, crime, mental illness and dependence on welfare that set them as examples to other minority groups (that is not a good thing because it caused resentment and fed a rising wave of anti-Asian activity in the 1980s)

Same-sex marriage

Marriage to someone of same sex: made legal nationwide thanks to the 2015 ruling of Obergefell V. Hodges = requires all 50 states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize marriages performed in other jirisdictions.

De jure segregation

is the legal separation of individuals based on race, upheld by laws and regulations. (solidified by Plessy V. Ferguson case)

Black lives matter

movement originated in 2013 as a response  to the acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot and killed an UNARMED black teenager: Trayvon Martin. Later, in 2020 With the camera footage of a policeman kneeling on his neck, while George Floyd cried ‘I can’t breathe’, suffocating him, the BLM movement climaxed a series of highly publicized police shootings of unarmed black people leads to massive BLM protests across the nation and internationally.

#metoo movement

movement on social media from 2006-2018 as a reaction to sexual harassment and assault as well as exploitation on the job. Started by Tarana Burke. It aimed to support survivors, disrupt systems that enable sexual violence and demand accountability from perpetrators. (3^rd wave of feminism)