Differing, Part I.

The following is the first part an opinion paper I wrote for my expository writing class. I'll post the other two parts later on in the week.

Last month, Arizona passed a law to counteract illegal immigration. The law requires officials to stop anyone they suspect of being illegal and ask them to produce documentation that proves they are here legally. If they cannot, they can spend a night in jail. If they are in fact illegal they face being deported from the United States promptly.
  
As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I do not fully comprehend the need for this law. People of this city are accustomed to walking down a crowded avenue and hearing up to five different languages within a five block radius. We are used to the different smells, sights, styles that indicate the culture or country an individual hails from. Children of immigrants also wear their culture proudly even if they have spent little time in their parent’s native land. I bring this up because this new immigration law in Arizona, that some are claiming is the best thing that has happened since sliced bread, will not only strike fear and anxiety into the hearts of thousands of people. It will force those individuals, be they illegal or not, to suppress a part of their identity that will indicate they are “un-American.” It is abhorrent and unacceptable. Perhaps this country has not learned from the failures of the past what this sort of discrimination will do to the morale of its inhabitants.

There are various historical events I can think of that compares to these actions in Arizona. Before slavery was completely outlawed, free African Americans were required to carry documentation stating they they were in fact free. If they failed to conjure these documents, it was likely officials would take them into custody and sell them as slaves. For those African Americans that were indeed enslaved, they were required to carry papers at any given time stating that their master had given them permission to travel to a different town, state, or a couple miles away from their residence. It has been well over a hundred years since slavery was outlawed. This government has attempted its share of reparations. However, laws that were intended to help African Americans were trumped by laws intended to prevent equal opportunity.  Jim Crow laws and the Grandfather Clause reinforced the notion that the government did not want to help a group of people who needed the help the most. In case the reader may not remember, Jim Crow laws mandated the “separate but equal” laws. These included separate public facilities including bathrooms and public buses as well as private facilities such as schools and restaurants. As many who have studied modern American History will know, these laws stayed in place well into the twentieth century. The Grandfather Clause mandated that African American men could not vote if their grandfather was once a slave. Since this was the mid 1800s, it was more likely than not most African American men had grandfathers who were slaves. Therefore, many African American men could not vote even after granted their "freedom."

Stay tuned for Part II!