Immigrant and American History Coursework Example

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Readings Summary
The immigration into the United States resulted in many different groups establishing permanent settlements there. However, these groups did not receive similar reception from the American inhabitants by that time. The white Immigrants from Germany, England, Italian, Jewish, French, Irish and the Scandinavian received a welcoming reception, but the Negros (Black people) experienced significant hostility from the inhabitants. The hostility continued long after the groups had settled where open discrimination was evident. This paper summarizes the acts of discrimination as portrayed by Victor Lavalle in his book “The Ballad of Black Tom.”
The blacks were openly discriminated at the workplaces. These Negros could only find a job in the construction sites where they were assigned the hardest manual tasks. Since the federal government did not determine their pay, the supervisors would often fail to pay them or pay them just a little. The blacks were made to work in destitute working conditions where they were denied the safety gears. Upon suffering an injury, they were immediately replaced, and no benefits were given. The labor misconducts directed to the blacks was made possible since blacks were not allowed to join any trade union as they were popularly regarded as foreigners.
Since then blacks were not empowered, poverty was mushrooming in the areas where they dominated, for example, Harlem and Victoria society.

In these two town social evils of prostitution, drug abuse and crime activities were on the increase. The Victoria Society was the worst of all since newcomers could not access the town even during the day. The blacks were deprived of quality education as their contributions were not directly recognized in the economy. Victor Lavalle concluded by looking at the police treatment of the blacks. The cops always demanded kickbacks from the blacks and treated them questionable when compared to the other groups.
Analysis of the book
Active government intervention is always paramount when addressing issues that affect the public. In the midst of the social evils that happened due to the government laxity with little effort directed to solve these issues. According to the infighting experienced there was always a primary requirement to address the issue of health, poor working conditions and the lack of the adequate safety gears among the employees when carrying out their duties.
The United States failed to address the problem of social evils where blacks failed to receive fair treatment at their workplaces. In the worst cases scenario, they received nothing after offering their energy and skills to work in the construction industries. This failure ensured the propagation the vicious cycle of poverty among the blacks family. When the black families have nothing going forward, they will be unable to cater for the needs of their families including paying for the school fees. This leaves the families with a continued problem that will necessitate government intervention to end.
The injuries sustained by the blacks at work due to the lack of provision of safety gears resulted in a reduced workforce and increased the dependability percentage in the economy. This will result in the government spending more on the provision current expenditures than in the recurrent expenditures hence affecting the level of development. Besides, the blacks were denied an opportunity to join the trade unions. This had a significant impact on the welfare of the blacks and ended up pushing many of them to engage in the social vices. This explains the increased cases of crime in Harlem and more so in the Victoria society.