1. Why does Ripley fear an American future in which Europeans are “divided, permanently, into groups of different nationalities”(135)?
2. How might the social programs that Ripley proposes contribute to the "nurture" he feels immigrant populations need?
3. Why was the "physical preservation" of European immigrant populations of importance to Ripley?
4. Micheal Omni and Howard Winant in their "Racial Formation Theory" reject the concrete biological definition of race and argue that race is instead more of a fluid concept who’s meaning and understanding morphs based on the socio-political atmosphere of the time. How does Ripley’s argument for including European immigrants into the “white” racial group affirm Omni & Winant's “Racial Formation Theory?
Link to Omni/Winant article.
Ripley compares the 'inevitable crisis' of European divide in America to that of the Balkans or of Austria-Hungary. I believe he fears of nationalism and individuality of these people causing violent turmoil or uprising. He is encouraging the mingling of the different Europeans, as the two "stocks" have the potential to make a grand final product.
ReplyDeleteThe social programs Ripley writes act as artificial selection for the immigrants definitely contributes to the untimely demise of these groups.
These 'tests of character' will keep the nation functioning smoothly, and we need not resist the influx of immigrants because the nation functions on their labor. Ripley considers many of these immigrants fleeing their original countries are in impressive physical condition, and are determined, a perfect recipe for the hardworkers America desperately needs.
As we have discussed in class, many groups that are considered to be 'white' today were not considered white in the past. Ripley's conflation of these groups into 'white' was a opinionated choice. Race is an idea that is fed and kept alive by shared opinions of the masses, not based on science, not based on anything other than a 'feeling'.