The Privilege Of Being A U.S. Citizen

According to Findlaw.com there are three ways to be considered a U.S. citizen:

Birth (being born in the U.S.), Blood (even if you're born outside of the U.S. if one parents is a citizen, you are as well), or Naturalization (the process of becoming a citizen if you have immigrated into the U.S. from another country and neither of your parents holds U.S. citizenship).

Individuals(Immigrants)who seek to obtain citizenship through Naturalization are not afforded the same privileges as those who are citizens due to birth or blood factors. Naturalization is a lengthy process and can take years. ( I was old enough to remember my father being sworn in as a citizen).

The privileges of being a U.S. citizen extend beyond what is entitled to us by the U.S. Constitution.

A site managed by Coloradans For Immigrant Rights provided this list of citizenship privileges:

1. Most if not all of the time I am able to surround myself with people who share a common or collective history, who understand the norms of U.S. society, who speak the same language that I do and who understand my culture.

2. I am not worried on a daily basis about being “discovered” and deported along with, or away from my family.*

3. I don’t have to worry that a small mis-step could lead to my deportation, even if I currently have legal papers to be in the U.S.

4. I can apply for a passport that will allow me to travel back and forth to most countries in the world.

5. I can think nothing of crossing the border to visit Tijuana, Mexico, for a day of shopping and sightseeing,while Mexican citizens must qualify economically to obtain even a tourist visa to enter the U.S., and there are a great many who do not qualify.

6. If I want to get a driver’s license, it’s a simple matter of bringing along my birth certificate, social security card, insurance card and taking the test. There’s no need to worry about whether I have the proper documents to get a driver’s license. Usually, a long line is all I have to worry about.

7. If I apply for a job, I do not have to worry about what to write under “Social Security Number.”

8. When Social Security and Medicare are taken out of my paycheck, I have a reasonable hope that someday either my dependents or I will receive the benefit of those taxes.

9. I can go in any bank and set up a checking account with out fear of discrimination, thus knowing my money is safer than on my person or elsewhere.

10. If a police officer pulls me over, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my perceived immigration status.

11. I can be reasonably sure that if I need legal, medical advice or help, my citizenship status will not be a consideration.

12. I can vote in any election on policies or on people who will make laws affecting my way of life and my community.

13. I may consider running for political office to serve my community.

14. I, or a member of my family,* can apply for scholarship aid to the institutions of higher education that are supported by my family’s tax dollars.

15. I have not been forced to ask myself what would compel me to risk my life, crossing a barren desert for days without food or water, or employing any other dangerous form of transport to enter the U.S., leaving my family,* my home, my roots behind me to enter into a country that not only feels hostile to my kind, but is
also at times difficult to understand.

16. If am treated violently or inappropriately by a federal entity I have some hope of legal recourse.

17. I can choose whether or not I take part in discussions surrounding how my lifestyle or the actions of my government have impacted the lives of those in other countries.

18. If I decide to organize or speak out about the policies my country has enacted or about any inaction or wrong doing, I am more likely to understand the systems I was brought up around and how they work. Those in power are more likely to listen to me and credit my arguments than a non citizen.

* On our use of the word “family”- “family” in most discourse on immigration policy is not used to describe unmarried, non-blood, and queer familial relations.
Here we recognize the inherent value, legitimacy and importance of these relationships regardless of state sanction.

Organizing Citizens to Support Immigrant Rights!
Website: http://www.afsc.org/central/colorado


Quote Taken From Article in The Portland Phoenix:

Should non-citizens vote?
Government Reform
By JEFF INGLIS February 17, 2010


"Legal immigrants typically take between eight and 10 years to earn citizenship, if they decide to. "Many of our immigrants are refugees" with legal status, Trevorrow says, who have kids in the public schools and pay property, income, and sales taxes yet at present lack a voice in how that money is spent — at least for the period before they become citizens. Some, for whom renouncing another citizenship would mean loss of property or ability to visit relatives abroad, never become US citizens and never have a voice in how their new home is governed."


Food For Thought:

Can you think of any other privileges afforded to U.S. citizens over non-citizens living in the U.S.?

What are your thoughts on non-citizens voting?

How do other factors such as race, sex, or poverty affect non-citizens, in particular, who are living in the US?

Should illegal immigrants be afforded the same chances as those immigrants who have moved here through legal channels or who are refugees?


FMI Please Visit:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

&

Requirements for Naturalization:
http://immigration.findlaw.com/immigration/immigration-citizenship-naturalization/immigration-citizenship-naturalization-overview.html

50 Examples of White Privilege

Focusing on White Privilege
submitted by Hannah Kelley (via Dave Taylor's account due to technical difficulties)
Week 8


As I was trying to find an area of privilege to focus on for my post, I stumbled upon Peggy McIntosh’s list of 50 examples of white privilege in daily life, (2007). She says in her introduction to this piece that many people think of the United States as a changing and progressive society where race, culture and other differences are not problems anymore. However I believe it is almost impossible to be colorblind and us as a society are certainly not. She goes on to explain that her as a white person was taught to see racism as something that puts others down and treats them unequally. But she never looked at it as something that put her and her skin color in the majority and gave her an advantage. I think this point is very interesting and I think it is important for people to understand that racism and privilege affect all of us in differing ways. She has compiled a list of white privileges that happen on a daily basis. For all of us it is challenging to understand what it is like to walk in someone else’ s shoes and live in a different race but this list was very informative to me. As an African American I understand personally what it is like and have had many of the things on the list happen to me or people I am close to. I hope this helps open peoples eyes and I think this list fits very well with the theme of the class which is about learning different cultures and ethnicities and learning about our selves in regards to biases.

Here is the list:



1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

The relative invisibility of systemic prejudice

I have included a link to part 1 of a 6 part talk given by Tim Wise on the Pathology of White Privilege. I think it is highly worthwhile to view all six parts, and they may be found on youtube. However, I have included only this first part as a good introduction to the idea of systemic racism and white privilege.

The clip discusses the many ways that privilege manifests in society, in politics and law enforcement, for example. The difficulty with privilege is that, by its inherent nature, it is invisible. Privilege is the status quo. It takes a level of cultural awareness and an appreciation for diversity to combat the power of privilege. This class has focused on building cultural awareness and awareness of our own biases and perspectives, our own ways of experiencing privilege in society. Just think, for a minute, about privilege in education, and how often we take a course that never, ever mentions issues of race and culture. Think of your latest history, science, or economics course, for example. Perhaps, if the teacher was especially culturally sensitive, there was a week where contributions from non-white races and non-western cultures were honored. Most likely, race and culture were never mentioned and whole segments of society and huge issues remained invisible. Assumptions of white privilege prevailed in textbooks, in classroom discussions, in research, and in philosophies. This is just one small example of how privilege colors our views of society, of everything. And this is true even if we are not members of the privileged class. A member of a non-privileged group experiences the same biased education, for example, as a member of the privileged group. Tim Wise talks about law enforcement and the biased beliefs of police officers despite data that contradicts those beliefs. Often, an officer of color holds the very same belief, even though it is biased against people of his/her race. The task of combatting this pervasive perspective of privilege seems overwhelming. How do we do it? What steps, no matter how small, can each individual take to combat the effects of such privilege? What is one's role as a member of the privileged culture? As a member of a non-privileged culture? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.