Immigrant persecution

Imagine being a poor Irish potato farmer just trying to make a better life for his family around 1880. You work your butt off all day long just to insure that there is food on the table for your family when you get home that night. One day, you hear of a way to escape all of this and possibly make a better life for yourself and family. This way is to move to America, the land of opportunity. So you pack up all of the stuff you have, which may not be much, and get on a boat to obtain a better life. You arrive in New York Harbor and see the beautiful Statue of Liberty, and a feeling of excitement takes you over. But once you step foot on this new continent and start your new life, you realize it isn't as easy as it seems. You are too broke to afford a nice place to live, so you are forced to live in a Tennant House in the Bronx. The only work you can find is in a factory working 16 hour shifts just to earn a few dollars a day. You never see your family because you work so much, and when you do have the time to do so, you just want to relax and sit down for a while. You go out into the street or market and people look at you funny because of your thick Irish accent. They cannot understand some of the things you say, nor do they take the time to try to teach you the correct way of saying it. You quickly find out that this new world is not as easy or rewarding as anticipated.
This type of persecution was experienced by all immigrants duing the late 19th century and early 20th century, and still occurs today. Immigrants were not widely excepted during the great migration and are still not today. Imagine being persecuted because of religion, dialect, beliefs, or even just looking different. I will admit, I felt a little uneasy when I was on a plane and a man 3 rows in front of me had on a turban. I stereotyped him when he could of possibly been a really nice man. This kind of thing happens on a daily basis. As Americans, we are all immigrants (unless you're full blooded Native American). If we persecute others for being different, we are being hypocrites because our ancestors were just trying to survive and make a better living for themselves and their families, just the same as immigrants are doing today. We stereotype good honest people for the simple reason that they are different from the cutural norm that has been instituted by the society that we live in today.

In closing, I feel that we have wronged people in the past and in modern society for being different and moving here to improve their lives. How would you like to be persecuted every day, all day? Put yourself in their shoes next time before you judge.