Nowhere to Turn

Journal Prompt: “Jews, Gypsies, North Africans and Mexicans.”

Piercing, relentless stares cloud the air when people do not know much about others and decide to stereotype a group of people.  Jews, Gypsies, North Africans, and Mexicans are just a few groups of people that face stereotypes and prejudice around Rome and throughout the world.  During my trip in the great city, I cannot say I have been free from subjecting all people to such stereotypes, for I have glared at more Gypsies these past six weeks than I can count on my fingers.  I justify it as ok since they are after my precious belongings of which I have worked so very hard for.  Yet there is an element of sorrow and distress lingering when I let a little boy in tattered, dirty clothes walk away empty handed with an empty stomach as I clutch my new leather purse to my stomach which was just filled with a mouthwatering panino and gelato.  The child knows not what he does.  He has been raised to beg, and as we are told, to steal when you are not looking.  So if everything you know is trying to stay alive day by day and the way to survive is through taking from others, who is to blame?  After all, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Is ignorance in the eyes of the Gypsy who was taught how to survive by the Gypsies before him, or in the eyes of the “victim” they stole from who may have all they need in the world and may not so much as glance back in the Gypsy’s direction?  The answer sadly is probably both with an unfortunately large amount of gray area in between.

Complex issues such as these may never get resolved and are a struggle for anyone and almost everyone in their daily life.  The people who live their lives through poor decisions ruin the potential trust one may have for an entire group of people.  However, many of these stereotypes do not arise as a result of the wrongdoing of anybody in the erroneously classified group of people.  Jews have been persecuted relentlessly over time for simply having a separate religion, North Africans have been conquered over time by Romans and Islam for the resources they have around them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Africa), and many Mexicans face poverty but are unable to escape through the borders to the United States.  So where do we go when nobody has the right answer for justice and equality for all?  Can we actually help all of these people when we need to get by ourselves?  After all, as discussed in class, many tax dollars already go to the Gypsies who are in need and various countries allow for the immigration of numerous individuals. 

Immigration is a very important issue when it comes down to opening arms to the struggling groups.  A speaker came recently to our class in Rome and spoke of the issues regarding immigration into Italy.  22.4% of those coming into the country come from Africa, and although only one percent comes by boat from Northern Africa to Siciliy, the Italian government spends millions of dollars each year to keep this from happening.  So why spend such a large sum on such a small amount of people?  Could the money not be used to help these individuals so they would not need to come into the country to begin with or is it every man for himself?  This issue does not belong to Italy alone, as the United States also struggles with Mexican immigration.  One view is that “For most north of the border the question of who gets to come to the United States is, at base, a matter of law.  There is legislation, rules, regulations, criteria, waiting periods, and bureaucracies that should be respected” (http://mexidata.info/id350.html).  Another view is that the decision should not be based on law but on a basis of humanity and giving.      

I find myself walking on eggshells simply trying to write a response to the journal prompt and explain the situation.  Throughout even simple web searches I have found endless stereotypes and am afraid to accidentally and naively do so myself.  I have sadly come across websites saying we need people for “Mexican jobs,” and found that Anti-Semitism still is all too prominent.  I struggle to find the conclusion that the prompt hopes for when I realize that there is not actually an answer- not yet at least.  After all, if the right answer were here there would not be a debate to begin with.  Obviously, Anti-Semitism and discrimination are clearly wrong and immoral- or maybe not so obvious since the cycle of hatred somehow manages to perpetuate itself.  Evidence alone exists in how Jews have over and over again found themselves in situations unjustly bound down by rules, laws, and harm.  Rules and regulations try and compensate for this indefinite gray area and may in the long run just be complicating the situation and enforcing such stereotypes.  Referring to the issue at the Mexican and United States border, if we stop everyone at the border and ask to see documentation of their legalization in the country, are we not stereotyping and putting the idea in their head that they are not welcome?  On the other hand, if we do not stop anyone are we opening the country up for overpopulation and disaster?

The obvious answer is that we need a happy medium to accommodate for all of the various parties involved.  However, the all too noticeable problem is that none currently exists.  The issue is that we, not just as a country, but as a globe need to look into our brilliant minds and giving hearts to provide a decent life for all.  Though a solution may be far away, we can start heading somewhere for the benefit of all of the groups suffering from stereotypes.  Jews need to be treated as equals and Anti-Semitism must be kicked to the curb once and for all.  Gypsies need to have a pathway opened so they have the chance to get their life headed in the right direction.  North Africans and Mexicans either need a better solution to immigration laws or more opportunities in their home lands.  For starters, more education to the general population must be done to prevent lack of knowledge from brewing these unnecessary stereotypes.  With time and dedication, people can make a change as others have in the past for those struggling to be understood.