After learning about “People Power” at the last session, this week on May 9th, we invited guest speakers, May Chen and Margaret Chin, to bring in their expertise on the topic. May Chen, a former labor organizer for Local 23-25 (for the garment industry), gave a presentation on the Strike of 1982 that took place in New York City's Chinatown. She also gave other examples of activism and 'people power'. Margaret Chin followed up with her own presentation on NYC's Chinatown, and compared immigration and employment trends before and after 9/11.
Thank you May and Margaret for taking the time out of your busy schedules to teach and speak with the students!
Thank you May and Margaret for taking the time out of your busy schedules to teach and speak with the students!
(click the "Read More" link below to read student reflections)
Student Reflections:
By Jing Ling:
On Sunday, I learned that immigrants’ rights are very important. Up until today, our Chinese immigrants are still fighting for our rights. It seems that equal rights is the problem that every immigrant group will face. From May Chen, I saw our Chinese immigrants’ power; they gathered together to fight for a better life. Nobody wants to leave their hometown; people left their family and familiar environments and went to the United States alone, just to make their families’ lives better. However, the United States is not like what they thought, they faced too many problems. They bear the poor conditions at the beginning, but later the conditions became worse and finally they decided to gather together and fight for their lives.
From Margaret Chin, I found out that now there are about one million Asian immigrants living in New York; it is a huge number, it takes up 1/8 of the population of New York. We can see Asian everywhere. It means that we should pay more attention to Asians. We need to encourage the younger generations to pay attention to immigrants’ problems. When time goes on, people will become older and the younger generations with take those job and continue to fight for our rights.
By Ming:
I think the presentation was alright. I learned a lot of things. I learned about the history of the American industry, like the process of striking. I also learned about the Chinese American population in NYC and the history of NYC. At the beginning, Chinese immigrants used to live in Manhattan's Chinatown. Unfortunately, people were not able to afford their rent and they had to find jobs in other places, so they moved to places like Flushing, Queens and Brooklyn.
I liked it that they were professionals; they explained everything to us clearly. Activism action means when you try to speak up and fight back. For example: striking and refusing to work. It is always useful to make the boss raise the wages or for better working conditions.
To view what we did, go to the Week 9 session.
By Jing Ling:
On Sunday, I learned that immigrants’ rights are very important. Up until today, our Chinese immigrants are still fighting for our rights. It seems that equal rights is the problem that every immigrant group will face. From May Chen, I saw our Chinese immigrants’ power; they gathered together to fight for a better life. Nobody wants to leave their hometown; people left their family and familiar environments and went to the United States alone, just to make their families’ lives better. However, the United States is not like what they thought, they faced too many problems. They bear the poor conditions at the beginning, but later the conditions became worse and finally they decided to gather together and fight for their lives.
From Margaret Chin, I found out that now there are about one million Asian immigrants living in New York; it is a huge number, it takes up 1/8 of the population of New York. We can see Asian everywhere. It means that we should pay more attention to Asians. We need to encourage the younger generations to pay attention to immigrants’ problems. When time goes on, people will become older and the younger generations with take those job and continue to fight for our rights.
By Ming:
I think the presentation was alright. I learned a lot of things. I learned about the history of the American industry, like the process of striking. I also learned about the Chinese American population in NYC and the history of NYC. At the beginning, Chinese immigrants used to live in Manhattan's Chinatown. Unfortunately, people were not able to afford their rent and they had to find jobs in other places, so they moved to places like Flushing, Queens and Brooklyn.
I liked it that they were professionals; they explained everything to us clearly. Activism action means when you try to speak up and fight back. For example: striking and refusing to work. It is always useful to make the boss raise the wages or for better working conditions.
To view what we did, go to the Week 9 session.