Immigrants have definitely been pressured to assimilate to the American culture. They are foreigners seen as social outcasts if they refuse to do so in some instances. This assimilation dictates how they might dress, speak, or even what they watch on their televisions. I have felt pressured to become more familiarized with ‘American’ values, such as watching the Super Bowl for a light example. This televised game is the most watched event on American television, with millions of viewers tuning in. I was never a huge football fan; in fact, I almost never watched the sport and could not understand many of the rules of the game. But since all my friends, and acquaintances, and even the media could not stop bringing up the Super Bowl, I felt like I had to watch it just to stay in the loop and know what the outcome was in order to avoid feeling lost the next day, when everyone would be talking about the results. Football, just like the spectator sport of baseball, is just one aspect that has risen in popularity and became part of American culture.
History has also shown that those refusing to acknowledge the transformation they should take, results in a lack of legal rights or societal acceptance in their new country and community where they now live. Many foreigners are discriminated against in public and every day life in general, because they are not seen as true Americans. As seen in the assimilation cartoons, the first one shows Lady Liberty mixing a large citizenship cup of immigrants with a legal rights spoon. This goes to show that these people traveling from different countries must adjust and conform to American values in order to be true citizens and earn legal rights. Jacob Riis tries to expose the hardships that immigrants go through, specifically the Jews living in the tenements in the Lower East Side, for others to learn about the difficulties. Riis still manages to be slightly naive about some general stereotypes associated with the Jewish people, and this go to show the ignorance of the American people.
