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To start, here's the entry from the Oxford English Dictionary:
A. adj.
1. gen. Belonging to another person, place, or family; strange, foreign, not of one's own.
2. a. esp. Of a foreign nation and allegiance.
b. alien priory, priory alien: a monastic establishment dependent upon and owing obedience to a mother-abbey in a foreign country.
3. a. Foreign in nature or character; belonging to something else; of foreign or other origin.
b. Science Fiction. Of or pertaining to an (intelligent) being or beings from another planet; that derives from another world. See sense 1b of the n. below.
c. Of a plant: brought from another country or district and subsequently naturalized. Cf. sense 5 of the n.
4. Of a nature or character differing from (of obs.), far removed from, inconsistent with.
This passes imperceptibly into
5. Of a nature repugnant, adverse or opposed to.
6. fig. Unkindly, unsympathetic, with the ‘cold stare’ of the stranger. rare.
7. Comb. alien-looking: of foreign or strange appearance.
B. n. [the adj. used absol.]
1. a. A person belonging to another family, race, or nation; a stranger, a foreigner.
b. Science Fiction. An (intelligent) being from another planet, esp. one far distant from the Earth; a strange (usu. threatening) alien visitor.
2. fig.
3. a. esp. One who is a subject of another country than that in which he resides. A resident foreign in origin and not naturalized, whose allegiance is thus due to a foreign state.
b. transf. A word from one language used but not naturalized in another language.
4. One separated, or excluded from (the citizenship and privileges of a nation).
5. Bot. (See quot.)
6. Comb. alien-friend, (alien-amy), alien-enemy, law-terms designating an alien owing allegiance to a country which is for the time being in alliance, or at war, as the case may be, with the country in or to which he is an alien; aliens duty, the special duty formerly paid by aliens on imports and other mercantile transactions; alien-born, etc.
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In this weeks reading, Gloria Anzaldua describes her childhood as feeling like an Alien from another planet, as being, "not from this earth" (40). Just a thought to get us started...
ReplyDeleteto analyze- I think that Anzaldua is conflating the term "alien" with that of a space alien but she is really trying to relate it to a Mexican American woman living in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI saw a movie on HBO called “Evolution”. The movie was about a new organism that that lands on Earth. Two scientists are challenged to find out what this new species is. However, when they start to develop at a fast rate and evolve, the world becomes concerned and wants the new organisms “Aliens gone from Earth.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: In a world that is considered diverse and mainly open to new individuals—it only accepts those that are considered not too different from themselves. In this movie, the people of Earth were curious to discover who the aliens were, that is until they were seen as a threat—and then the people of Earth wanted them gone. Historical notions of acceptance have been seen around the world and are still seen today. The closer individuals may conform and acculturate into society—people may still want to keep those who are considered too different at a distance or gone altogether. The term alien thus represents a non-threatening view until the “alien” transforms into being too “human”.
So, when you Wikapedia Alien the first, main definition reads, “In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country”. Then they are separated into categories of legal alien, resident alien, nonresident alien and illegal alien. This, is alien according to law.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting when one is asked how they envision an alien, usually an image of a slimy, lime-green creature pops into their head---an image disturbing and bizarre. How then, did this get translated into being a nonresident? Alien seems like such a harsh word to use when referring to people (who are all and should be treated equally). Referring to a human being in this way seems dehumanizing and wrong.
Alien, a film created in 1979 is a horror about a creature that stalks and kills a spaceship crew. This film won many awards and in its honor, many novels, comic books and video games were made.
ReplyDeleteIn the end of this film, the alien (after killing almost all of the crew members) is defeated by a crew member named, Ripley, who sends the alien back to space. Ripley is seen as the winner at the end of the film for sending this creature back where it came from. If we think about immigration exclusion acts (that can and often are re-worded as Alien exclusion acts) from history such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, on some level, these exclusionary acts seem to follow the same notion of sending the “outsider” back to where they belong---creating distance between ourselves and the “other”.
The movie Avatar, which was a big, hit at the box office has some people talking. The movie is about an ex-marine who travels to another planet that has a different race---A humanoid race. Although his intentions were to exploit the planet and its resources, he falls in love with the “other—humanoid race”.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: The movie draws on concepts of “race”, “culture”, and society. As one person decides to be inclusive to a new way of life—his inclusiveness may risk the loyalty for his own race, culture, and society. Keeping this in mind, many critics are talking about racial undertones.
Last night I watched District 9,a science fiction film dealing with aliens. A spaceship lands in South Africa and the aliens who are inside are given refuge in a government camp in Johannesburg (District 9). Many of these aliens (who are derogatorily referred to as “prawns”) are able to make destructive weapons and soon several humans use these aliens as resources to aid them in making weapons. Once violence erupts, people complain which leads to the creation of District 10. The rest of the movie deals with the policing and dislocating of these “prawns” and the heartache, terror and cruelties this causes.
ReplyDeleteThe situation of the aliens in South Africa reminded me of the long history that continues today where, migrant workers from Mexico are brought to work in United States. When their labor is needed, immigration policies and labor control are welcoming. Right when any problems arise, we close our doors and are unaccepting of this group of workers.
Today, the Irishtimes.com posted an article about a new SEGA Play Station 3 video game called Rebellion. The player can choose to be either a marine, a predator "take on the role of murderous, agile Alien".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2010/0312/1224266074327.html
The three characters engage in a series of attacks on one another and survival of the fittest is key to winning this game. It is interesting that the alien is given the skill of speed to run from the predator and the marine. I wonder if this skill is chosen for any specific reason. Here this speedy alien is seen as a murderous species that the marine (who is the underdog) should be careful of. The alien's depiction on the cover of the game is very gory and uninviting. Once again, the alien is seen as the evil outsider who has the power (if we, the marines) give it power and do not keep our distance from "it".
I just came across a re-make of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" song. In this version, there is a funny-looking alien with one big eye in the middle of his head, singing in place of Gaynor.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybXrrTX3LuI
While this is meant to be a funny joke, I begin to wonder why the creator of this video (Victor Navone) chose an alien as a representation of Gaynor. Gaynor, a black women, performed this song about her discovery of personal strength in the late 1970s. Before the alien is able to finish the song, a disco ball is dropped down on him from above, killing him. In the end this alien (Gaynor) does not survive. While I am sure Navone did not mean to infer any racial connotations or slurs, one can find them in his linking a black woman to an alien or just representing the alien figure as one who, in the end, does not survive.
There is an online site dedicated to illegal alien news in the United States. http://illegalaliennewsupdate.com/ The homepage is loaded with negative news articles from different sources on illegal aliens in the United States. Some examples of headlines are "Illegal alien stole identity of deputy sheriff", "Illegal alien living in Chalmette booked with three counts of rape" and "[Opinion] How Illegal Immigration Hurts Black America". This site also contains a Chat Room where people create a screen name and can post their thoughts/ideas. An example here was the thoughts of a person who calls him/herself "liberalnomore" talking about how American jobs should be for Americans only...
ReplyDeleteIt is clear this site has a negative attitude towards illegal "aliens" in the United States. News articles are censored to only show negative impacts the presence of these "aliens" (a term that is not defined or specified on the site) make in the US. This biased site gives "aliens" living in the US a really awful title and pinpoints the negative effects of their presence.
Space.com provides its own definition of what an alien is when it says, "An alien is technically defined as anything foreign, or something that doesn’t belong in any given place or within any given group. In this case, aliens have come to be defined as theoretical beings, especially those of significant intelligence, that are of extraterrestrial origin (not coming from earth)".
ReplyDeleteThe site continues to talk about the study of this extraterrestrial life called astrobiology or xenobiology.
It is nice to find a site that talks about aliens (the ones we grew up imagining) and not linking them to any racial or ethnic group. This site mentions that there has not been any real proof that aliens from outer space exist but there have been strange occurrences such as the one in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.
These imagined aliens are the only "beings" that should be targeted as foreign or unwanted.
Here is the direct site to the above post.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.space.com/alien/
My previous post triggered curiosity about the incident in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Further research led me to discover that this incident was a discovery of debris (including alien corpses) from an object that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. Since the 1970s, there have been many debates on to whether or not this debris really contained alien corpses or not.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Roswell,+New+Mexico+incident+in+July+of+1947&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
I believe that famous incidents such as this one in Roswell are what create the hype of the possibility of extraterrestrial life in space.Why is it that "aliens" are given such a bad name, unwelcome stigma and linked to fear if we have never really come into contact with these imagined creatures?
Questia, an online encyclopedia gives yet another definition of "alien". Part of the definition reads, "in law, any person residing in one political community while owing allegiance to another. A procedure known as naturalization permits aliens to become citizens". It continues to describe how different nations make rules for the entry of aliens and that they must comply by the rules of their new nation and forget their old rules, laws, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think this definition is interesting to use and compare to other ones we have looked at so far. This one seems more straight forward in describing the status of aliens in another nation.
here is the link to the site:
http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/alien.jsp
The Illegal Alien Problem article expresses the concerns that the “alien “ problem is not just a Mexico-US problem. The characterization of illegal “aliens” is for the most part a negative portrayal that is perpetuated by the media. The article continues to state how immigration law violators are not significantly immigrants and there is a distinction between who legally falls under the category “alien”. www.immigration-usa.com/george_weissinger.html
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: The article, the media has great power in influencing citizens of the United States to symbolically see “aliens” as border-crossing problems. However, a historical discourse should be mentioned in order to state the reasons for such influxes of individuals. Such critical statements can lead to an understanding that many immigrants are not just “alien day laborers who fit the so-called definition –of a problem.” The profound labeling of immigrants of violators has to be taken seriously. A clear distinction has to be made by those who enter the US legally and those that cross without the proper procedure. These differences when articulated from the outset can eliminate the idea or set logic that “all immigrants—aliens” fall into the “illegal alien Problem.”
The book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America traces the origins of the “Illegal alien” in American law and society. It looks into the ideas and explanations of how “migration played a significant role in US immigration policy.” More importantly citizenship along with racialization and state practices become central to the long -term effects of minorities.
ReplyDeletehttp://press.princeton.edu/titles/7633.html
Analysis: The term “alien” has profoundly impacted the treatment of those individuals who fell in the arms of the judicial system as well as society as a whole. These individuals not only were subjected to racial difference but also were categorized and excluded depending on how they were viewed. The political subject based on migration remapped a new kind of conscious by yielding a new term “illegal alien”. So, what we now see are subjects without rights or citizenship. Thus, immigrants become synonymous with the negative, stigmatized stereotypes of “illegal aliens.”
The web site: Alien --What does Alien stand for has a section where there’s a description of the Alien and Sedition Acts. It’s a historical account of the laws set by the Federalist. They were 4 laws enacted by the Federalist, which was designed to in “response to the hostile actions of the French Revolutionary gov’t. Interestingly this act postponed citizenship and voting privileges on recent arrivals from Europe (dependent on the years of residence).
ReplyDeleteAcronyms.thefreedictionary.com/ALIEN
Analysis: The acts enacted in 1798 shows how laws were historically in place for those individuals who adversely affected gov’t. This act gave the President the power to imprison or deport “Aliens” who threatened the national gov’t. Though these laws were placed for the security of the nation, they held significant power over people. We are not to far removed from such acts today. We don’t have to look to far when 911 occurred and the significant consequences on recent arrivals and those who see America as their home
OutKast. “ATLiens.” ATLiens. Arista Records, 1996. CD. (For lyrics to the song, here is a good site http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/outkast/atliens.html)
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: This song, like many songs on this older OutKast CD, is constantly stuck in my head. The title of the song (and the CD itself) is a combination of “ATL,” which stands for Atlanta, the group’s hometown, and the word “alien.” This is an interesting statement that OutKast makes by juxtaposing their home, with which they frequently identify in their songs and rap style, next to “alien,” a word that seems to try to push them away from such identification. The song starts out with some science fiction-esque space noises, speaking to our popular connotation of “alien” with invaders so different that they are not even human. Then the middle of the song personalizes their use of the term as they say, “The alienators/ cause we different...like sounds of Blackness.” Here they use the root “alien” to show how their blackness casts them as different, maybe even as diametrically opposed to normative society as the space aliens in the beginning. At the end of the song, however, they talk about the power they have in their ability to make music and say, “You heard the A-T-L-iens/So back the hell up off me.” This new, hybridized claim to both “alien” and “ATL” at the end with reference to music, a powerful human expression, seems to be in the service of a project to decolonize notions of the human and the humanities. As the group members in OutKast acknowledge the etymology of “alien” and how they have historically been cast out (or “OutKast”?) as inhumanly different, they go on to reveal its contradictions and reappropriate it as an empowering term within which they can create new meanings. In this sense, they use their music to reclaim and remold what it means to be human to be inclusive of the formerly outcast “aliens.”
"USCIS - Alien." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. <http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=ec21136d2035f010Vg
ReplyDeleteThis is a link to Homeland Security’s immigration information glossary webpage, which helps define what it calls “highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader” in order to help readers understand their references to immigration law. According to this glossary, the term “alien” refers to “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.”
Analysis: Both the explanation of the glossary in general and the wording of the definition itself emphasize the rationality and presumed validity of the nation-state as a way to legitimate the claims that Homeland Security makes about the way to deploy the word “alien.” Although the glossary does cede that there are other ways that people use the term, Homeland Security makes it clear that its usage is “technical” and related to law, and thus privileged over other uses. This usage occludes ways of critically engaging the term as it veils the emotional sites of contestation embedded in it by purporting its correct usage to be objective. This rationalized use of the term “alien” is centered on the idea of the modern nation-state as the defining characteristic of humanity because being or not being a “citizen or national” of the nation-state is the fundamental, legal way to classify human beings. This usage of the word “alien” impedes notions of decolonizing the humanities because of this privileged focus on the nation-state as a source of identification of self and difference, using a discourse of legality to brush over other ways of conceiving the human that may transcend identification with the modern nation-state.
"Crime Suppression Operation Day 1 Numbers" Borderfire. 20 Mar. 2010.
ReplyDeleteThis is a news article printed by Borderfire, a news commentary website that tracks down news and political events related to “illegal immigration” in the U.S. This article in particular describes a series of “crime suppression operations” taking place in Arizona in which the Maricopa County sheriff is on a mission to “focus on the growing problem of illegal alien drop houses and drug violators inside the city of Phoenix.” Borderfire is pleased that these operations, which seemed to start as more generally aimed against drug crimes, are now getting ready for their 15th run after the 14th operation's emphasis on “illegal alien drop houses,” yielded so many arrests.
Analysis: This use of the term “alien” clearly displays how it is often constellated by and conflated with the terms “immigration” and “illegal.” The terms “illegal alien” and “illegal immigration” are used interchangeably so frequently that it seems as if one combination could easily stand in for any other. These constellating keywords set the term “alien” amidst sites of political contestation over legality and how it determines the legitimacy of a human being’s right to move in the world. “Aliens” are both foreign and criminal, “illegal” in their act of moving across nation-state borders, and now presumed to be perpetrators of further crimes once they enter. This use of “alien” drives home the claim that bodies themselves can be criminal because they are foreign. These conflating terminologies thus obstruct other ways of conceiving human subjectivities outside the divisions of legal/national borders.
Sutherland, Paul. "Alien World is like one of Ours" Scientific American. 20 Mar. 2010. .
ReplyDeleteThis is an article published on the Scientific American’s website discussing the discovery of a new “alien world,” also referred to as an exoplanet. The article explains that this “alien world” is titled as such because it revolves around a different star in a different galaxy. It claims, however, that this “alien world” may be “like one of ours” because it is cool enough to contain liquid water and is the size of Jupiter, so many scientists think that it might have properties similar to our solar system that may be conducive for life.
Analysis: This usage of the term “alien” is more or less distanced from explicit connections to humans, but it still says a lot about how the connotations of the term have been extended to other realms of discourse in ways that mirror and confirm how we conceive notions of the human. The “alien world,” which exists as “alien” because it is in a space foreign and far from our own, can become “like one of ours” when we identify qualities in it that we recognize as conducive to human life. In this sense, the genealogical connotation of the term “alien” with that which is foreign or not human gives rise to its usage being commonly understood today in this astronomic, scientific text’s efforts to describe a foreign galaxy. The goal of this article seems to be to reconcile the idea that an “alien world” can be “like one of ours” because the situation seems paradoxical; we assume that something foreign and “alien” is not like us, so when there are similarities, explanation is required. This article in a sense, then, critically engages the term “alien” and opens it up to contestation of meaning and contradiction beyond its original genealogy.
“Aliens are £3 billion threat to Brit wildlife" Mirror.co.uk News. 22 Mar. 2010 .
ReplyDeleteThis article was printed on a British newspaper’s website warning citizens about “alien” species of wildlife “oversea invaders” that threaten to disrupt native wildlife industries. It urges anyone who spots a species from the list of “aliens” to report it to the wildlife ministry.
Analysis: This is another example of the term “alien” growing beyond its genealogy with human referents to serve other discursive purposes because of its strong emotional resonances. Here “alien” is explicitly tied to the notion of threatening invasion. This usage of the term presumes the idea that that which is foreign is unwanted and inassimilable into normative society. The word “alien” implies without any necessary explanation that there is a sense of urgency and a call to action because foreignness is a pressing threat. When the article deploys the term, it thus strikes nationalistic nerves and conjures up human subjects who identify themselves through negation of foreignness even as they discuss wildlife species, obstructing other ways of identifying the human and foreignness that are not predicated upon notions threat and calls to self-defense.
Ooops, sorry guys. Just realized that for some reason the way I formatted the URLs for the last 3 entries meant that they didn't paste in. Here they are in the order that I did my posts in:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.borderfirereport.net/latest/crime-suppression-operation-day-1-numbers.php
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alien-world-is-like-one-of-ours-2010-03
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/03/22/aliens-are-a-3bn-threat-115875-22129728/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/science/space/09space.html?scp=6&sq=alien&st=cse
ReplyDelete“Reaching for the Stars when Space was a Thrill” Dennis Overbye
This article revisits the time in history where space was all the rage. Industry ads of the time have been collected and been published to feature projects such as the “Cosmic Butterfly” a lunar spaceship to help passengers reach the ‘alien’
Analysis: While reminiscent of a time in which space and science fiction reigned, it also addresses the context under which this exploration took place. As the Cold War became the forefront issue for the world’s powers to dispute under; expansion was no longer a viable option within our planet. Many of the ads found in magazines and books of the time reflect this need to expand our power base in a manner that would not affect the fragile balance between the United States and the Soviet Union. Thus, we set our eyes to that that had not been claimed. The portrayal of space as “canyons and deserts of the American West” presented the conquering of these foreign lands as an extension of the Manifest Destiny era. Thus the concept of the ‘alien’ is seen as one more thing for Americans to change and make better, once again oppressing the history and context of what was there already. The Cosmic Butterfly ship and other such devices were to be used to provide for tourists entertainment and a chance for Americans to extend their ideology and civilized nature to the untamed and wild territory of space.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_immigrant06.37e6acb.html
ReplyDelete“Obama’s budget calls for reimbursement for cost of jailing undocumented immigrants”
Ben Goad
For the first time the federal budget acknowledges the federal responsibility in immigration issues through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. However this program would only cover some of the costs.
Analysis: According to this article, illegal aliens comprise about 19,000 of the state prison population. This staggering number equals out to about 11 percent of the state’s prison population; equaling out to about 970 million in California’s state budget. In this article the term ‘alien’ is tied in with the contemporary definition of today as seen in Mary Pat Brady’s “border’ definition where she also understands the shift as relating to the “economical developments over the last quarter of the twentieth century”(30). As the economic crisis has deepened in the United States, it is interesting to see how groups such as those that are ‘alien’ are closely analyzed and depicted as a major contributor to the deficit. Thus, the term alien serves as a thematic reference point for that which is unwanted and foreign, further evidenced by the cost that they are burdening the state of California with.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/03/25/investopedia43095.DTL
ReplyDeleteMark Riddix
“Alien Species Invasion: The Deep Economical Impact”
Ranging from different areas of the ecological spectrum, these animals threaten the environment and the ecological system as a whole. The government has incurred much of the cost as they seek to rid of these species that have a negative impact on both the economy and the environment.
Analysis: The article covers several of the animals and the environments in which they have sought to make their home while at the same time providing ample synonyms for “alien”. The National Invasive Species Council cites these critters as “non-native species” that have a “negative effect”. While the animals range from “cute to just plain creepy, these animals wreak havoc in their new environments”. The pessimistic tone and vocabulary reinforces the belief that that which is ‘alien’ must be negatively perceived. There are no positive connotations in relation to these animals and are only viewed as a nuance. The usage of the term here erases critical engagement towards historical, ecological and other factors that have lead the different animals to occupy a space where they are presumed intruders.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032603077.html
ReplyDeleteGeorge F. Will
“An argument to be made about immigrant babies and citizenship”
Proponents of stricter anti immigration laws seek to change the language of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Analysis: The rationalization for ending the “practice of ‘birthright citizenship’” would require a correction to “the misinterpretation of that amendment’s first sentence”. The irrationality of giving illegal immigration a ‘reward’ of citizenship status contrasts directly with the establishment of immigration enforcement. Utilizing historical information, the founders of the amendment are analyzed as to their intent. This reliance of dated documents gives little credence to the argument of exclusion presented here. Like any other historical event all the facts are unknown to those of us today and it reasonable to say that any letter could be used to further both this and its countering argument. The depiction of alien in this article is that of one who seeks to gain entry to a place through the generous misinterpretation of the creators of this amendment.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-poizner27-2010mar27,0,5816792.story
ReplyDelete“California must stem the flow of illegal immigrants” Steve Poizner
Upon entering the L.A. Times website and entering the term ‘alien’ into the search database it took some time to find an article that actually had the term in it. According to the article database, terms such as “foreigner”, “illegal”, and “stranger” equal out to be the same as the term ‘alien’. Steve Poizner, one of California’s candidates for governor, sums up the discussion of the ‘alien’ as the distinction between the illegal and the legal immigrant.
Analysis: Steve Poizner sums up his article with two words “no amnesty”. In a cutthroat and unhumanitarian approach toward immigrants, he cites economic, social and political reasons and causes to stop illegal immigration. His methodological approach would derail the system of the “public benefit magnets, step up border enforcement and crack down on the cities and businesses that shield illegal aliens who are already here”. However, his approach fails to acknowledge the presence of those that are in the process of legalizing or those that have fled their countries as refugees; gray areas that contrast his straightforward approach.
The article further hones on the distinction between the “us” and the “them” by establishing California as being “built by immigrants who legally crossed our borders in search of a brighter future” and unlike illegal immigrants “these legal immigrants have made immeasurable contributions to creating a unique and vibrant California.” Indeed, the state of California and its people are the beacons of light for the creation and maintenance of the nation state towards which we must fight against those who seek to derail us from our privileged status.
The term alien comes to mean the outsider to the world of the democratic nation-state. It signifies those that seek to erase the borders and systems that we have worked to hard to create.
The Illegal Alien Problem article expresses the concerns that the “alien “ problem is not just a Mexico-US problem. The characterization of illegal “aliens” is for the most part a negative portrayal that is perpetuated by the media. The article continues to state how immigration law violators are not significantly immigrants and there is a distinction between who legally falls under the category “alien”. www.immigration-usa.com/george_weissinger.html
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: The article states, the media has great power in influencing citizens of the United States to symbolically see “aliens” as border-crossing problems. However, a historical discourse should be mentioned in order to state the reasons for such influxes of individuals. Such critical statements can lead to an understanding that many immigrants are not just “alien day laborers who fit the so-called definition –of a problem.” The profound labeling of immigrants as violators has to be taken seriously. A clear distinction has to be made by those who enter the US legally and those that cross without the proper procedure. These differences when articulated from the outset can eliminate the idea or set logic that “all immigrants—aliens” fall into the “illegal alien Problem.”
The book Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America traces the origins of the “Illegal alien” in American law and society. It looks into the ideas and explanations of how “migration played a significant role in US immigration policy.” More importantly citizenship along with racialization and state practices become central to the long -term effects of minorities.
ReplyDeletehttp://press.princeton.edu/titles/7633.html
Analysis: The term “alien” has profoundly impacted the treatment of those individuals who fell in the arms of the judicial system as well as society as a whole. These individuals were not only subjected to racial differences but were also categorized and excluded depending on how they were viewed. The political subject based on migration remapped a new kind of conscious by yielding a new term “illegal alien”. So, what we now see are subjects without rights or citizenship. Thus, immigrants become synonymous with the negative, stigmatized stereotypes of “illegal aliens.”
The web site: Alien --What does Alien stand for has a section where there’s a description of the Alien and Sedition Acts. It’s a historical account of the laws set by the Federalist. They were 4 laws enacted by the Federalist, which was designed to in “response to the hostile actions of the French Revolutionary gov’t. Interestingly this act postponed citizenship and voting privileges on recent arrivals from Europe (dependent on the years of residence).
ReplyDeleteAcronyms.thefreedictionary.com/ALIEN
Analysis: The acts enacted in 1798 shows how laws were historically in place for those individuals who adversely affected gov’t. This act gave the President the power to imprison or deport “Aliens” who threatened the national gov’t. Though these laws were placed for the security of the nation, they held significant power over people. We are not to far removed from such acts today. We don’t have to look to far when 911 occurred (individuals who fit the profile of adversely affecting
nation and gov’t) and the significant consequences on recent arrivals as well as those who see America as their home.
ReplyDeleteThe Chicago Reader article indicates that words play a vital role in reference to individuals. The word alien is used to reference illegals. The author feels that the words should state the truth as to who illegal immigrants are---they are “illegal aliens” Words for the author is a “conscious bias”. He stands by what he thinks is rational and uses “words” to argue why illegal immigrants should not be here in America.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/alien-nation/
Analysis: The author takes a powerful view on undocumented (illegal immigrants). The explanation is that words do make a difference in referencing these individuals and the use of politically correct words do not state true intentions. The author believes that illegal aliens are more than what they appear to be---he uses the word criminals. Many would disagree with his word usage. He claims not to be a nativist, a racist, or a xenophobe, but all these attributes point exactly just that. If words do count then such elementary thinking should be replaced with higher levels of knowledge—sharper critical thinking skills should be used in order to acknowledge the historical aspects of immigration----(for not all illegal are criminals)
The New World Encyclopedia looks at the term “alien” ---legally--referring to citizens of other countries.” It looks at a person who is not a native citizen and whose political allegiance is to another country. The article also refers to “alien” as a concept. Its historical trajectory is a long one and not a modern one. The word alien is looked at in terms of war, economic opportunity, rights and obligations, enemy aliens, and illegal immigration.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Alien_(law)---it will say nothing found---type in alien law in search box
Analysis: The concept of the term “alien” is not a modern phenomenon. It dates back to the Roman Empire. The term excluded others for not being natives to a particular homeland. It was seen later that the modern creation of the term” alien” gives them an important status in Law---ex. this pertains to the European Union—“that all have the right to travel, live and work in the member state”. They see it as “peace and that individuals should be accepted----there are no aliens, only a diversity of people living for the common good.” This concept in contrast to American law would be interesting to see because diversity in terms of people living for the common good only goes so far.
The New World Encyclopedia (also) has a different entry for the meaning of “alien”. It states the causes as to why individuals become “aliens”. The reasons are placed in categories of war, family reunion, poverty, economic opportunity, access to citizenship, enemy aliens, and illegal immigration. The motives are defined and given a political framework around its meaning.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis: The many categories under which the term “alien” are placed have significances in US history. Though the New World Encyclopedia states the causes why individuals become “aliens”, looking deeper into its meaning one can see how the term applies to individuals today. History lays an outline where certain individuals suffer from economic opportunities to access to citizenship. There are contradictions today where many are targeted as enemies and where rights do not hold much truth.
The illegal alien costume created much controversy last year. The costume portrayed an extraterrestrial alien. It had a mask with an orange jumpsuit and a greed card. The jump suit had the words “illegal alien” on the front and it also had a plastic green card. This site indicated how it was taken out of many retail stores for its offensive portrayal of immigrants
ReplyDeletehttp://indigenousxicano.blogspot.com/2009/10/illegal-alien-costume-for-sale.html
Analysis: The costume was meant to be ironic. However, its irony was not well received by the outside public. Its interpretation of the “undocumented worker” as an “illegal alien” was distasteful and dehumanizing. The debate on immigration reform only reinforces criticism and blame on those who cross the border. The costume also shows who are considered “human” vs. “less than human”.
The news article comments on a Homeland Security director. The homeland security director was responsible for preventing illegal aliens from entering the US”---however she was convicted for hiring, keeping, and encouraging illegal aliens to stay in the country illegally.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rightsidenews.com/201003289282/homeland-security/homeland-sec-director-convicted-in-illegal-alien-case.html
Analysis: Much discussion has been about “undocumented workers” doing crimes however; the reverse was seen in this article. It becomes easier for those in power to keep/harbor undocumented workers---that is until they are caught. Her crime included “paying illegal immigrants to clean her house and even coached them on how to avoid deportation.” It is seen that political power plays an important role on who they feel should stay or be deported ----depending on who benefits.
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ReplyDelete"Congress Asked To Use Census To Deport Illegal Aliens." MMD Newswire. Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) 5 Apr. 2010. http://www.mmdnewswire.com/census-deport-illegal-aliens-7763.html
ReplyDeleteThis is a press release filed by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) stating that, if the 2010 census counts “illegal aliens,” that it should also be used as a means to identify and deport them. The article is a response to what it claims to be encouragement from the Obama administration to count undocumented immigrants in the census and give them political representation. The article states that, “Illegal immigrants are being targeted with taxpayer funded ads in Spanish encouraging them to fill out the Census, so they will get more taxpayer resources and have more political power…thus counting illegal aliens and using their unlawful presence to assign more Congressional seats to states [,which is] is theft of representation from lawful Americans.”
Analysis: This press release makes a lot of conclusions that it does not feel are necessary to draw out or explain, implying that its readership views these conclusions as common sense. For example, it takes the fact that many census ads are in Spanish to both assume the ads’ conflation with the terms “illegal,” “immigrant,” and “alien,” as well as directly oppose the ads with the terms “lawful” and “American.” These constellating keywords cement that which is “alien” in the realm of foreignness, here specifically plotting foreignness in the spatial specificity of the Spanish-speaking world. The article implies that those who come from that area have alien-ness inherently inscribed in their bodies, and that this makes it impossible for them to be “American.” In addition, legal terminology is also brought into play to implicitly justify these correlations by saying that that which is “alien” is presumably “illegal” and that that which is “American” is “lawful.” These terms that circle and oppose “alien” in this instance, then, affirm colonial markers of the human and thus impede the decolonization of the human as legal discourse distinguishes who is and who is not deserving of benefits of the state based on national borders between the US and those from the ex-colonized third world.
Butler, Katherine. "What should be our first words to an alien species? | MNN - Mother Nature Network." Environmental News and Information | MNN - Mother Nature Network 6 Apr. 2010. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/what-should-be-our-first-words-to-an-alien-species#
ReplyDeleteThis article is from Mother Nature Network, a website devoted to spreading news from an environmentalist standpoint. This particular case refers to a recent question posed by SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence organization, about how we should communicate if and when we ever come into contact with an “alien” species. The article suggests that, if this situation ever occurs, it is important for us to discover a form of communication that both earthlings and these extraterrestrials would understand.
Analysis: In looking for universal ways to communicate with these potential “aliens”, the article poses the term “alien” as an opportunity for an exchange rather than as a negative difference that must be closed out. Furthermore, the idea that humans rather than "aliens" must find a way to communicate shows a responsibility to accommodate on our part that is usually not taken up by those who use the term “alien”. In this sense, this use of the term breaks away from its traditional genealogies. However, the reason that the article employs the term at all is because, based on traditional usage of the term, it connotes such a strong sense of foreignness that it could refer to a life form from galaxies away with a communication system mostly unintelligible with our own. At the same time, in search for universal communication in the face of assumed difference, the article conveys the colonial/Enlightenment idea that there is something universally common that will allow mutual communication. This use of “alien,” then, highlights an ambivalent sense of difference- that it is both expected and tolerated to an extent, but at the same time that universalization of experience is a possible and necessary outcome. Since “alien” here signifies the ultimate difference, that of a group outside our solar system, and this difference is met with openness and a willingness to accommodate, in this sense the term is a decolonial way of conceptualizing the human in which difference is celebrated and loosened a bit from its relation to subordination in a colonial-based hierarchy. Still, however, the assumption of an assimilation and universalization of us (the presumably “non-alien”) and the “alien” still posits difference in binary terms that mirror the essentializing nature of colonial thinking and gloss over the other points of diversity within the human experience.
i'm not in this group, but ya'll should "afro-futuristism" with jazz, funk, hip hop musicians like George Clinton, Parliament, Funkadelic, Sun-Ra, X-Clan. Here is a clip of Sun-ra's movie "space is the place" that is pertinent to the discourse around "humanity" and "alienness" in light of Black Power, Third World Liberation, Decolonization, etc.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSNvdLpLx-0
"Alien song - I will survive + lyrics." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKdhe7xFk4w
ReplyDeleteThis is a really popular YouTube video of a computer-animated space alien singing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and dancing to it in a mocking, personified way.
Analysis: The shock of seeing an alien instead of Gloria Gaynor singing “I Will Survive” makes this video a popular meme on YouTube. The video doesn’t make any explicit claims to the political and primarily serves as a joke that is funny because of the unexpected juxtaposition of the alien image and the well-known song. It is interesting to analyze, then, why the animators would choose an alien, presumably without much thought about the discursive qualities of the term, to sing Gaynor’s song. In order for the video to create this unanticipated and thus entertaining juxtaposition, the animators used the commonly understood figure of the “alien” to create an implicit drastic opposition to that which is human. It seems that the creators were building on the genealogy of the term “alien’s” assumption of extreme difference and foreignness, so much so that the figure of a space alien imitating the human act of singing is a humorous form of mockery. In this sense, the video unconsciously lends itself to traditional uses of the term and occludes other ways of thinking about difference that are not so diametrically opposed and limited as that of the contrast between human and not-human. It also may be important to note that this usage of alien is to mock a song by a woman of color claiming her empowerment and strength to "survive.” In choosing an “alien,” the symbol of the antithesis to humanity, the animators do some work to trivialize and negate the critical project engaged by Gaynor to "survive” through her music production. Ultimately, this video may impede a broader project to decolonize the humanities by rendering certain human creation as worthy of mocking as “alien,” and thus not worth serious engagement as a form of human cultural production.
"Sexy Illegal Alien Costume." Zoogster Costumes. http://www.zoogstercostumes.com/products/sh7672.html?source=Froogle
ReplyDeleteThis is a picture of a Halloween costume labeled “sexy illegal alien” on an online costume store’s website with the tagline “Our Sexy Illegal Alien Costume features a metallic mini dress with attached poncho trimmed with pom-pom fringe, matching sombrero, handcuffs and alien sunglasses.” Below the image is also a link to other costumes that are presumably in a similar category that says, “See all of our Sexy Funny Costumes.”
Analysis: The fact that the terms “sexy,” “funny,” and “illegal” all constellate around and are in visual representation with the word “alien” makes this costume particularly compelling. The costume amalgamates both the image of the “space alien” and that of the “illegal alien,” cementing connotations of eternal foreignness and difference. When the components of the (presumably Mexican) “illegal alien" decked out in a sombrero and handcuffs flow seamlessly with the metallic dress and sunglasses of the “space alien,” the “illegal alien” is clearly so different that she is outside the bounds of legality because she is fundamentally not even of this earth, and thus not entirely human. Furthermore, these associations make this woman “sexy” and “funny.” These terms circulate to objectify and exoticize this un-human difference(one which is also notably female, speaking to a prefabricated objectifiable image in the western colonial imaginary). Using the term “alien” as an object in this way obstructs certain ways of theorizing difference: rather than considering a multitude of subjectivities engaged in such interactions, this usage implies a subaltern position of difference that is simply an object under the dominant subjectivity’s gaze. Ultimately, this use of the term impedes the project of decolonizing the human because it concretizes the idea that that which is different is subordinate and altogether not human at all.
Mora, Pat. ""Legal Alien"." Chants. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1984. (for an online version of the poem, go to http://www.hanksville.org/voyage/poems/legalalien.html)
ReplyDeleteThis is a poem called “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora, a Chicana poet who often writes of her experiences as a Mexican American woman in the southwestern United States. Her work often resonates with Anzaldúa-like struggles with identity as she fights ideas of her identity being boxed by others as either “American” or “Mexican.” In this poem, she conceives her ability to be “American but hyphenated” as “a handy token/sliding back and forth” even as she is viewed by both Mexicans and Americans as "alien.”
Analysis: In this poem, Mora opens up the term “alien” to take on a number of critical projects. She speaks to the genealogical origins of “alien” as an implication of extreme difference, but she defies the idea that this perception of difference is simple and one-sided. As a Chicana woman, she notes how she is perceived as “alien” by Mexicans and Americans, both of whom reject her because of her “hyphenated” status. She is contradictorily both “legal” and “alien,” an American citizen (with “legal” rights) but still “alien” because of her Mexican heritage, as well as "alien" to Mexicans because of her American citizenship. She then challenges the very notion of the binary of either completely belonging to one group or being alien to it and opens up the productive possibilities of moving beyond such a binary of identity conception. She sees her double alien-ness as a sort of gift, giving her skills to enact differentially and selectively the different identities and cultural subjectivities that she has (or perhaps, as Chela Sandoval would say, it gives her a differential consciousness that allows her to navigate varieties of identity and social formation?). Mora’s engagement with the term “alien” thus helps her further the project of creating a space of hybridity that is productive to challenging simple notions of identity and cultural binaries. At the same time, however, Mora remains ambivalent about how fruitful her feeling of double alien-ness can be when judgment from so many places is such a burden. She speaks to a Du Boisian notion of double consciousness, concluding the poem by saying that this “sliding back and forth” requires a “masking the discomfort/ of being prejudged/Bilaterally.” While she has the gift of this double insight that comes with the double consciousness of being both Mexican and American while fully neither, it is still uncomfortable and difficult because she must always confront notions of her own identity in terms of how others see her. She launches the term “alien,” then, as a site of productive insight, but also as one of dangerous and vulnerable inner- and outer-conflict. This further complication and exploration of the term opens it up to critical discussion of notions of the human and how to conceptualize humanity beyond colonial binaries while such binaries continue to be projected and internalized.
**I think I might have repeated a source that Charlotte found in one of my entries (the one on the alien YouTube video of “I Will Survive”), so I’m adding an extra entry to make up for it. Sorry for accidentally stealing, Charlotte!**
ReplyDelete"Alien Paintings Pictures." FreakingNews.com - News Photoshop Pictures Contests. http://www.freakingnews.com/Alien-Paintings-Pictures--1901.asp
This is a website featuring the products a Photoshop contest to integrate images of space aliens into a number of “famous” paintings, most of which are from the western canon of classic art. One common contribution, for example, is the submission of the Mona Lisa with a space alien face Photoshopped in to replace the original.
Analysis: When I stumbled across this website, it reminded me of the sort of mixing/DJing that we have discussed in class with relation to Du Bois. All of these submissions use the figure of the “space alien” in new productive ways by integrating it with traditional western art’s representation of the “human.” Furthermore, sometimes different “alien” mixes show up in invocations of “human” images, as with the multiple contributions to the contest that put different “alien” faces in the place of the original face in the Mona Lisa. These mixes of the traditional, normalized “human” alongside the fundamentally other “alien,” which itself comes in an endless variety of forms, create new pieces of art that transcend the boundaries of the familiar and the foreign, of the western notion of human and non-human. The artists behind these creations are thus like the Du Boisian DJ, piecing together the dominant traditional with the alternative foreign, each informing the meaning of one other in the production of a new whole. These cultural productions, then, mix the image of the “alien” in service of decolonizing the human through the decolonization of the humanities, producing spaces of human creation that form a new, inclusive whole out of a multiplicity of past and present culture work.
No writer attributed. “Over the Wire--Army Controls More Aliens”.
ReplyDeleteThis is a short blurb that I found as in as part of the search engine results for Harvard’s student newspaper The Crimson. The blurb is from 1942 and it provides information about the military preparations that were occurring at the time in response to the United States’ entrance to World War Two.
Analysis: Mainstream newspapers contribute to the image that the media portrays to society; universities are the building stone’s from where our future leaders are to emerge from. It is important to observe the manner in which the term ‘alien’ is being presented to students and by students. While for the Japanese community, the creation of the internment camps led to life changing experiences under which the federal government stripped them of their fundamental rights as people. In Harvard, the internment camps were only garnered a paragraph’s worth of newspaper space. The article was concise, to the point and unlike a typical article did not present anecdotal or personal stories. In addition, the article did not present an opinion. To reference the groups that were to be excluded, those of German, Italian, and Japanese descent were addressed as “aliens” (versus persons). The normalization of the term alien as now part of the definition of what it is to be German, Italian, and Japanese at the time resonates with Du Bois’s double Consciousness. These groups could perceive themselves in a certain manner, but society was demarking them with a different identity, - that of an ‘alien’. While not explored in the essay, the experiences of these groups at the time came to align itself with the experiences of Native Americans and African Americans.
It was also interesting to note that no author was attributed with the responsibility for the article. The representation of the groups that were being interned was probably minimal, on the Harvard campus. Could this be enough to justify why such dehumanizing and right-stripping events could be allowed to happen? While written within the context of World War II, the lack of opinion on issues such as these is alarming. Thus, it is important as students to not only report on what is happening in the world around us but to discern and analyze those events and the impact that these actions will potentially bring about.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/opinion/guest-columns/2007/10/30/counterpoint-illegal-aliens-do-not-deserve-state-s/
ReplyDeleteKlein, Matthew. “Counterpoint: Illegal aliens do not deserve state services”
An opinion piece written by a student affiliated with the on campus Conservative Party. The article is a response to the illegal immigration rights advocacy taking place at the time. While the subject of the article is about illegal immigration, the term ‘alien’ is referenced and often exchanged with other words to define what ‘illegal immigrant’. The essence of the article is to argue against immigration and to diffuse any arguments presented for the city expansion of services to include this group of society.
Analysis: The tone of the article and the use of words in relation to the term alien provided the contextual clues towards the significance on how the term will relate to society. Clearly written to dissipate support for illegal immigrants, the author seeks to strip the humanity of the causes underlying migration (such as globalization, U.S. imperialism) and lay the blame on those who are in reality are victims of the circumstances.
The author creates a symbolic construction of alien in which words such as “criminal” and “illegal” are used interchangeably with that of ‘alien’. For the reader this creates a rainbow of synonyms and identification points to use in the wake of ‘alien’. By choosing to remain ignorant of the histories of other racialized groups (that his own family could have potentially emerged from), Klein utilizes “rule of law” to provide legal basis for the manner in which he employees the term ‘alien. The reversal of roles in which people who were admitted or born into this status of legality are depicted as the victims of these aliens is hauntingly similar to the use victimization by white against minority groups vying for power.
The creation of the insider/ outsider forgets about the immigrant based population that came to form the United States. Americans, such as Matthew Klein remain ignorant of the histories of other racialized groups that potentially arrived as illegal immigrants as well. In this respect, these illegal aliens find themselves lumped up together with racialized minorities, who do belong under the “rule of law” that Klein advocates for so intensively and yet continue receive second class status and are continually denied access to resources.
The author of this article graduated in 2009 from Yale University. The extent of his knowledge in relation to the globalization that has created this situation of immigration is not presented as part of the dialogue that Klein presents. The article reflects the type of knowledge that he has accumulated and to a certain extent the manner in which he was taught to analyze humankind. The lack of cultural and global awareness from the author, only implores that universities seek to emphasize cultural studies programs such as those proposed by Stuart Hall so that people such as Klein may indeed be able to “examine issues practically”.
http://www.browndailyherald.com/polopoly_fs/1.1711473!/image/3313664511.jpg
ReplyDeleteCartoon “Alien Weather Forecast”
This is a cartoon drawn for Brown University’s student newspaper. In it two aliens are having a conversation that ends a joke.
Analysis: The two aliens decide to play a game of “word association”. One of the aliens does not know how to play and just repeats the same word that the other alien is saying until the first alien says its name “Gorb” to which it replies with “Sexy”. This cartoon caught my eye because it was able to summarize one of themes for this project. In terms of the written references, word association has become a relevant premise for the evolution of each of the terms and the meanings that can be derived from each.
Like the Alien playing the game who was able to associate its name with what best suited it in the end; it is easy to create negative or positive associations with these terms. The simplicity of the cartoon managed to interlink the importance of this key term project with the class, the university, and even the rest of the world. It is important to see the manner in which ingrained power structures hold the responsibility of creating the definitions and associations that society eventually holds as the norm.
Eaton, Collin. “State campaigning focuses on invasive plant”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/state-campaign-focuses-invasive-plant
In this article the author address the need to remove an aquatic fern from Brazil that has invaded the waterways and now threatens the native ecosystems of Texas wet life. The issue has become prevalent enough that the Texan governor, Rick Perry, issued a statement of action to quell the activity of the fern.
Analysis: The creation of the normative in comparison to the invasive is one of the topics in this news article. While terms like race are constantly made and remade, the process of how these are constructed are the outcome of the locus of privilege. The association of this invasive fern and its damaging effects are associated directly with the term “alien”. Integrating the entire state through the allocation of funds and resources implies that anything that is alien equals as detrimental to the host society. American society proves itself as unreceptive towards anything that threatens the established norm, in this case the ecological norm in Texas. There is no mention to any approaches that may seek to integrate the now established Giant salvinia, as part of the ecosystem in Texas. In this respect, this provides the framework for the approach that American society should establish when addressing issues out of the norm. The need to create harmony and unity effectively manages to erase the individual. Du Bois, introduced this concept of how the individual identity is lost to the rest of society through the concept of Double consciousness.
Written for the university newspaper, it perplexes me that there is no mention of students or staff involvement towards alternative approaches that will provide for functional research solutions in a manner that is not completely annihilating of the vegetation. It is imperative that a cosmopolitan approach, such as that advocated in Mignolo, be used to address the globalization that is now occurring at the local level to integrate new into the old.
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ReplyDeleteDwyer, Joe. “District 9 is out of this world”
ReplyDelete“http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2009/08/21/Entertainment/District.9.Is.Out.Of.This.World-3755637.shtml
Set in South Africa the film is about an alien race in need of medical assistance. The people of Johannesburg and the aliens who have been displaced in this area find themselves in conflict with one another and are further segregated from one another through the relocation of the alien race.
Analysis: There is a general reference to the “undoubtedly underlying theme or message of some kind in District 9 - the South African setting was chosen for a reason, after all” but that is not the point of this airy and light weigh editorial. The violence that erupts between the alien race and the human hosts is reflective of the reality underpinning it. Whether it be the anti-immigration actions in the United States or the Isreal-Palestine conflict, history has shown us that when anything new or ‘alien’ is introduced to an established set, conflict will undoubtedly result.