Idee de progres

Idea of progress

        My notion is the idea of progress. The idea of progress basically consists in believing that the world can become better in terms of art, science, technology, liberty and quality of life. For this notion, my question is « Have the lives of black people and Mexican illegal immigrants improved in the USA over the last decades ? ». First, I will talk about slavery and colored people in the USA and second I will talk about workers.

          To begin, before there were many slaves because the slaves didn't have anything, they had no rights. Slavery is the fact of depriving a person of his liberty and using him like an object (by an other person). Male slaves worked on plantations and harvested in the fields.Women slaves served their Master, obeyed their Master, cooked, raised children, cleaned the house and washed the linen.  In 1865, there was an important date in American history. There was a civil war for the freedom of the slaves. Now, slavery is illegal and forbidden everywhere. Now, everybody is equal. The evolution of slavery in America is great progress because slavery has disappeared thanks to laws of the politicians who alslished it as well as racial segregation (the Jim crow laws) slavery. Today, a black man (B.Obama) is even president of the USA.

          To continue, before there was a lot of people who were exploited. For example, Miguel and Louis, two Mexican brothers immigrants, decided to go California, although their father disapproved, and sneaked into the US. They wanted he find a job to earn money because they were fed up with being very poor in their country. They worked in the orchards but the working conditions were very hard. They worked side by side in the orchards, from morning till the day was through, doing the work the American wouldn't do. They were exploited. And unfortunately, illegal immigrants are still exploited today (as we saw in the film « Fast-Food Nation »)/some of them even become handicapped or die.

            Finally, there was great pogress for African Americans in the US. Many people have a better life than before even if some of them are still exploited and unhappy as we saw with the end of Miguel and Louis's story where Louis died and his brither and his father is very sad.

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