Dead Rabbits Gang Research Paper

In the Gangs of New York, there was a massive influx of immigrants to the U.S due to the persecution and danger in Europe. New York was the largest port city in the U.S. so they received most of them. This very large increase in immigrants made many American citizens fearful of losing their jobs. They began to discriminate in an attempt to force them out. Members of The Dead Rabbits gang fled their respective homelands to escape persecution and danger; in reality they were met with more opposition and violence than they originally faced.
Many immigrants joined the Dead Rabbits Gang as it provided safety in numbers and shared food and shelter. The opportunity to join the gang culture and be free of persecution persuaded many immigrants to cast off their pasts in order to meld as one group. “Ethnic and national strangers merged with the ‘Americans’… the children of each
Due to the formation of these large groups of immigrants, many American citizens were afraid of losing power and jobs, they then formed opposing gangs, specifically The Natives gang. On the streets, members of The Natives would discriminate against members of The Dead Rabbits to try and drive them out of New York. “People would ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ I was born in this country, but I knew the question meant to decipher my darkness, my looks.” (Richard Rodriguez 331) Similarly to Rodriguez’s example, even though both the Natives and Dead Rabbits shared immigrant ancestors, the fear of losing power compelled the Natives to find ways to discriminate. The Natives officially defeated the Dead Rabbits in a bloody struggle to cast them out for good. The surviving immigrants had to blot out their past and join new gangs to once again attain that security they again had lost. This endless cycle meant that even the offspring of immigrants would be unable to