Immigration Stereotypes In The Film Gangs Of New York

No matter what country you are in being an immigrant isn’t an easy thing. Especially now in the United States where immigration is seen as a problem with our new president. Our president has made decisions against immigration solely because of stereotypes that have been around for centuries. A great film that replicates the first sign of U.S. immigration and it’s first stereotypes in the late 1800s is Gangs of New York (2002). This movie takes place in New York where at this time there was a huge flow of a variety of Immigrants that had no one to relate to other than their own gang (people).
A more present representation of immigration stereotypes today is really well conveyed in a tv show called Jane The Virgin. This show is about how a young
William Cutting was a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. Vallon knows that revenge can only be acquired by murdering and betraying Cutting’s Inner circle. Throughout this journey in a survival of the fittest city, Vallon fights for his personal survival and tries to find a place for his Irish people in 1860s New York. Gangs of New York definitely reinforced immigrant stereotypes because throughout this film immigrants were portrayed as nasty, poor, violent, and selfish people. One example of the idea of immigration in Gangs of New York is: Cutting:“My father gave his life, making this country what it is. Murdered by the British with all of his men by the twenty fifth of July, anno domini, 1814. Do you Think I'm going to help you befoul his legacy, . By giving this country over to them, what's had no hand in the fighting for it? Why, because they came off table crawling with lice and begging you for soup.” This shows how passionate Cutting is about his country and how he views immigrants as nasty beggars. In the movie hundreds of thousand of Irish come from ireland because of the potato famine. They come to the U.S. looking for new opportunities and of course the anti-immigrant gangs oppress them. Another example of how immigration stereotypes are reinforced in Gangs of New York is : Cutting: “I don't see no Americans I see trust passes Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a Nigger does for a dime and a white man used to get a quarter four. What have they done name one thing they’ve contributed.” This shows how the chain of societal economics worked during this time. This is like a pyramid of power. Whites (anti-immigrant gangs) are at the top of the pyramid, Blacks are in the middle, and Immigrants are at the bottom. Cutting is explaining to us that the Irish haven’t