This weeks reading takes a look at two specific ways in which globalization has shaped the American South by charting shifts in the demography and the economy. Raymond Mohl's Globalization, Latinization, and the Nuevo New South looks into the demographic changes of the region brought by shifting migration patterns in the 1980s and the willingness of companies to secure a low cost labor force has since culminated in a shift the black and white binary of the South into an ethnic plurality with the influx of Hispanic workers into the region. Timothy Minchin's Shutdowns in the Sun Belt makes the case that the demise of the Southern manufacturing economy is often overlooked in light of the Sun Belt economy and was comparable, if not more harmful
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Largely, overlooked because they contradicted Sun Belt narrative which emphasized the region's growing economic and modernizing poweri, the declining commodity industries also lost attention to the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt which also faced large shutdownsii. As early as the 1950s, the textile and apparel industries were beginning to feel the strain of cheap imports that gradually escalated into the 1990siii. American desire for inexpensive goods only grew in the following …show more content…
Mohl makes the observation that some African Americans were upset by the competition brought by a group of people that are willing to work for less moneyxxii. While the author points out that some researchers and economists see the Hispanic workers as “replacing...rather than displacing” other low paid workers, he goes on to say that ramifications of immigration remain a “hotly debated subject”xxiii. Not surprisingly, the KKK blew smoke at the issue in the late 1990sxxiv and other white, “anti-immigrant” groups have organized around the battle cry to “take [the] borders back”xxv. While racial fears and concerns may be overblown, it remains clear that Hispanic culture (all Spanish influenced Pan-American groups) is making its mark on the United States in terms of commerce, media presence, and as predicted by this 2003 article, in politics as
Largely, overlooked because they contradicted Sun Belt narrative which emphasized the region's growing economic and modernizing poweri, the declining commodity industries also lost attention to the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt which also faced large shutdownsii. As early as the 1950s, the textile and apparel industries were beginning to feel the strain of cheap imports that gradually escalated into the 1990siii. American desire for inexpensive goods only grew in the following …show more content…
Mohl makes the observation that some African Americans were upset by the competition brought by a group of people that are willing to work for less moneyxxii. While the author points out that some researchers and economists see the Hispanic workers as “replacing...rather than displacing” other low paid workers, he goes on to say that ramifications of immigration remain a “hotly debated subject”xxiii. Not surprisingly, the KKK blew smoke at the issue in the late 1990sxxiv and other white, “anti-immigrant” groups have organized around the battle cry to “take [the] borders back”xxv. While racial fears and concerns may be overblown, it remains clear that Hispanic culture (all Spanish influenced Pan-American groups) is making its mark on the United States in terms of commerce, media presence, and as predicted by this 2003 article, in politics as