Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Based on Woody Guthrie's 1940 song "This Land is Your Land," how do you think Guthrie would respond to both Roosevelt's "Hyphenated Americans" speech (1915) and Senator Smith's "Shut the Door" speech (1924)?

Woody Guthrie, the singer of "This Land is Your Land," would have an interesting opinion of both the "Hyphenated Americans" speech and the "Shut the Door" speech from the turn of the twentieth century. In his song, Guthrie warbles about how the land of America belongs to everyone in it and sings that it is a land of freedom and acceptance. Without knowing exactly his personal views on the matter, one would assume Guthrie would be in favor of accepting any immigrants who wished to come so they could partake in the land of America.
The two speeches in question have a decidedly anti-immigrant slant. The first speech implies that there is no room for so-called "Hyphenated Americans": "Irish-Americans," "Mexican-Americans," or the like. Essentially, Roosevelt says, if you're going to be American, you become completely American and leave your past nationality behind.
In the "Shut the Door" speech, politicians presented the idea to shut the doors to the country and refuse to accept any new immigrants, thereby saving their resources for "natural born" Americans.
Because of the disparate views expressed between these two speeches and Guthrie's song, one could assume Guthrie would react poorly and be decidedly against the ideas laid out in these speeches.

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