Today, the attitude towards immigrants is very biased; many countries give incomprehensible answers when the question of the rights of immigrants arises. The Immigrants (We Get The Job Done) music video’s lyrics highlight relations between the United States and the immigrants, “Black and white soldiers wonder alike if this really means freedom. Not Yet.” (Hamilton 0:46-0:51). This rap song shows the attitude of immigrants toward local authorities. Immigrants’main claim is that they work hard to develop a country in which they were not even born in, and no one hears anything about them; no media cover these people’s lives. Immigrants to the United States feel uncomfortable with the difficulty of implementing their plans to come to the country. Those people desire to work officially; the only problem is that they cannot do this legally. The author’s task is to dispel all stereotypes about immigrants and show their real life, emphasize the problem of lack of attention to these people and generate resonance in the media. The clip helped to start the process of erasing stereotypes about immigrants and solving their problems.
The music video begins with a stereotypical group of immigrants terrified of moving to a country that people like them once created. The first verse describes a typical immigrant, “I got one job, two job, three when I need them.” (Hamilton 0:51-0:55). The author wants to show that citizens, as in post-war slavery, treat immigrants as second-class people in modern society. Immigrants continue to help build the nation and fight for American freedoms, but the locals do not see it. Each member of the song culturally represents their home country in the United States and puts forward the problems they see fit to solve. The chorus repeats the phrase that an immigrant working hard can achieve success in life; the rapper in the video says to look at how far he has come (Hamilton 1:31-1:50). The following lines let to understand that any contribution to history was not made by one person, as they say in the textbooks. It is a process that combines many people. The author wanted to show the contribution of each immigrant to the development of the United States once again.
The group of people who are sung in the song is immigrants, and the target audience is people who previously made hasty and stereotypical conclusions about such local populations. According to research, “Immigrants in the United States represent a wide array of races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, and language preferences” (Bellovary et al. 147). The primary purpose of the clip is to show the difference between a stereotypical immigrant and an actual one; Tyler Reny and Sylvia Manzano wrote that it is common to see media coverage of Latino immigrants that is negative in tone, full of stereotypes, and highly sensational (Reny and Manzano 197). However, the clip stands its ground and proves that the contribution of immigrants is inalienable.
Such creations inspire people not to be afraid to express their thoughts about today’s pressing issues. Creative people can react very sharply to situations that occur in their countries by creating music, films, pictures that will express dissatisfaction. They do this to attract citizens’ attention and not keep silent about the things that should be agreed upon and settled. The music video shows the position of the participants in the song to what is happening in the United States. It shows the strength and spirit of the people it represents. This invincible population demands to accept them and understand that they are no worse than citizens. This story is fueled by thousands of the same only small ones; it accumulates and collects all the messages together in order for everyone to pay due attention to them. After watching this clip, people who identify themselves will rally for various activities to help them solve their problems, as shown in the video.
This work humanizes immigrants in many ways; people interested but not well informed about the topic will be able to change their views and study the issue in detail with the help of a large number of resources and similar stories. Immigrant activists will begin to defend their rights and opportunities, knowing that behind them, there are millions of people who may not even belong to immigrants to show that these people are not alone. Flores and Schachter wrote, “Like race and gender, categorization of some immigrants as “illegal” may be just as much a social construction as a legal one” (Flores and Schachter 38). However, due to mass protest, the state may reconsider its views on immigrants’ rights, allowing them to fully realize themselves and contribute even more to the United States. It will start a new stage in developing relations between immigrants and the US authorities, which will lead to better understanding and more professional cooperation.
Today, art is one of the most important aspects of human life. Bearden wrote, “Modern art has passed through many different stages. There have been the periods of the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists, the Cubists, the Futurists, and hosts of other movements of lesser importance” (Bearden 87). It is manifested that humanity daily absorbs a vast amount of content directly related to art. Music and film are the most sought-after content industries. When creating music videos, authors often try to convey the hidden meaning of the work; It can emphasize social problems or a reference to some historical events. The video combines an acute social problem and the most popular genre of music at the moment – rap. It was appreciated by the world society, which gave ground for thought to people who have never thought about this problem and those who live in it.
Self-expression is an essential part of a person’s life; art helps to express a person’s political and social views on life. The activists who made this music video are examples of how art can help people socially. After watching this video, immigrants worldwide were inspired and rallied to help people in the same situation. It is essential to promote peacemaking ideas through art, music itself. Many people underestimate this type of information dissemination and prefer traditional types like aggregating advertisements, but art combines entertainment with the ability to talk about a problem. This method of dealing with injustice is one of the most effective because of its prevalence. In addition, it is as safe as possible for people to promote their position and be heard by the world community with the help of art since the person who created something has the right to interpret the meaning of this creation as he wants, and no one will forbid him to do so.
References
Bearden, Romare. “The Negro Artist and Modern Art.” The Romare Bearden Reader, edited by Robert G. O’Meally, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2019, pp. 87-90.
Bellovary, Andrea, Angel D. Armenta, and Christine Reyna. “Stereotypes of immigrants and immigration in the United States.” Stereotypes: The Incidence and Impacts of Bias. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC. 2020, pp. 146-164.
Flores, René D., and Ariela Schachter. “Examining Americans’ Stereotypes About Immigrant Illegality.” Contexts 18.2. 2019, pp. 36-41.
Hamilton. “The Hamilton Mixtape: Immigrants (We Get The Job Done).” YouTube. 2017. Web.
Reny, Tyler, and Sylvia Manzano. “The negative effects of mass media stereotypes of Latinos and immigrants.” Media and Minorities 4. 2016, pp. 195-212.