Course

RELG-313: Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

Document Type

Student Paper

Publication Date

Spring 2022

Disciplines

Religion

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

“I know it is wrong to not want them to move in, but it’s the way we feel.” “If one family moves in then pretty soon there will be others.” “I think that all races should have equal opportunity. But I think they should stay within their own groups.” “Negroes and Mexicans have as much right to love as we do, but they still depreciate property.” These are all words that were written about by grandma and her two brothers when they moved to Moline, Illinois. They were born in the U.S. and had just been evicted from their apartment because the area was going to be industrialized. In this paper I tell part of my grandma’s story of her trying to find home. We will see how she was discriminated against because she moved into an area that was predominantly occupied by white people. I will make a connection between her lived experiences and Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands. I will also explain how Moline can be looked at as a borderland area. Throughout this analysis we will see ignorance, hegemony, and diaspora.