Postville
Miranda and Manahil
What is Postville
Vocab words
Racism
In Postville, racism was shown in many ways. The previous residents of Postville were all white Christians who were unaccustomed to different people. They didn't like the Jews because of their culture and traditions. The people of Postville were scared of the Mexicans and increased their police force when the Mexicans moved in. They also tried to keep their church from performing services in Spanish to discourage the Mexicans from attending church with them.
Cultural Barriers
Being from two very different cultures the former residents and the Jews weren't very adapting. The Jews didn't care for what others thought of them and continued with their routinely practices and culture and didn't at all adapt to the ways of the residents, and the residents themselves weren't willing to give up some of their own cultures and didn't welcome the new diversity and change happening in Postville. Another cultural barrier, was the language diversity, the Jews spoke Hebrew, Mexicans spoke Spanish and the residents spoke English and hearing different languages in their churches wasn't very satisfying to the residents. Also, some even felt intimidated by all the change happening around them.
Residential segregation
The residents of Postville increased the prices of housing and shops around them so that incoming Mexicans couldn't afford to live there and would have to move to lower income areas where it would be more affordable for them.
Folk culture
The Jewish people brought in new cultures to postville which the forever residents weren't really pleased with, but the Jewish found no harm in it. They thought, having a parade down the road was no different than having a parade during Christmas time and wanted the residents to just go with it and have a good time.
Assimilation
When the Mexicans came to Postville they changed their way of living and were flexible to adapt to the culture of Postville. The Jews on the other hand didn't really care for changing their ways, they didn't want to lose their identity and didn't care what others thought about it.