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Kevin Lozano

Professor Beadle

Eng. 115

7 December 2017

Alien Invasion Through The Southern Border

What do you think would happen if aliens came to Earth today? If you thought of

an invasion you are not alone. The majority of people believe that if an extraterrestrial form of

life comes to Earth today, humans would be enslaved the morning after. Aliens coming to Earth

are seen by most people as invaders due to our fear of what we dont know. In the space we

know as The United States, the monster translates to reality. In this space we have people that

fear other humans for the same reason; the unknown. People fear illegal immigration into this

country due to the lack of knowledge the government posses in their background; just as how we

fear aliens due to the lack of knowledge we have in their intentions. This fear also comes to light

in the form of racism. The fear of the unknown in people is not only seen as the fear of

extraterrestrial life, but also is seen in the fear of other humans different from them. Being an

immigrant myself, Ive experienced this fear first hand. To some in this beautiful country Im not

only seen as an outsider that shouldnt be here but, as a threat because of what I might bring to

this country as well. This fear is what also what leads some to treat others who are not part of

their racial group as different and establish a state of us vs. them.

First, this fear is nothing new. The fear of what has yet been discovered or explored in

humans has always been there. As former editor of Virginia Quarterly Review Ted Genoways

explores in his article Here be Monsters. Cartographers inscribed uncharted regions with the

legend Here be Monsters Back in the day cartographers used Monsters in order to represent
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unexplored waters since they had no idea what was beyond the horizon. Now a day, the same can

be said about aliens and immigration. Our fear of aliens comes from all the mystery and lack of

knowledge surrounding them. We fear that they might be smarter, more advanced, and worst of

all that they have bad intentions. Same can be said about immigration. Its not about immigrants

coming here to take our jobs as president Trump says the fear of immigration goes way deeper.

It is born from the lack of knowledge of the immigrants coming here for a better life. Since they

come here without the governments permission or any type of check; we do not posses any type

of indicator of what they are here for or their intentions. It is the same when it comes to aliens

that is shown to immigrants. They coming to our space which is The United States, and the

government and therefore us not having any way to know anything about their past.

When you think of aliens you probably think of green or gray small creatures with a

weird head and black eyes. The truth is that we dont really know what alien life might look like.

What we know for sure is that almost never aliens are presented just like humans. Aliens are

always presented as looking different from us. This presents a barrier between us and them. It is

we the Humans and then them the aliens. Same can be said about racism in The United States.

Racism is discrimination against someone because of race. Well, we discriminate aliens just

because they are pictured in our head as looking differently; it is the same with humans of

different race. In our space The United States people discriminate against others because of their

differences in race, just as how aliens are a different species. We fear that if aliens do exist

somewhere in the universe and they decide to come to Earth, we would be in trouble because

they might be way more advanced than us. We fear the unknown, or better said our lack of

predicting what might happen and lack of control; we dont know what might change after.

When it comes to aliens our whole way of life might change. This fear is also seen in how we see
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other humans from different races with fear since they might alter our current lifestyle. Thats

why we create a state of us vs. them. In the article Nation and Race based on Adolf Hitler, he

states that The stronger must dominate and blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own

greatness. In the space we call The United States; there has always been racism in one way or

another. Since we divide our population based on ethnical background it makes us seems as

different from each other. That leads us to judge and discriminate others because they look

different just as the monster (aliens) looks different from us.

If aliens do exist and deicide to come to Earth, we would stand divided on whether we

should or not accept and integrate them into our society. While some will accept them, some will

argue that we still dont know anything about them and show rejection instead. This is due to our

primal fear of the unknown. We fear what we have no knowledge of just as how monsters

were painted in the maps of unexplored waters. We mainly fear the unknown because since we

dont know anything about it we dont know what to expect from it. This is what drives

controversial topics such as immigration. While some parts of American society accept and

welcome immigrants, others argue that we dont know anything about these people since we

dont have any sense of background on them such a criminal record. We fear that they might

cause us harm if we let them in our society. However, whats there to say that they good people?

Ive seen how this fear manipulates people. When I first moved here around 6 years back, I

didnt know how to properly speak, write, or read English. I was only able to communicate in

Portuguese or Spanish. This let to me not being able to understand what the other kids at my

middle school were saying. Some kids were kind enough to try talking to me the best they could

in Spanish and some werent so nice. I often used to be told by some that I shouldnt even be

here if I cant even speak the language, if I ate tacos every day, or if I had trouble jumping the
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border. This made me feel out of place and as if I didnt belong here. However, looking back at it

I can see that they were just picking on me because I was ethnically different from them. I like to

think that they really understand my position so they were quick to judge. Its the same with

immigration, we shouldnt be afraid of immigrants because of the fear of who they are. There are

good and bad people on every society and racial group. Since I was different in this new space, I

was looked upon as them just as how aliens are seen. I got picked on for being different just as

how the monster is.

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Work Cited

Genoways, Ted. Here be Monsters Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, Edited

by Andrew J. Hoffman, Macmillan Education, 2016, pp.130-131

Hitler Adolf. Nation and Race Monsters: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, Editedby

Andrew J. Hoffman, Macmillan Education, 2016, pg. 260

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In the end, aliens might turn out to be invaders. They might come to Earth and subdue the

entire human population just because they are more advanced and because they can. However,

they also might become an important milestone in the development of humanity. They might

share some of their advanced technology and benefit us all. If they do exist and when they do

come, the only way to tell is to get over our fear of not having a full understanding of them and

give them a chance. Just as the only way to tell if immigrants and people that might be different

from you are so bad is to actually get to know them and give them too a chance.