American Perspective on Racism - Coursework Example

Running Head: Racism in America Racism in America of the appears here] of the appears here] Racismin United States Racism can be described as a specific type of prejudice against some specific group or race. Similarly if the prejudiced beliefs of people block the progress of a specific group, then it is termed as discrimination. The people who try to block the progress of a specific group are guilty of racial discrimination. The phenomenon of racism and ethnicity has become so visible in many societies that it has become impossible to ignore it. In the early twentieth century, many social theorists held that racism, ethnicity and nationalism would decrease in importance and eventually vanish as a result of modernization, industrialization and individualism; this never came about. On the contrary, ethnicity and nationalism have grown in political importance in the world, particularly since the Second World War. The United States has a long history of racism and racial discrimination. For centuries conflicts have taken place between the Whites, blacks, Mexicans and the Asians. Race hatred often leads to the violence. The people guilty of race discrimination often form extremist groups to defend their country from minority takeover, and ultimately increase the tension and hatred between the two races. Many surveys have been conducted to study the nature and intensity of Racism in American culture. According to General Social Survey, conducted in 1990, 40 to 56 percent of the whites were of the view that Hispanic and Blacks are prone to violence and prefer to live off welfare (Steeh and Schuman, 1992). In 1999, in United States alone, there were 4,295 incidents reported which was occurred due to the racial bias, 1,411 due to the motivational factor of religious bias and 829 due to the ethnic bias. Mexican Americans: The minority of Hispanics includes Mexicans, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central and South American, or other Hispanic heritage. They are consists of more than 500 tribes with almost entirely different cultural heritage, traditions, languages and ancestry. The 2000 census showed that the Hispanics are the Americas largest minority. According to the Times magazine 58 percent of this minority is of the Mexican origin. The majority of Mexican Americans are most prominent in the areas, which were formerly the part of the Mexico, i.e. Southern California and Texas. The largest of Mexican Americans community was located around the Los Angles in Southern California, El Paso in Far West Texas, and the metropolitan areas of the South Texas. The Mexican American, just like the other minorities of the United States, reside in the non-economically viable ethnic enclaves: isolated, and other forms of ethnic discrimination. Mexicans are a mixed race, most of them are white having Spanish ancestry, but almost half of them are not white. They are mestizos. It has been observed that among the Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants, mestizos are in the worst condition (Gamio, 1971). According to the Auditors of Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Mexican Americans and especially the non-white Mexican Americans experience discrimination in the housing market from realtors and lending institutions. The auditors have also found out that the Mexican Americans faced discrimination due to their skin color and not due to their Mexican accent. Most of the Mexican Americans are the offspring of the Mexicans who voluntarily migrated to United States in the 20th Century. Hence it is the duty of the community, to which they have migrated, to assist them in adapting and absorbing them to American Society, but they were then busy in a war and colonization. This had fundamental consequences for the ability of these enclaves to provide resources to the generations of Mexican Americans. Hence, although many people thought that the increasing immigrations of Mexicans into the United States is a Mexican problem, it is actually an American problem. This is the problem brought on by the history of the nation's oldest and largest Mexican American communities. This is a history started with conquest and then excluded the generations from the benefits of developments. Chinese Americans: Chinese Americans combined with other Asians and the Pacific Islanders include at least 43 separate ethnic groups who spoke 100 different languages. From the very beginning the Chinese Americans are considered as the aliens and foreigners in the land of the United States. In the year 1882, the United States Congress has passed an Act called Chinese Exclusion Act. This is supposed to be the one and only United States law, which prevent immigration and naturalization on the basis of race. The congress had renewed the law in 1892 and in 1902, and extended it for an unidentified period in 1904 (Cohn, 2002). In 1889, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the exclusion and expulsion of Chinese from America, and restricted the Chinese immigration to America for the next sixty years. Asian American The group of Asian American is also a growing ethnic group in United States. This group consists of the people of more than 29 countries like China, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka etc. there are huge cultural differences among the group members as well, as they all belong to different cultures, having different religions and speaking different languages. Although it is not possible to treat them as a group but one thing is common among almost this entire ethnic group, they all are educationally, economically and socially successful "equal prevalence of poverty despite the higher median income...and... Lower poverty assistance and welfare than the general population, and...a discrepancy between education and income" (Sue and Sue, 1990, p. 191). Like other racially distinct immigrants, Asians have suffered harassment and violence, but in many ways they hardly fit the profile of a disadvantaged minority. As a group, they are justifiably called "America's most affluent minority" (Bodovitz and Edmondson, 1991). This prosperity is clearly depicted in Census figure that rank their 1989 median household income ($36, 102) well above that of non - Hispanic whites ($30, 406), Hispanic ($21, 921) and blacks ($18, 083) (Harrison, 1992). For most of the members of this ethnic group, especially for the people of South East Asia, Religion plays a very important role. They are Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists and believed very firmly on their religious beliefs, rituals and traditions. Like Hispanic Americans, families are nuclear in concept. They usually live in joint family system and in special occasions all family members, cousins, friends etc join together to celebrate that occasion. As far education is concern 90 out of 100 Asian students graduated from school 74 out of 100 completed some college 51 out of 100 obtain at least bachelors degree (Haycock, 2001) Issue Number 1: It has also been found out that the Mexican Americans and the Asian Americans (especially Chinese) experience higher overall level of stress due to financial problems and due to the racial biases. According to some recent studies the day to day perceived discrimination was linked to symptoms of depression in the children as well as in the adults of Mexican and Asian Americans. Issue Number 2 Poverty affects the racial and ethnic minorities. The rate of poverty is much higher among the minorities as compare to the white Americans. It has been found out that 11 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, 23 percent of Hispanic Americans, 24 percent of African Americans and 26 percent of American Indians are poor while only 8 percent of white Americans are poor. The poverty is also linked to poorer mental health. Many studies have shown that people in lowest income cadre are 2 to 3 times more likely, than those who are in better income cadre, to have a mantle disorder. The ethnic minorities of United States face an environment of inequality and discrimination which combined with poverty, have badly affected their mental health. Issue Number 3 Racial or ethnic minority students also face a number of social obstacles to school success. African Americans and Hispanics often view the payoff of schoolwork as so remote that they do not preserve in their efforts. Even though many students hold positive abstract views about the value of education as a social stepping stone, they tend to base their actual school behaviors on the frustration and failures of their parents. As a result, often students cut classes, get suspended, and eventually drop out (Epstein, 2001). Even if minority students manage to overcome the discouraging signals in their environment, financial difficulties typically lengthen their odds of attending college. One study documents that black parents (who are more likely to be single mothers, poorly educated, and financially strapped), simply have fewer resources to support children who want to go to college. Obviously children who do not speak English, or speak it only as their secondary language, will encounter difficulties in United States schools. Even mathematics achievements can be adversely affected by speaking a language other than English in the home. However, language barriers can be more subtle. English-Speaking students from minority or low-income backgrounds can face language discontinuities in school. In other words, the way their parents question and talk to them does not correspond to that used by most teachers. This mismatch between language used in the home and that demanded in the classroom can cause serious difficulties for some children (Guofang, 2001). The gap in educational achievement between the White American students and the students of foreign heritage is always there. This gap became narrow during the period of 1970 to 1990, but after 1990 it started widening again. The statistics has revealed that in 1999: Only 1 of the 50, 17 years old Mexicans students questioned, can read properly and able to understand the text read It has also been noticed that only one fourth or fewer students can read the difficult or complicated text Only I in 30 Mexican students is able to do the mathematical problems easily In the age group of 18 to 24 years old students the school graduate rate of Mexicans were 63 percent As compared to the white American students only one-third of the Mexican students were completed their graduate degree According to the statistics provided by the Census Bureau of United States in 1998, the number of Mexican students, between the age group of 15 to 29, who has completed some college education is 33 out of 100 students (Haycock, 2001) Similarly the number of Mexican students achieved some bachelors degree is 10 out of 100 students American Immigration Laws against Different races In the year 1924, all Asian immigrants, except of the Filipinos, were fully excluded by law, were denied citizenship and naturalization, and were prevented from marrying Caucasians and were not allowed to own land. America had completely closed its doors to all the Asians in 1935, when according to Tydings-McDuffie Act, an annual quota of fifty immigrants, were placed on the Filipinos too (Cohn, 2002). In 1914, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the principle that citizenship could be denied to foreign born Asians. In 1854, the Supreme Court of California made it Constitutional that no person of color could be allowed to give evidence in court against any white person. This was actually against the Chinese Americans but also applicable to all other colored ethnic groups. Similarly in 1892 the Grey Act excluded all the Chinese people to get any protection in the courts, including denying them bail in habeas corpus cases. In 1913, the Congress had passed the Alien Land Act, which excluded all the Aliens (meaning Chinese) to be eligible for the citizenship, for purchasing land etc. Similarly a subsequent Act in 1920 prohibited all the Asians from leasing and even sharecropping. Chinese got the right to citizenship in 1943 because China had fought with the allies in World War II, but the Japanese did not get this right until 1952 (Cohn, 2002). The Immigration Act of 1965 replaced the National origin system and allowed an annual immigration quota of 20,000 persons per country. This change had a striking effect. The rate of immigrants from Asia had risen from 6 percent in 1950s to 37 percent in 1980s (Cohn, 2002). Hence it can be said that ethnic makeup of United States has changed rapidly since 1965. After all the above discussion, I just want to add that if we continue to differentiate people based on their color, gender or nationality, then we have not achieved anything. We should head into the future, not with hatred towards others, but instead with love and dignity. References Cohn, D'Vera (December 02, 2002). New immigrants critical to nation's growth, Census shows. The Washington Post. Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, CO: Westview. Gamio, M. (1971). Mexican Immigration to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment. New York: Dover Books. Guofang, Wan (March, 2001). The Learning Experience of Chinese Students in American Universities: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, College Student Journal. Harrison, Lawrence, E. (1992). Who Prosper: How cultural values shape economic and political success. New York: Basic Books. Haycock, Kati. (March, 2001). Closing the Achievement Gap. Retrieved on 18th May, 2009 from http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0103/haycock.html Steeh, Charlotte and Schuman, Howard (1992). Young White adults: Did racial attitudes change in the 1980s American Journal of Sociology, 98, September, pp. 340 - 367. Sue, D. W. & Sue, D. (1990). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Read More