Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States - Essay Example

America is the melting pot of the whole world, the New World, seen by the rest of the world as the land of opportunity, the land of the free, the green pastures, and the crossroads where virtually all nationalities and races meet. This problem would not have aroused studies and researches a few centuries ago. This study would not have been conducted in other countries because almost all the world's countries and their people possess unifying attributes that make them distinct and unmistakable for any other nationality, race, culture and language. "Italian Americans are residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Italy or to other regions where the Italian language is widely spoken. According to the 2000 U.S. census, almost 16 million Italian Americans live in the United States. They constitute about 6 percent of the U.S. population. Most are grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the 3.8 million Italian-born immigrants who entered the United States from 1899 to 1924. Some are descendants of Italian-speaking immigrants from Austria, Switzerland, and Latin America. Others are themselves immigrants, including the more than 1 million who came to the United States after World War II ended in 1945. Two-thirds of the Italian American population live in and around major cities in the northeastern part of the United States." (Italian American). Only America possesses the probability of encountering this problem because of countless causes - immigration, preservation of heritage of immigrants, racial and ethnic differences, and cultural differences to name a few. It is apparent that race is about a social construct rather than biological since society has a different set of rules for each racial group. "racism is based on your physical traits. so what you look like, and ethnicity is based on what you identify yourself as. so simplisticly, racial groups are what other people catagorise you in (based on your physical demenor and look, e.g - 'black' 'white' 'brown' 'yellow' 'red' etc...) and your ethnic group is who you identify being, like you might share commonalities with certain ethnic groups for example be very cultural or religious and identify being a 'pacific islander' just because you were not born in the pacific islands or have pacific island parents or any such blood in you, if you feel you identify strongly with that group (for example - bing taught or brought up in a pacific household or around other pacific island families, children, churches etc.)you can identify yourself in that ethnic group (Ethnical groups). Furthermore, there is no alternative conceptualization of race that I would advocate because it is a social construct. This is due to the fact that society has defined what is expected of each racial group, which has nothing to do with biological aspects of being Italian, Mexican or Irish. From there, it has been apparent that Italian Americans have been a dominant ethnical group because of their food and their place in politics within American culture. Therefore, it seems that the Italian mafia has an upper hand in American politics, which gives them a higher rank than the Russian mafia in America. With that, in America, it is apparent the Italian mafia has skills that fit the labor union, which gives them an inside to American politics. Few Italian Americans today identify closely with Italy. Even fewer read Italian literature, follow Italian politics, or belong to organizations that promote Italian culture in the United States. However, many remain in touch with family or friends in Italy, and many more socialize with other Italian Americans in the United States. Among themselves, Italian Americans still recognize cultural differences rooted in the distinctive regional cultures of northern, central, and southern Italy, and Sicily. The majority of Italian Americans belong to the Roman Catholic Church. However, almost half of recent generations have intermarried with Catholics of other ethnic backgrounds or with people from different denominations, such as American Protestants, and Jews. Italian Americans have made substantial contributions to American life in the arts, theater, music, and popular culture. As restaurant proprietors and food retailers, they have transformed Italian specialties into foods and beverages consumed by most Americans-notably pizza, broccoli, spaghetti, and hearty red wines. They have also gained prominence in the construction and garment industries. Many other Italian Americans work in professions such as engineering, law and medicine (Italian Americans). Furthermore, through research, it has been discovered most ethnic groups especially Mexicans that lived in the United States during the 1930's grew accustom to their surroundings even though they were treated differently for a while. Once they grew accustom to living here, they felt like this was their home to start a life with their own families. This continued the growing number of ethnic groups in this country. However, at the end of the 1800's and beginning of 1900's, Mexicans were not very welcomed in America and was a subordinate ethnical group as it can been from the following information. From the late nineteenth century to the Great Depression, a large wave of Mexican immigrants, spurred by dislocation in Mexico as well as by economic opportunity in the U.S., provided low-wage agricultural and industrial labor throughout the Southwest. They generally paid little heed to American politics and eschewed cultural assimilation, as had earlier Mexicans who forcibly became American citizens as a result of the expansionist wars of the 1830s and 1840s (Blanton). Being an American individual does not necessarily mean that you are of white, black, red, brown, or yellow complexion, which signify race. The term "American" has no racial insinuations for virtually all Americans trace their roots from distinct nationalities, races and ethnic groups and this complication alone can cause innumerable perplexed things "(A nation of immigrants) . But because of the fact that America had evolved into its present status, all sorts of studies need to be carried out for the purpose of solving the problem. However, within the 1930's, Mexicans were living in poverty in America because the jobs were going to the whites due to the fact that they were suffering from the Great Depression. With that Mexican Americans were forced to obtain low wage jobs such as picking or gangs "The jobs were given to the white Americans, not the Mexicans," says Carlos DeAnda Guerra, 77, a retired furniture upholsterer in Carpinteria, Calif. He says his parents entered the USA legally in 1917 but were denied jobs. He, his mother and five U.S.-born siblings were deported in 1931, while his father, who then went into hiding, stayed to pick oranges (Koch). The Great Depression's effect on society was demoralizing due to the fact many people were out of work and homes. Unfortunately, without work, many people even Mexican Americans were forced to live in rough and ready homes with poor heating and cleanliness. From there, a survivor of the Great Depression remembers the struggles that people went through at that time. However, Mexican Americans received very little help. In fact, they were even threatened with deportation even if they were American citizens. Mexican Americans were settled in the United States, however some did not receive the same education and treatment as white students due to the fact that they are viewed as a minority race Furthermore, because of their lack culture acknowledgement from teachers, sometimes Mexican American students required educational intervention, which is actually lacking knowledge in their culture even though they have settled in the United States for hundreds of years (Mexican Americans). California maintained a variety of discriminatory educational arrangements for Mexican-American students. However much school officials tried to disavow the race factor, they responded to pressure to separate Mexican students from the white community, based primarily on racial distinctions. In this respect, the Kansas City Kansas School system was no different (CLEARY). Along with that, within higher education in the United States, campuses have become more accommodating to those students that have ethnic backgrounds due to the increase in enrollment from them. From this research, it is very clear the United States is still in the process of becoming more diverse. And, it is noticeable that the diversity is not slowing down to the fact this country makes it very easy for them to earn an education and employment here. The National Center on Educational Statistics collects information on degrees conferred by area, reported by race/ethnicity. Their latest report (NCES, 2001) indicates that 74,060 bachelor's degrees were awarded in psychology last year, 14,465 master's degrees were awarded in psychology, and 4310 doctoral degrees were awarded in psychology. Of those degrees, the majority was awarded to Whites (72% of Bachelor's and master's degrees and 77% of doctoral degrees). African Americans received 10% of both bachelor's and master's degrees and 5% of doctoral degrees, Hispanics received 10% of bachelor's degrees and 5% of both master's and doctoral degrees, Asian/Pacific Islanders received 6% of bachelor's degrees, 3% of master's, and 4% of doctoral degrees in psychology. American Indians received less than 1% of all the degrees in psychology (Multicultural Guideline). Evidence has shown that researchers examine the correlations between race and discrimination that occurs when classification of crimes and its perpetrators come into account.(Knepper, 2000, p. 15) There is however not an objective definition of race given. Knepper continues to express that current statistical methods are not accurate nor due they portray the proper picture of current circumstances of race. It was the cataclysmic Potato Famine of 1845-1851, one of the most severe disasters in Irish history, that initiated the greatest departure of Irish immigrants to the United States. The potato constituted the main dietary staple for most Irish and when the blight struck a number of successive harvests social and economic disintegration ensued. As many as 1.5 million individuals perished of starvation and the diverse epidemics that accompanied the famine. A great number of the survivors emigrated, many of them to the United States. From the beginning of the famine in the mid-1840s until 1860 about 1.7 million Irish immigrated to the United States, mainly from the provinces of Connaught and Munster. In the latter part of the century, though the numbers fell from the highs of the famine years, the influx from Ireland continued to be large. While families predominated during the Famine exodus, single people now accounted for a far higher proportion of the immigrants. By 1880 more single women than single men were immigrants. It has been estimated that from 1820 to 1900 about four million Irish immigrated to the United States" (Irish Americans). Knepper questions the idea of whether or not African Americans do in fact show a higher instance of criminality than others do, or are the statistics biased and skewed in nature. He concludes that there are currently four officials races used for classification: White, black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Asian and Pacific Islander and two official ethnic groups: Hispanic origin and not of Hispanic origin. From there, it is apparent that Irish Americans are a part of a dominant culture and ethnical group, which is demonstrated below. The Irish have been present in the United States for hundreds of years and, accordingly, have had more opportunity than many other ethnic groups to assimilate into the wider society. Each successive generation has become more integrated with the dominant culture. In the eighteenth century the Protestant Irish relatively easily became acculturated and socially accepted. However, it was far more difficult for the vast numbers of Catholic Irish who flooded into the United States in the post-famine decades to coalesce with the mainstream. Negative stereotypes imported from England characterizing the Irish as pugnacious, drunken, semi-savages were common and endured for at least the rest of the nineteenth century. Multitudes of cartoons depicting the Irish as small, ugly, simian creatures armed with liquor and a shillelagh pervaded the press; and such terms as "paddy-wagons," "shenanigans," and "shanty Irish" gained popularity. Despite the effects of these offensive images, compounded by poverty and ignorance, the Irish Catholic immigrants possessed important advantages. They arrived in great numbers, most were able to speak English, and their Western European culture was similar to American culture. These factors clearly allowed the Irish Catholics to blend in far more easily than some other ethnic groups. Even their Catholicism, once disdained by so many, came to be accepted in time. Though some prejudices still linger, Catholicism is now an important part of American culture " (Irish Americans). Researchers report that the definition of race includes class, social status, and gender of a person or ethnicity. However, there are those that feel these classifications are biased. No clarity is given regarding race and gender of the individuals that believe these classifications to be biased and an insufficient means of determining race (Podgor, 1994) . Within this paper, it has been shown that some ethnic groups such as Italian Americans have been more dominant in the American culture than others like the Mexican Americans, who had to struggle in this country in order to make it. Knepper, P. (2000). Chapter 2 the Alchemy of Race and Crime Research. In The System in Black and White: Exploring the Connections between Race, Crime, and Justice, Markowitz, M. W. & Jones-Brown, D. D. (Eds.) (pp. 15-27). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Podgor, E. S. (1994). Corporate and White Collar Crime: Simplifying the Ambiguous. American Criminal Law Review, 31(3), 391-401. Cleary, Robert Martian. THE EDUCATION OF MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, 1916-1951. 2002. Read More