Since the beginning of colonization, America has been controlled by religiously and ethically diverse whites. The most profound cases of racism in the “United” States of America have been felt by Native Americans, Asians, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Muslims. Major racially structured institutions include; slavery, settlement, Indian reservations, segregation, residential schools, and internment camps (Racism in the U.S., 1). Racism has been felt and seen by many in housing, the educational system, places of employment, and the government. Discrimination was largely criminalized in the mid 20th century, and at the same time became socially unacceptable and morally repugnant (Racism in the U.S., 1). Although racism was
In the United States, racial relations have changed drastically over a relatively short time period. In Racial Formation in the United States From the 1960s to the 1990s, authors Michael Omi and Howard Winant present several viewpoints on evolving and differing racial theories while presenting their own findings and theories that have resulted from years of study and observation. They believe the present and past theories on race and racial definitions throughout history, individually, are severely inaccurate when applied to modern day and “[fail] to capture the centrality of race in American politics and American life” (p. 2). They argue that race is much more complex than how it has been presented and offer up their own theories in order to rectify previously believed notions of race.
There are quite a few different minority groups in today’s society. Minority groups are all unique in there own way. With groups rapidly growing as well as groups decreasing in size minority groups go through change in areas like discrimination, society, and within the criminal justice system. Discrimination, society, and within the criminal justice system are all unique to different minority groups in their own ways, but most of them all have things in common as well.
Often America is referred to as “The large melting pot.” The idea that the United States is a land of opportunity, where anyone can come and blend into a new breed that is uniquely American. However, the cultural diversity in America is clearly evident, from physical characteristics to different religious beliefs and customs. As minorities immigrate to America and attempt to assimilate in society, they are forced to live a pluralistic lifestyle of blending with the current society, while struggling to maintain their heritage and identity “Minority individuals must learn to function in two environments: their own culture and that of the mainstream society” (de Anda, 1984: p101). There are some who successfully leave their
The United States has Changed from a Melting Pot to a Vast Culture with Varying Racial Backgrounds
Will Kymlicka writes in the Multicultural Citizen that national minorities and immigrant groups should be given room and protection to practice and express their cultures. He argues that cultural expression is key to individual freedom and allows for a greater freedom of opportunity. National minorities, as large ethnic minority populations within a nation that have historic and cultural ties to the land (Kymlicka, p. 79), should be given the utmost cultural freedom and protection culture as it enhances the nation as a whole. Immigrant groups, who by immigrating have given up their homeland, will in time assimilate into a dominant national culture, but should be given strong protection from discrimination and room to express themselves. But what happens when a national minority oppresses immigrant groups to protect its own culture? Bill 60 of the Québec government pits national minorities against immigrant groups complicating Kymlicka’s views on liberal freedom and culture. The answer to this problem lays in looking back to John Locke’s political society to show national minorities take priority over immigrant group in relation to culture.
The article, “RACE AND ETHNICITY- CHANGING SYMBOL IS OF DOMINANCE AND HIERARCHY IN THE UNITED STATES” by Karen I. Blu is an exceptional work that clearly expounds on the racial and ethnic groups especially in America. Racial and ethnic groupings are gradually becoming popular in the public arena, in which people are shifting their focus on classifying other people on the basis of racial groupings to rather classifying them on the basis of ethnicity. Moreover, race grouping is slowly submerging into ethnic grouping with Black activism being the role player in this (Blu, 1979). The following is a summary of the aforementioned article in how it relates to racial and ethnic groups and response regarding its views.
Schaefer, R. (Ed.). (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
To many people today, Arab immigrants are the latest group of a long list that have come to the United States since it’s’ inception. However, people of Arab origin have been immigrating to the United States since before The Declaration of Independence was penned in 1776, and haven’t really stopped since. There were not many Arab immigrants at this time, however. The first notable “wave” of immigrants was not until the late nineteenth century. Since then, there have been multiple distinct waves, but most often they are categorized into two groups: pre-World War 2, and post-World War 2, as the demographics and ideologies are inherently different. As a result, it may seem quite obvious that their presence in American life as well as their identification in such has changed. However, it would be foolish to state that there is no continuity between several aspects of Arab American life then and today. Because both are present in American politics, we can only measure whether there has been a greater degree of continuity or change within past or present-day Arab-American experiences. There are several aspects to both claims. However, after careful analysis it is clear that there has been a greater degree of change amongst Arab Americans because of the change in how they view themselves as a collective entity.
Schaefer, R. (Ed.). (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Ethnic Minorities in Inner City Areas (Carr P175-P180 and Independent Review) It can be said that ethnic minorities do remain concentrated in the inner areas of many MEDC cities, as can be seen in the 1991 census data, which shows disproportional numbers of ethnic minorities in London and major cities in the Midlands and the North of England. This can also be seen in the USA but is more significant as ethnic minorities make up a much lager proportion of the population, due to the higher rate of natural increase amongst the Hispanic and Asian segments of the ethnic groups, as well as their continued immigration into the cities. A centre for such cultural diversity in the USA is New York, which has the highest proportion of ethnic minorities amongst its population. The distribution of ethnic minorities around the county is also similar with the UK and USA for example most black people are concentrated in the north of the USA and most Hispanic people are concentrated to the South and the West Coast. Ethnic minorities have always traditionally been concentrated in central areas ever since the first wave of immigration in 1948-1968 where they left the unemployment and poverty in their own country to look for work in semi skilled low paid jobs where black Caribbeans filled the labour gap left by the second world war initially in cities such as London to work on the Underground transport system, then immigrated to fill labour requirements in rapidly expanding industries such as the textile industry in Bradford which attracted many immigrants from the Indian Subcontinent.
American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon, and wasn’t given much respect because they had a different culture or their skin color was different. However, the lives of American minorities changed forever as World War 2 impacted them significantly with segregation problems, socially, and in their working lives, both at that time and for generations after.
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
Ronald Takaki, an Asian American academic, historian, and author, recounts the history of America through the voices of people of color in the United States in his book on the truth behind America’s racial history, entitled, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Takaki deconstructs common myths about America’s origins in his book hailed by critics and academics as a powerful and accurate retelling of the history of America. In his book, Takaki redirects the predominant focus on whites of European ancestry in history to the contributions made by the many ethnic groups of America in order to give a more accurate perspective on American history. Takaki’s point of view is well-informed and he gives a fair depiction of the participation,
A minority group is made up of people who share a common set of cultural or physical characteristics that marks them as different from the powerful dominant group and for which they often suffer social disadvantages, because of their lack of power. As in the case of race and ethnicity, minority group membership is given by society. The most common minority groups are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Women.