Racial Repression in the United States

The transition of American ideology in the 1800's shifting from the debate on slavery to the idea of Manifest Destiny was a crucial step in our future globalization as a nation. As the country grew the idea of what made an American was; was one that was often fought in court rooms as well as on the front pages. Armed with the thirst of land and the idea of being predestined to inhabit the continent from sea to sea cultural beliefs began to take root and became evident in the disparities of how different races and ethnic groups in the U.S. were treated. The idea of being a White American became imperative in deciding who from which ethnic groups could become naturalized and to what extent their citizenship would allow them to have certain rights not granted to all Americans. Because of the exclusivity of Whiteness and the amount of respect that went along with being deemed White it was essential when accruing additional land to maintain this balance and if need be reclassify the already natural inhabitants to fit within these social sanctions. Through foreign land purchases and wars the U.S. became to protract its rule state by state. After the United States acquisition of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Western Colorado through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the question arose of what to do with the people living on what was now considered American soil? Fears of uprising began to run rampant throughout the country and within Congress' chambers as these newly claimed Americans were attempting to were trying to learn their new lives. Because of this trepidation towards their new countrymen the Mexicans who now inhabited the southwestern region of the United States soil were offered not only citizenship up...

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...and the problems that occur south of the border.

I am going to need to come in and talk with you, Meagan, my topic is entirely too big to encompass 20 pages I am going to just go over the research that I have done for the following pages so you know that I have been doing something and researching-I feel like so far that this doesn't flow in a fashion that will be ending at anytime soon and am struggling to find a way to tie the history in with modern day trials in a quick way.

From JSTOR I found a great article outlining racial repression in the United States from the Chicano perspective. The author delves into the idea that in order for these new Americans to receive any rights they would have to reneg their own cultural identity in place for the idea of being Caucasian in order to receive the rights of that they were accustomed to.