Jared Strong

English 1050
7/25/2016
Maenhardt
Issues of Race
Race has always been an issue throughout Americas history with people
discriminating against others that are not of their race. These issues have led to many
major events and legislation throughout the countrys history, the Civil War, immigration
restrictions, the civil rights movements, and other things. Race has become an issue
again in the country with the issues of immigration and the fright of terrorism.
Throughout this course weve read many things about the effects of race, and each
races culture, on the nation and how it is possible to bring unity to the people.
The issue of blacks and whites have happened throughout the course of the
nation. The Frederick Douglass speech, What To The Slave Is The Fourth of July?
which was given for a Fourth of July celebration, depicted the issues of racism and
slavery throughout the South. He made a distinct line between the white people and the
black people, who had no rights in the country at that time. He pushed for people to fight
these race issues and give the blacks the rights and the independence that the whites
received on July 4, 1776 when they separated from Great Britain. During this time the
whites believed that they were inherently better than the blacks. American society,
especially in the South, was built around the idea that the white man was inherently
better than the black man and that the whites had a God-given power over the blacks.
In his speech, Douglass uses specific rhetoric in order to get his point across. He often
uses the phrase your fathers instead of our fathers because he wants to make the

point come across to the people that the forefathers of the nation were not the people
that gave the blacks independence. This speech was given in the mid-1800s, but
although slaves got freed with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States in 1865, problems between African-Americans and white people continue
to happen even now. Barack Obama, during his 2008 presidential campaign, gave a
speech entitled A More Perfect Union where he addressed the issues of racism and
discrimination. In this speech, he said, But for all those who scratched and clawed their
way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didnt make it- those
who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. (479). This
shows that discrimination between blacks and whites, and other races, are still
happening even today. There are still many people the immigrate to America to find the
great American Dream, but werent able to get jobs because of discrimination.
Christopher Root said in the Week 6 discussion, American culture as depicted by a
majority of newspaper, radio, and television is often that of the majority - this typically
being white, middle class, having 2.5 children, and educated. This leaves a minority
community feeling excluded or not represented, though they are living a truly American
life. Although the problems are being worked on, there is still a long ways to go.
There is also a problem in the country with different races and their cultures
immigrating to America and trying to create a new identity. As discussed in the essay by
Margaret Mead We are all Third Generation she talks about the differences between the
generations of people immigrating to a new nation. The first generation leaves their
homeland but still wants to keep their culture. The second generation wants to leave
their parents and find a new culture in the country. The third generation really joins the

countrys culture and becomes part of it as a whole, and at this point most likely they
would identify as a person from that country. In America, there is a wide variety of these
generations among us. There are many people who have immigrated from places that
like to keep their culture, I personally have many friends whose parents came from
South America and still speak Spanish in their homes.
In Anzalduas How To Tame a Wild Tongue, she talks about the issues of her
culture, latino culture, being mixed with the American South culture. What was
developed was a distinct language, which she calls Chicano. She said in her writings, I
remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess- that was good for three licks on
the knuckles with a sharp ruler. (521). This shows the problems that are found in the
nation still with the different cultures and races mixing. In these cultures the Americans
saw English as a better language and Spanish as a lesser language. She was trying to
speak the language she spoke at home, Spanish, and the teachers in the schools
punished her for it. In Min-Zhan Lus From Silence to Words: Writing as a Struggle, she
tells the story of her issues of such a language separation. She felt conflicted between
her two worlds, one English and the other Standard Chinese. Instead of letting the
worlds work together, they were separated and created inner conflict and confusion for
her. Although this happened in China, a similar thing happens in the United States, as
seen in Anzalduas essay. This could be an issue of the people in America wanting to
Americanize the new immigrants instead of accepting and adapting their cultures. We
want to take the latino people and make them more American, make them accepting of
our Anglo-Saxon culture and forget their cultures of the Spanish.

This acceptance is possible to be seen in the murals that are painted on

buildings by people mostly of latino origin. These murals are seen in places like LA,
where there is a large group of people from Mexico and other latin nations. Eva Sperling
Cockcroft and Holly Barnet-Sanchez created a visual essay about the murals of these
people called Signs From the Heart: California Chicano Murals. These murals help
remind the people of their culture and give the people a better sense of unity.
Preserving these cultures is necessary to ensure the diversity of the United States.
These murals tell stories of the people and have a majorly latin history behind them as
an art style. Being able to put their art on large canvases, in this case buildings, shows
all people the culture of the Latin-Americans. There is also acceptance from people of
younger generations. Younger people appear to be more accepting of race and
differences than people of previous generations. The Pew Research Centers report
Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. discusses the differences of
Millennials from other generations. According to Pew, only 5% of Millennials saw people
of different races marrying each other as a bad thing, whereas 10% of Gen X, 14% of
the Baby Boomers, and 26% of the Silent Generation saw it as a bad thing. (61). This
shows that the people of America are becoming less and less racially intolerant, which
brings hope to the future.
There is an extreme amount of diversity in the American South, between the
people that came from Mexico and South America and the people that are descendants
of the African-American slaves from the 1800s. A same level of diversity is seen
throughout the rest of the country with the immigrants from Europe and Asia. This
course has shown me new issues of diversity in the country and made me think how we

may be able to fix them. One of the ways is to be more accepting of a peoples native
cultures. Instead of trying to make everything American, it would instead be possible to
make American more like everything else. Instead of America becoming a melting-pot
where everyone becomes this American ideal, we can change the American ideal to
include all races and cultures, creating an America full of diversity and unity.

Sources:
Anzaldua, Gloria. "How To Tame A Wild Tongue." Borderlands / La Frontera. 1987.
Cockroft, Eva. California Chicano Murals. Signs from the Heart. 1993. Print
Douglass, Frederick. "What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Fourth of July
Celebration. New York, Rochester. 20 July 2016. Speech.
George, Diana, and John Trimbur. Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and
Writing. New York: Longman, 2013. Print.
Lu, Min-Zhan. From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle. College English 49.4
(1987): 437-48. Print.
Mead, Margaret. "We Are All Third Generation." And Keep Your Powder Dry: An
Anthropologist Looks at America. New York: W. Morrow, 1943. N. pag. Print.
Obama, Barack. A More Perfect Union. Democratic Party Presidential Nomination.
National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PV. 18 March 2008. Address.
Millennials. Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 2016. Print. 27 July 2016.