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Jacqueline Vidal

Reflection on Critical Analysis Paper

My critical analysis paper focuses on the experiences of Native Americans, Mexican

Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans with race. These ethnicity face similar

discriminatory and racist experiences. One of the ethnic groups that has faced it the most have

been African Americans.

It began with slavery when Africans were taken from their land and brought to the

mainland to work as servants for White families. African people were mistreated as they were

brought over and were not considered as humans because of the color of their skin. When laws

were being made at some point African Americans were considered to be one fifth of a human,

they did this for votes and other encounters that would help some states advance in certain areas

financially. Some point in history Africans were considered free but had separate facilities

from those whom are White. African American facilities were not sanitary they were poor, they

were still dehumanized this was considered environmental racism. In regards of white supremacy

Native Americans who were tribes and lived of resources were forced to leave their land by

Caucasians. Treaties were made to remove them from their land, Natives had to relocate which

caused majority of their population to decrease. Natives faced harsh conditions while relocating

many died from diseases, lack of resources, and weather conditions. Today Native Americans

have been used as reference for team mascots, this is considered racist. Mascots have shown to

be a sign of disrespect, the way their culture is represented is compared to how white people use

to paint themselves in black paint and draw big lips to make fun of the appearance of an African.
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Mexicans have experienced various discriminatory encounters, some in which they are

referred to is for having too many kids, taking jobs, and living off the government. A push factor

that brought Mexicans to the United States was the braceros program in which there was a lot of

cheap labor work in the fields, Mexicans were given a workers permit to come. Another push

factor was a war in Mexico that endangered people causing them to cross over. Once the

Mexican population grew in the U.S. it started anti-Mexican feelings in which Caucasians felt

they were stealing their jobs and living off their welfare for having a lot of kids. Later a Mexican

Repatriation Act was formed which would send all Mexicans back to their homeland even if they

looked Mexican and were Mexican Americans. Loss in property, education, and jobs affected

them. Asian Americans have encountered discrimination and racism on the gender role as well as

a whole. It began when Pearl Harbor was attacked, Americans suspected and Asian looking

person to be a spy of their country. All Asians were to leave their homes and only take a few of

their belongings, they were placed in internment camps to keep the countrysafe. The camps did

not have enough resources or provided people with the sufficient amount of needs. In their

culture women are looked down upon, they are recognized to be heterosexual, they are to obey

men, as far as men are portrayed to be asexual, in other words they are very masculine in the

media but not looked as handsome.

These four ethnicities face discrimination in various forms it is common for ethnic groups

like African and Mexican Americans to experience racial profiling and seen as criminals because

of stereotypes. Natives on the other hand come unnoticed and disrespected in the aspect of their

culture, as far as Asian Americans tend to have more focus on gender racism where gender plays
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a major role. They all have a few discriminatory things in common such as finding jobs, and the

level where they are classified to be in the wealth class.