Denise Pelayo

Daehwan Lee

AAS 201

May 1, 2017

Term Paper

Have you ever looked at someone and judged them by the way they looked or acted?

What if I told you that every single one of us has a reason for how we look and why we act the

way we do? Throughout history there has been multiple events that have impacted our lives one

way or another. Its an accumulation of discrimination, segregation, laws, violence, treaties,

wars, economic status, gender, and sexuality. All of these terms play a major part to who you are,

who you will become, and why your life has had the outcome that it has had.

History has had a great effect on how minorities live their day to day life. Minorities such as

Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latin Americans have not been welcomed to the

United States with open arms. For starters, African Americans were imported as slaves, treated as

property to be bought and sold, and considered less than human for much of American history.

African Americans are one of the minority groups that till this day are still fighting against all the

negative problems that have come from being slaves. Asian Americans have not had it easy as

well. The United States has done everything in its power to keep this minority group away. The

Japanese began arriving in the United States, especially on the West Coast, at the turn of the

twentieth century. Immediately upon arrival, they were accused of taking jobs away from U.S

citizens, of working for very low wages, and of displacing white domestic and factory workers

(Aguirre Jr. 245). This lead to the start of an anti-Japanese sentiment in which people started

rapidly joining to support the Chinese Exclusion Act. Later the Gentlemans Agreement of 1907

1
and two acts, the Immigration Act of 1917 and the National Origins Act of 1924 were passed.

The agreement and two acts were meant to keep Japanese and others that were not from the

United States out of the country because the white colored people felt threatened by people that

simply came to work. The white people felt threated by the Japanese coming over and taking

over the low-waged jobs that no one wants to do, yet in In 1942 the United States established a

labor contract system known as the Bracero Program (Aguirre Jr. 206). This program meant

that Mexican workers were going to be granted a temporary visa and labeled as Braceros. This

program brought 5 million legal Mexican workers to the United States as legal seasonal workers.

Just like the Japanese and Blacks, Mexicans are no longer wanted in the U.S. As far as history

goes, Native Americans were the root of everything in the United States, Natives are as

American as a person can get; yet they were also wanted off their land. In order to do so, wars

happened against the Natives to take their land. All in all, the Natives turned out losing because

they are currently living in reservations in which many Natives are dying out do to the lack of

resource that they are being provide with. Native just like all other minority groups are living

with the affects that have being left behind from the outcomes of history.

A major problem that has created tension between races are laws that have been created

throughout the years. For starters, The Trail of Tears was the removal of tribes that were moved

away from their homes without the support of the government in which it was promised to help

them restart their lives. Although many did resist and stayed in their homes. This built tensions

between Indians and the government. A law was created stating that African Americans were

only considered to be one fifth of a human being. This meant that African Americans were not

considered to be humans, but objects because they werent worthy of being seen or treated as

everyone else. This made it easier for other races to discriminate against African Americans. In a

2
sense till this date, African Americans are treated unfairly as has the violence of police brutality

has shown us. Since our new president Donald Trump become the head of office, police brutality

has gone up. In many cases police officers, have killed innocent people just because of minor

misunderstanding and at times footage has shown that the police officer was the one to take

blame and not the victim. In my perspective, since the police has been more open to killing

without reasoning, people from other races have been more open about their feelings towards

each other. For example, the LA. Riots, this happening was a result of tension that were built

from centuries ago that all started because of one small misunderstanding which turned the

whole city into a war zone. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was established in 1848, this treaty

concluded the war between the United States and Mexico. This treaty guaranteed to all Mexicans

living in the new American territory several basic rights. The rights included full American

citizenship, retention of Spanish as a recognized and legitimate language, political liberty, and

ownership of property (Aguirre Jr. 203). This treaty was not enforced which lead to social and

political exploitation. This treaty was an example of how the United States has a history of not

keeping their promise, resulting in misunderstandings and creating tension that still exist today.

The United States has a history of segregating groups. For example, the Internment Camp in

which Asians were place into to be separated them from other races, also because they believed

that the Asians were spys during WWII. The potential political power of Asian Americans has

been diluted by gerrymandering policies that split the Asian population of community into

several districts (Aguirre Jr. 253). The author is stating how policies were created especially for

Asians to segregate them from each other and other populations. Each law that has been passed

has had a negative effect on each minority, the law that seems to be a plus for a population,

always seems to have a negative turn out.

3
 Discrimination is the treatment or consideration of a person or thing based on a group, class,

or category to which the person or thing is perceived to belong, rather than on individual

attributes. Minorities have and always will be victims of discrimination, simply because they are

minorities and are not white. White privileged jobs are jobs that are high paying and usually

have little to no labor. Minority groups such as Blacks, Latinos, and Natives have a hard time in

reaching these types of jobs. These types of jobs usually require a college education in which all

three of these groups lack. The lack of education from these three groups comes from

generations of racial oppression. Racial oppression is burdening a specific race with unjust or

cruel restraints or impositions. Such as blacks, as commented in the book American Ethnicity,

The legacy of two hundred years of slavery, third years of post- Civil War oppression and

another century of systematic discrimination in housing, employment, education, and nearly

every social sphere persists (Aguirre Jr. 101). African Americans were brought to the United

states against their will and they have been and still are being discriminated against for living in

the land of the free. Just like Blacks, Latinos are also discriminated against for coming to the

United states. They are seen as people that are aliens because they are not born in the United

States and are labeled as being criminals for traveling over the border illegally. Just like all

other minorities Latinos come seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Asians are

just like Latinos and the other minorities, they come to the United states because it is the land

where dreams become reality. The only difference is that unlike those three groups that have poor

quality of education, Asian Americans are currently the highest minority population attending

multiple universities (lecture). This is mainly because Asian has a lot of subpopulations which

results in making their percentages of high school and college degrees higher than average after

adding them up, commented the author of American Ethnicity (Aguirre Jr. 236). Even though

4
Asian are portrayed as being highly qualified for white privileged jobs, they are also

discriminated against. They are discriminated by other minorities groups because Asians are

sought to be higher than every other minority group, in doing so tensions are created between

races. One main problem that happens because positive stereotypes about Asians being better

than other minority is that the perception that Asian Americans do not experience same social

and economic problems as other populations. Discrimination can be in many forms. For

example, Natives are discriminated by sport teams. Sport teams throughout history have believed

that it is okay to dress, act, speak, and have the name of a Native tribe. Native Americans

are the only ethnic group that are used as mascots. As mentioned in the

book American Ethnicity by Adalberto Aguirre Jr. He states The use of an

ethic label as a mascot is perhaps one of the most degrading things that can

happen to a population. It is a sign of disrespect and low regard (Aguirre Jr.

164). Native Americans make up less than 1 percent of the total population

which makes it easier for others to make fun of them and harder for them to

rebel and do anything about it. As it is stated in the book American Ethnicity,

they were here first, meaning that for more reasoning there should be some

type of respect since their territories were invaded by every other ethnicity.

Stereotypes are a preconceived notion about a group of people. In many cases stereotypes

are not 100 percent true. Minority groups are often affected by racial profiling. For example,

African Americans and Latino Americans, they are often thought as criminals. Both races often

live in crowed parts of a city with a high level of poverty, in which are viewed as being ghetto.

These areas are ghetto because people are living pay check to pay check or other times

homeless. People in these areas become tired of this life-style and start to seek others ways to

5
make a living; one of the easiest ways to make quick cash is to turn to criminal actions, as in

becoming gang members, drug dealers, or robbing. On the contrary Asian Americans are seen as

being model minorities. Meaning that they are better than all other minority groups. As a whole

Asians are more likely than the U.S. workforce as a whole, including non-Latinos whites, to hold

managerial and professional jobs states by Adalberto Aguirre Jr. in his book American Ethnicity

(Aguirre Jr. 232). Asians are privileged enough that their stereotypes do not consist of being

called lazy, uneducated, unproductive to society, anchor babies, delinquents, etc. Asian American

stereotypes consist more of says as in they cannot drive, they eat rice, or they are smart; none in

which prevent them from becoming successful people in society. Another group of people that

experience the hardship of stereotypes are Native Americans. Native Americans are often

introduced as being Savage Redman meaning that they are portrayed as being ruthless killers,

as it is commented in the book American Ethnicity (Aguirre Jr. 166). This title was given to them

because Europeans did not want to live near or with the Natives Americans. Which lead to the

Natives resisting the act of them taking their land. After the battle in which many Europeans

died, therefore leading to the Natives being seen as savages. Till this day Natives are labeled as

savages for reacting how anyone else would reacting if their homes were being taken away from

them. Whether the stereotype is view as a positive or negative, there is no such thing as a

positive stereotype because there is always a negative side to it (lecture).

The economy does not suffer because of immigrants, but from racism. Our economy is

built as a pyramid; Whites sit on the top, followed by Asians, followed by Latinos, followed by

Blacks, and ending with Natives on the bottom. The reasoning behind Whites being superior to

all the other races in an economy statues is because Whites have had more generations than any

other races that have lived in the United States, other than the Native Americans. Native

6
Americans have lived on this territory way before anyone else, yet they are the poorest out of all

the races; this is because the Whites took everything away from them. In doing so the Whites

have gained inheritance, which means that they have money and land that they can pass down

generation after generation. Whites believe that immigrants come to the United States to ruin the

economy yet all the low paying jobs and jobs in which no white person would ever do, such as

jobs that are labor intensive are occupied by the minority groups. Immigrants are the main

population that work in the fields picking and harvesting Americas agriculture, the main race

being Latinos (Aguirre Jr. 206). The author of the book American Ethnicity is stating how

Latinos are the people doing the labor-intensive jobs. The doing of these jobs is critical to the

economy because without it everyone else would not be able to eat. Showing how critical

immigrants are to the economy. Latinos are living between middle to lower class. African

Americans and Native Americans sit at the bottom of the economy being the highest in poverty

and homelessness. African Americans sit at the bottom because it is quite difficult for them to

find a job. Many jobs have certain requirements that African Americans do not have, such as

being white. For example, Being black with eight years of job experience was

necessary to get the same treatment as a white applicant with no

experience commented Joe R. Feagin in his book Racist America (Feagin

143). The author is stating that the norm in society has been that your skin

color shows whether you are skilled or not. People of color are discriminated

against when trying to get a job, many are not legal residents which makes it

even harder to get a job or money for college, and many do not have role

models to purse a college education. Affirmative action helps people of color

have a fair slate to get a job. White superiority and racism that still exist today is why a

7
person of color would not get a job over one that is white. Natives on the other had have trouble

finding a job because of their residency. Occupational distributions for Native Americans are

also based on their patterns of residence (Aguirre Jr. 157). The author also stated that Native

Americans are underrepresented in white-collar occupations, particularly management and

professional jobs, and over-represented in low-paying service occupations and to a lesser extent,

sales and office jobs (Aguirre Jr. 157). The author is explaining how Natives are often found

working minimum wage jobs. Natives are known to live in houses with multiple generations, as

do other minority groups, but in doing so making $40,000 a year puts them down below the

poverty line because the money is not only spent on them, it is also use for any other house hold

necessities. Asian Americans are generally categorized as being well educated and highly

qualified for white collar jobs; which in todays society is what you need to move up the

economy pyramid. Yet something that not many expect is that many Asians are also living in

poverty, but many do not expect this do to the high populations of subpopulations of Asian,

Asians are under White people. Even though many Asian Americans do live in poverty and the

United States tried everything to kick them out Asian Americans have been one of the minority

groups that have had great success in the economy. For starters, they are currently the highest

population attending colleges and they get high paying jobs, just like white colored people.

Gender and sexuality has a lot to do with how well off your life will be. For example,

women that are a minority play a double- jeopardy because throughout history men have held a

higher power and being a minority makes your worth lower than a woman that is white. Being a

male in society has and will always be an advantage. For example, there has not been a woman

in power of the presidency till this day. Another thing is that males get paid more than a female

in jobs that are equally the same. Women are also discriminated against for being a female by

8
being told that they cannot do certain jobs that males can do. In minority families, males are

taught that they need to be the breadwinners and females are taught that they must stay home and

cater to the males. Being a woman, in certain minority groups, is only superior when being

shown off as a sexual figure on television or any other form of media. For example, Black

women, Latinas, Asian women are always portrayed as being good looking and desirable. Native

women are mainly hardly portrayed as being sexual. Unlike men, Latinos, Blacks, and Natives

are the ones portrayed as being the sexual and desirable once, not Asians they are always made

out to be unwanted and feminized (lecture). In todays society sexuality is viewed as a more

acceptable thing, as in you can openly say that you are gay, trans, etc. without feeling like you

will be judged or punished for doing so. There are also more places in which you can go and

interact with people of the same interest as you. This is not always the case though; many

minority families are very traditional in which saying that you like the same sex or you want to

be the opposite sex is considered to be a sin. Therefore, many children try to commit suicide

because they would rather die than be to live their life being ashamed of who they are and

unsetting their parents and family members.

In conclusion, everyone has their story of who they are. Especially minorities, that have

been through so much to get to where they are today. Our history started everything, but without

it we would not be who we are today, so even though there are bad moments that have took bad

turns and have had really bad outcomes, they are all part of who you are, who you have become,

and who you will be.