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It is very easy to imagine a world that does not involve race. Humans would work together to make advances in medicine, technology, and education. Asides from imagining, hoping, and dreaming the question comes to mind; is it possible? From the day that you learn that Columbus discovered a New World a cloud settles in over the rays of hope and imagination. In the educational system you are molded to believe that white is right and everyone and everything not white is wrong. Fortunately for some, you begin to learn that that is the furthest thing from the truth.
Experience dictates who you are and how you think. If you are raised under the impressions that appearing different equals being different and never experience anything that proves that notion wrong then the world could become a very easy place to exist. If you are one of the fortunate individuals that realizes early, that differences are what make the world exciting, you may be in for some difficulties growing up. The reason that I make these points is, if you are narrow minded on the issue of race, you would, if you are white, feel that what you do is the right way to do things.
You could be a horrible driver and get into an accident with a black person, being narrow minded and white you would say that it was their fault and truly believe it, even if you backed up into them. Knowing that you have more money you may hire an expensive lawyer and try to win a lawsuit. What happens when you lose, you say that it was reverse discrimination and piss and moan for the rest of your life. That would be the easy way out.
On the other hand if you have had the chance to see people for what they are and not what they appear to be life can prove to be difficult. The best things in life have never been said to come easily. To understand the entire concept of race is very difficult. If you come to a crossroads in your thinking and move forward in areas where it is easier to fall back then you begin to feel tingles of satisfaction. Before you jump the gun and assume that because you are starting to understand things that they no longer exist, you have to step back and look at the grand scheme of things. What you will see is that the concept of race is arguably the most controversial, confused, conflicted, and contested concept in America today (Killer).
To say that I understand everything about this subject would be a flat out lie, but I will say that the wheels are turning. Race has been shown to be a social construct used primarily by whites to advance themselves in terms of wealth and prestige, while holding others down and not allowing them to obtain affluence in white America. Differences between people, in regards to skin color, head shape, and body shape have been used to aid oppression by white folks. The American Anthropological Association has shown through DNA evidence that there is more variation in genetic make up within a race than between them. If this evidence was around in the 18 th century one might say that racial categories might not have been drawn. The face of the matter is this evidence did not exist and these categories are still used to discriminate against people today.
Why do differences scare people and why does this fear of the unknown give anyone the right to oppress. During the 19 th century white Europeans had come to the point that money equaled power and in turn gave them the right to enslave people that were unlike them. When these Europeans accounted cultures that were different then their mainstream, they say them as uncivilized beasts that needed their help. To help these beasts they gave them passage to a New World. Did it matter that these people did not need anything new and that they were happy with the life they lived, absolutely not.
In the European helping way these people were taken from their families so that white hands did not get blackened by the dirt. The differences that the Europeans saw in these people were used to create new species. This new black species was seen as equivalent to animals and thus became pawns in the white game of chess. Africans were not the on lee group that was uprooted from their homelands due to the helpfulness of white. Native Indians were also different from the Europeans and therefore needed help as well. Very early in colonial America, a pecking order of color was being established.
White Europeans were on top and everyone that did not appear as they did was considered lesser humans, if not animals. How is it that this country could have been founded by people who referred other humans as animals? It was the easy way. No racial categories existed until it was deemed necessary.
When white settlers deemed that they did not want to do work for themselves race was created to make their lives easier. By creating lines between groups wealth and power were able to be controlled. As more people began to come to the United States, more lines were being drawn. Irish and German people were now coming and this posed a problem for the whites that were already here. Europeans did not want to share what they felt was theirs. On the basis of saving money, power, and land, white Irish, white German, black, and Native Indian people were being discriminated against.
No longer were people being held down on the basis of color alone. As it stated in the AAA Statement on Race Human cultural behavior is learned, conditioned into infants beginning at birth, and always subject to modification. Irish and German immigrants saw themselves as similar, based on physical appearance to the Europeans, and they did not quite grasp why the struggle within the white race was taking place. As I mentioned earlier people more often than not, take the easiest route to solve problems. To solve their problems, Irish and German settlers began to act more white by showing a dislike for other races and thus looked better in European eyes. Now an even stronger pecking order was being established.
White Europeans still were at the top. Other whites like the Germans and Irish were next with Native Indians and blacks at the bottom. As the years moved along, more and more people came to this country in hopes of creating opportunities for themselves. As this happened and more people came, expansion to the western territories was inevitable.
By now the Civil War was over and slavery was no longer legal. As the country expanded, so did the means of travel. As the railroad became increasingly popular, new tracks had to be laid, so new people had to be imported. This is where the new slavery began. With the S word being illegal, whites needed a way to get work done. The Chinese were the way that this was accomplished.
They were not forced to work the way that Africans were, but the wages that they received were pitiful. The wages and the work being performed by the Chinese was enough to make the whites act more white. Not only was money that whites felt should be theirs but jobs as well were no longer sitting in just white hands. As if the pecking order was not enough out of control within the whites, now whites were still on top, but the base was expanding. Groups other than whites were held down until whites saw a gain. Once the gain was established then these groups were pushed down again.
For example, in 1877 Southern states felt that if their population was based on white numbers alone then they would be dramatically underrepresented in congress. As they could only gain through proper representation, the agreed the 3 / 5 of their slaves could be counted for purposes of representing in congress. Even though the southern whites wanted proper numbers, once their representatives had been selected, blacks were pushed back down the ladder of races. In the case of the Chinese, they were brought in to do hellish work for terrible wages. Once their work was finished they were place in concentration camps and in 1882 the Chinese exclusion act was enacted to limit the number of Chinese that entered the US. In 1870 3 / 4 of Native Indians were made citizens.
Already their lands were taken away and they were forced to live on reservations. Not until 1920 did the rest of the Native Indian acquire citizenship. In 1950 the Chinese Exclusion Act was lifted. So whites basically took Native Indian lands, brought Africans here to reap profit, and brought the Chinese here to build railroads. These three groups helped carve this land we call the United States and to repay them we oppressed them for year after year and continue to do so today. As the US expanded west, another group began to get exploited.
Hispanics were already in the west when we arrived, so how do we greet t...
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Research essay sample on Chinese Exclusion Act Narrow Minded
