Thursday, September 12, 2013
Race Relations
It is not so surprising to hear about how terrible early Americans treated other races. This was merely the beginning of our long history of bad relations with those who weren't considered "American". Native Americans, Irish,Chinese... If you were different then you were not going to have a good time. Newly arrived immigrants had it bad as Americans did not want more "foreigners" in the country. An example of this is the Chinese Exclusion Act. There is no stopping this part of our history from continuing on into the future.
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I think an explanation for this is not just xenophobia but rather the notion of race itself. Race is a social construct that arose during the early ages of this country. By categorizing other social groups as "other," or in sociological terms: outgroup, it creates a notion that those who are different, whether by race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, must be excluded because of they do not belong.
ReplyDeleteI think that this country has a tendency to exclude and discriminate those who are different. It is in our history and it is still happening. Our job as the upcoming generation is to try our best to counteract these xenophobic tendencies. How we can do that, I do not know. But I sure do know that it starts with ourselves by being mindful of the language we use and avoid racial slurs.
I agree with you and think as well that is harsh for immigrants to come to a new country. But I agree to have laws and policies for immigrants to understand and agree with. Though over the last years it became very expensive and a lot of paper work in order to live here.
ReplyDeleteI also think that no one ever thinks about the idea that people need help leaving their country because of political or unfair/unclean living conditions. If you don"t have the money there is no way to life here and you are stuck with it. Also politics seem many times selfish and I think people lost their sense of humanity.