The Race Of American History

Although racism in the United States is perceived as a “white people” versus “black people” construct, these two texts have helped me understand that racism occurs and has occurred in a multitude of different contexts. This is because the foundation of racism has nothing to do with a person’s physical features, but more to do with the systematic grouping of people in a tower of class. Chinese immigration was initially encouraged in the mid-1800s to help build the transcontinental railroad. However, along with the finishing of the railroad, a huge financial crisis hit, which eliminated jobs across the country. This caused for hardworking Chinese people, receiving low wages, to become a threat to “white” people. Multiple ordinances, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, was put in place. City authorities reported that “long as it is inhabited by people of the Mongolian race” (Shah, 42), Chinatown is dangerous due to its threat of disease and sanitation. It was never an issue of safety, but an issue of race and economic benefits favored to meet the needs and wants of the “white” population: for example, the Chinese medical practices and laundromats. Multiple laws were made and a bad reputation was placed on Chinese businesses and people to ensure that competition was not taken away and that economical opportunities stayed within the “white” population. Here, we see the

To begin with, the aim of this paper is to respond to the article written by Ian F. Haney Lopez. The main idea of this article was to discuss the question of belonging of a person to this or that racial group. According to Lopez the construction of race is mostly based on the choice of the society, but not on the genetic or other information. My response to this article will be rather neutral because it is fifty percent agreed with her point of view and half a hundred percent disagreed.

Race and nation—they define who we are as a people, help form our cultures and characteristics, and bring history and heritage to nations across the globe. For the people of the 1900s, race and nation were extremely significant in many ways, and visions of different government orders such as authoritarianism, liberal democracy, and anticolonialism were in the minds of individuals around the world. Many Asians had the desire to become a race and nation separate from the imperialism brought by America and England. Nation and race were important to them since they desired a pure Asian nation. When referring to this, the text says, “Some Asians even accepted Japanese imperialism as an antidote, under the slogan “Asia for the Asians.”

Race is still an open topic in America and in the world, as it has always implied differentiation, inequalities and division among human beings, and has been the basis for some of the most tragic events in history.

A comment was made in a blog post early on in the year about whiteness in American that bugged me. It’s a topic that came up a few times throughout the semester in and outside of class. Granted, this topic is based on a single blog post but a collection of comment and statements that were made on specific blogs and during class sessions. This topic I fin extremely important mainly because I felt as though there was some confusion around the topic being white. Understandably if you’re white in America I think it’s easy to forget exactly how privileged you are. Nonetheless, it forced me to want to talk about white privilege in America, explain the meaning of “paradox of privilege”,

I was raised to respect those in uniform because of the duty and service they provide our country. I think my upbringing plays a large role in my opinions of law enforcement today, I believe the majority are honest, trustworthy people who would lay down their lives to protect others. As an adult, I know this is not always the case but I choose to believe that those who abuse their authority are the minority who give hardworking law enforcement officers a bad

Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America is a text that highlights the racial progression of the United States. In a span of over 400 years, the author Gary Nash cites many instances of interracial relationships. This abundance of examples serves to show a contrast in America between government measures and social occurrences. A story such as that of John Rolfe and Pocahontas is used to show how "[their union] could have become the beginning of an open racially intermixed United States" (6). Very soon after, however, events such as those surrounding Sam Houston proved to show that interracial relationships have quickly been discounted from common history lessons. In an effort to illustrate racial progression Nash also cites examples of individuals such as Frederick Douglass. It is important to note that, yes Douglass had first married to a white woman, but this should not overshadow the accomplishments of Douglass 's life. Lastly, Gary Nash writes about "the boundary-crossing revolution". Music is cited as a big factor of this 'boundary crossing '. In the end, a vast majority of these stories are not freely told in a classroom setting or within communities.

Despite the fact that Asian Americans have been in Hollywood for decades, there are very few positive representations of them in film. More often than not, they’ve been depicted as stereotypical caricatures, and more specifically, as foreigners who can’t speak grammatically correct English. Moreover, the negative representations of Asian Americans in film has perpetuated certain misconceptions about their culture. Chan is Missing (1982) calls for more genuine representations of Asian American identities through its cast of complex characters and defiance of Asian stereotypes. The film also urges its viewers to critically think about their own notions of identity through the use of several recurring themes and filmmaking techniques.

I believe race is so central to how we organize social life in many societies because it has been the defining factor that breaks humans apart from one another just based off of something as simple as sight. It is the easiest way to classify individuals aside from gender or nationality. Race has also become something that individuals have personally adopted, and I believe many people are more comfortable being around those that share the same characteristics as themselves.

Race relations in the United States Navy have had a long and rocky history. Although there is no denying progress has been made, especially in today’s Navy, it wasn’t always the case. Black sailors have honorably served in the American Revolution, however records by race weren’t then, and they continued to serve in the Navy up to this very day. (Williams, 2001) Since the American Revolution though, they have suffered from bigotry, segregation and outright racism from their white counterparts as well. This research paper is going to give a brief history of racism that black sailors suffered from the American

First and foremost, I'm deeply disturbed by what transpired at the National Policy Institute conference over the weekend. It's rather apropos that we are covering the topic of race at this moment. I'm furious but inspired (now, more than ever) to continue on this journey of justice studies as part of my personal commitment to be an ally for minorities. I wish that every person had the privilege of taking this class, the knowledge we're gaining is one of the most powerful tools we can use to combat the ignorance of white nationalism.

Gina Marchetti’s main thesis in the introduction chapter of The Chinese Diaspora on American Screens focuses on Chinese filmmakers and actors who challenge the issues of race and sexuality in American cinema. It wasn’t until after the civil rights movement in the 1960’s when filmmakers began to provide a different prospective of what it means to be a Chinese American. This enabled filmmakers to, not only challenge Hollywood’s norms by exploring interracial and queer relationships on screen, but break away from the standard Chinese speaking films. Films like Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet can be seen as a game changer.

What I would like to investigate about the course theme of “America” two major issues I will consider. The first racial issues second obesity. We all know the issues when it comes to these two topics especially here in America. The biggest part about racial is the class inequalities and the injustice that is going on today. Not only with black people also immigrants, until we don’t apply what Martin Luther King said in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 he said, “When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

As a result of the white heteropatriarchy prevailing over the United States, each minority American undergoes a unique struggle to establish an individual racial identity. Minorities define themselves in relation to their races based on differentiating qualities such as ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. Two documentary films that star minority figures and describe how race shaped these figures’ stories are American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, directed by Grace Lee and O.J.: Made In America, directed by Ezra Edelman. These films differ in their content and structure because the former shares a positive story about a Chinese-American woman’s rise to success as an activist, whereas the latter explains the harrowing background and circumstances that corrupted a successful African-American male athlete. Grace Lee Boggs presents a confounding example of racial identity in that she aligns herself closely with black issues rather than Chinese-American or female causes. The articles “The Chinese Exclusion Example: Race, Immigration, and American Gatekeeping, 1882-1924” by Erika Lee and “When Whiteness Feminizes...: Some Consequences of a Supplementary Logic” by Rey Chow offer historical context surrounding Boggs’s identity by clarifying that Boggs emerged after the height of anti-Asian immigration policies and of white feminist theory. Unlike Grace Lee Boggs’ subconscious distancing from identifying as a Chinese-American woman, O.J. Simpson intentionally

In addition to the cultural conflicts and confusions with Chinese immigrants ethnic heritage , Amy also portrays how television shows during this era of American culture influences conflicts and confusions in the Chinese immigrant communities. In her attempt to