Free Race And Ethnicity In The US Essay Example

America is a multi-racial country which has seen an influx in immigrants since the 18th and 19th century. Some of these immigrants hailed from Africa, Europe or other neighboring American countries such as Mexico and were taken there either as slaves or on free will in the quest of living the American dream. The assimilation of all this cultures has created many challenges with racism being rampant in the country. Surprisingly, immigrants from the European countries are never subjected to discrimination compared to their counterparts from Africa, Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries. This raises the question of whether being white is what makes people real Americans especially given that some immigrants whose families moved in the country over two centuries ago are still subjected to prejudice (Lui, 371).
Life as an immigrant in the US is hard as many do not enjoy some privileges that are accorded to American citizens. Immigrants are exploited in employment and get low wages compared to the native born and are also discriminated by the society and seen as opportunists. This has made some individuals especially the Mexicans to cling to their cultures and bloodline even if they are born and raised in America (Casares, 428). Racial prejudice is depicted even in the public service with immigrants openly denied their rights or threatened. For instance, a Tennessee judge was quoted on several occasions threatening to deny child rights to immigrant mothers who did not speak English. He went further to claim that learning English will open more opportunity for immigrants (Barry, 296). This clearly shows that being white makes a person more American. Home ownership rate also favors the whites in the country with fewer immigrants enjoying this right. All this factors has resulted to immigrants clinging to their cultures for a sense of belonging.

Works Cited

Barry, Ellen. “Tennessee Judge Tells Immigrant Mothers: Learn English or Else.” Los Angeles Times, 2005
Casares, Oscar. “Crossing the Border without losing your past”. New York Times, Sept 16 2003
Lui Meizhu Et Al. “The Economic Reality of Being Latino/ A in United States of America.” United for a Fair Economy, 2006