Race & Ethnic Relations in America
©2003 by Amanda Brooks  Home 


African Americans  |  Native Amerians  |  Mexican Americans  |  Puerto Rican Americans  |  Asian Americans 

African Americans have experienced the bite of the core-peripheral relationship for centuries. They were brought over to the United States from their home land to work on plantations to produce raw materials such as cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo. It was on the backs of the slaves that the United States was built in both the South and the North. The South depended on the slaves for the mass production of cotton which the North depended on for their industrial revolution in the textile manufacturing. Once freed, the African American faces many more hardships. It has taken several years for them to break out of the peripheral role. A movement of Pan-Africanism swept the nation. African Americans began seeing their struggle as an international struggle and not just a problem in the US. Militant groups rose up such as the Black Power Movement while at the same time there was a move towards a peaceful/passive settlement with the Whites. They have time and time again had to demand their basic democratic rights from the United States Government. They were successful in gaining their right to vote after much fighting and demanding. In 1941 Martin Luther King Jr. and several other leaders threatened a March on Washington which was canceled due to concessions made by the President. However, the concessions fell short of giving full democratic rights to the minority group. Several marches were organized and carried out in the following years asking for the President's concessions to be carried through. They wanted more than just enough to pacify blacks and not offend whites. They have been very successful in their struggle for freedom, but it has not been easy.

The Native American population suffered severely with the arrival of the White men. In the 1500s, the Native population North of the Rio Grande was numbered at ten million. By 1800, the population was down to 600,000 and by 1900 it was a mere 250,000. The dramatic drop in population is attributed to exposure to new diseased, famine, to toll of slavery, and the wars with the White settlers. The Native peoples were unfamiliar with the White man's way of warfare. The idea of wiping out a whole nation or tribe of people was a foreign concept to them. For them, you pay back a fair amount of what was dealt to you. If one of your warriors was killed, you would go and kill ONE warrior from the offending people. And killing women and children was considered way out of line by the Natives. In 1830 the Natives faced another unthinkable blow. The Removal Act called for the removal of all Native peoples in the Southeast to go to Oklahoma to make room for more white settlers. This forced the tribes out of their homelands and onto Reservations established by the government. There are 437,000 Natives living on 314 reservations that constitute two percent of United States soil. The United States Government passed the Allotment Act years later. This act gave 138 million acres of land to be divided up among the Natives. The problem was that the Natives had been moved onto Reservations and no longer knew how to work the land. The government provided no help in this area for the people. They ended up leasing their land to White people until they could sell it to them. When all was said and done, they had lost 90 million of 138 million acres they had been given. Once again, the White man ended up with their land. The government came up with another ploy to silence the cries for justice coming from the Natives: The Relocation Program sought to assimilate Natives into dominant White society. This would serve to alienate them from their culture and event their family. The intent was to draw the young and smart Natives off the Reservations and into the city (at the government's expense) where jobs were plentiful instead of taking jobs to where they were. The caused a brain drain from the Reservations and into the city. The Reservations, therefore, got poorer. One fourth of the Native population left the Reservations.

The Native people have been crying for justice since their contact with White men. The United States Government has broken every single treaty it has made with the native people. The United States has been undemocratic in its dealing with the Native people. A movement of Pan-Indianism has emerged in response to their undemocratic treatment. They have begun regaining their cultural identity and seeing things and movements through the lens of their own Cultures and not the White American Culture.

Mexican-Americans faced similar persecutions by the United States. Looking at it from the world-systems perspective, the US is the core while Mexican-American (although living in the Core) play for of a peripheral role. They first came to the United States to work on farms. During the 1910-1920s they were "pushed" to the US by the Mexican Revolution and pulled by the opportunities afforded by WWII. WWII opened up the agricultural labor market to Mexicans as well as other jobs such as mining, and industrial work. This desire for Mexicans wore off as the need lessened but rose again as the need for laborers increased. The borcero system emerged. Mexican laborers were contracted to make up for the labor shortage in the US. They did the low-wage, heavy labor jobs that white men did not want to do. They worked long days in the blazing sun with little to show for it. Their living conditions were very poor. The US government, once again, decided there were too many Mexicans in the US and enacted the Patriation Program which sent Mexicans back to Mexico. Just a few years later the Wetback Program was started that sought to put an end to illegal immigration. The Mexicans-Americans were used to produce raw materials at a low wage for the consumption of core America.

Puerto Rican-Americans are another group that is used for their cheap labor. When the Spanish invaded the island of Puerto Rico, they wiped out the Native inhabitants, Tiano Indians. They came with their brutal warfare and new diseases and made the natives slaves in their own land. They required the people to produce raw materials to be shipped out to Spain to be consumed by Spaniards. In 1898 the United States took Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish-American War. Some Puerto Ricans came to the US to work as farmers. During WWII, the US government recruited Puerto Rican men to work on farms, food processing plants, and in copper mines. Today, many Puerto Rican Americans are desiring to go back to the island (referred to as Neoricans). They have small communities in the US that are basically all poverty stricken. They are not allowed in this Democratic society to pursue their basic democratic rights.

Asian-Americans are perhaps the most complex of all minority groups. They have risen above the poor opportunities allowed by the US. Two predominate groups among Asian Americans are Chinese-Americans and Japanese Americans. The first Chinese immigrants to the United States met a mixed atmosphere on being welcomed and unwelcomed at the same time. Employers welcomed them because of the hard, cheap labor they provided. Employees and labor unions did not welcome them because they were used by the employers to get around meeting some of the demands of the workers and unions. The Exclusion Act was passed which prohibited migration of Chinese into the US. This ban was lifted somewhat sixty years later only allowing about 105 immigrants from Chinese a year. When war Veterans began coming back home, they brought with them thousands of Chinese brides. The 1990s saw another huge influx on Chinese immigrants. Most of these have settled into Chinatowns. New immigrants almost always go to these Chinatowns because they know no or very little English. A majority of the women end up in sweatshops located above many of the restaurants where they are forced to work ten to twelve hours a day six to seven days a week. Poverty is rampant in these Chinatowns as are clans and secret societies.

The Japanese have faced similar prohibitations as the Chinese. However, when Executive Order 9066 was passed by Roosevelt in 1942, they faced a serious problem. All Japanese located on the West coast (which was 90% of all Japanese Americans) were forced to liquidate their assets and put in Evacuation camps. This was obviously a very undemocratic thing to do in such a democratic society.

Chinese and Japanese Americas both, have a high success rate in schools and the work place. There are stereo typed as being extremely intelligent and successful. They are considered to be a "model minority." This actually is used by White society to justify the treatment of all minorities. They will just point out the success rate of Asian-Americans and say "They have made it. So can African Americans and Mexican Americans." This is actually a form of blaming the victim. Asian Americans actually only constitute a very small number of the managerial and top positions of US companies. They are referred to as a middlemen minority. They have better jobs than most minority groups but are not allowed by White society to have the top jobs. They are denied their democratic rights to pursue the same things and positions as white men.

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Race and Ethnic Relations Bibliography

Asante, Molefi Kete and Abu S. Abarry, editors. African Intellectual Heritage: A book of Sources. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.

Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, Pickens, Ernestine Williams. Frederick Douglass. Atlanta, Ga. : Clark Atlanta University Press, 2001.

Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. New York: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1962.

Fox, John Francis, Jr. Citizenship and the problem of violent means in the political thought of Frederick Douglass. 1993 .

BOSTON COL

Gates, Henry Louis. The classic slave narratives. New York, N.Y. : Signet classic, 2002.

CABARRUS CNTY PUB LIBR

Harrison, Maureen. ; Gilbert, Steve. Landmark American speeches. Carlsbad, Calif. : Excellent Books, 2001. Volume II : The 19th century.

TECHNICAL COL OF THE LOWCOUNTRY, LR

Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: the life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Little, Brown. 1980.

PC Library: CALL NO. B D7478H

Major, Devorah. Frederick Douglass, a hero for all times. Volo, IL :; Don Johnston, 1999.

GWINNETT CNTY PUB SCH, MEDIA SERV

McFeely, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York: Norton, 1991. 1st edition.

PC Library: CALL NO. B D7478M

Morris, Charles S. The nation and the Negro. Washington? D.C. : s.n., 1891.

THE OHIO STATE UNIV

Prioleau, Rachelle C. Combining abolitionism and women's suffrage: the agenda building process and discursive strategies of Frederick Douglass. 2000.

UNIV OF ROCHESTER

Wu, Jin-Ping. Frederick Douglass and the Black liberation movement : the North Star of American Blacks. New York : Garland, 2000.

LOCATION: Perkins -- CALL NUMBER: 973.8092 D737, W959, 2000

Duke University
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