In Chapter 5: The Sting of Prejudice, it was interesting to learn that Italians and Jews were once discriminated against as well. Today we associate them as part of the broad category of “white”. However, in the past, they were considered a separate and inferior group. This showed how racism was not always a white versus black matter. In order to assert supremacy, groups actually create hierarchies within themselves to distinguish certain individuals from others. This also shows how categorizing people and social hierarchies are almost a part of human nature, and will arise no matter the situation.

What I also found interesting was how society and the government used the same tactics to isolate groups that they saw were inferior, specifically the Jews and the Asians. For the Jews, they pointed out specific physical features and behavioral traits that were deemed unassimilable. As a result, Jews as a whole were constructed as outsiders of society, making it easier to openly discriminate against them. Similarly, for Asians, they were classified as unassimilable as well, based on cultural and language differences. As a result, it was acceptable for the government to distinguish them as a separate group, make laws against them, and exclude them from society as much as possible.

The mention of prejudice between minority groups was also interesting, especially the relationship between Asians and blacks. There seems to be a preconception of blacks that parents tend to pass on to their children from a young age. As a result, children grow up believing blacks are a group of people with certain traits and learn to not associate with them without even giving them a chance.  This shows how racism and prejudice are largely a social construction and results from a misunderstanding between groups.

-Wendy Li