– “ It is unthinkable that so many persons with crooked faces, coarse mouths, bad noses, heavy jaws, and low foreheads can mingle their heredity with ours without making personal beauty yet more rare among us than it actually is.”
When I read the above sentiment, I was flabbergasted. I found it to be very deplorable how someone could claim that non native-born Americans could somehow cause an impurity and tainted state to the native gene pool. If one only takes into account Science such a claim holds no weight. Externally one person obviously differs from the next. However, in terms an individual’s internal makeup everything is the same with the exception of DNA.
-It was also bvery interesting and surprising to read that even Jacob Riis, a social reformer, used racial stereotypes in his classic expose “How the Other Half Lives.” I believe that although one may not intentionally seek to rely on stereotypes, it is apart of a human innate being. Stereotypes are usually a pre-known generalization that one relies upon like clichés. However, such doesn’t justify there negative connotation.
-“In 1990, a quarter of the Dominicans in NYC, compared to 13 percent of the Cubans and 3 percent of Columbians, described themselves on the census as black.”
When I read the passage above, I was reminded of Foner’s How Exceptional is New York article. In the article, I didn’t know how the census was able to report that Cubans who are phenotypically white or light skinned in the Miami metropolitan area identified as white on their census forms. Likewise, in Foner’s book I still don’t know how the people who are affiliated with the census are able to know that most Dominicans identified as blak while others did not. ? Do they send out workers to estimate the validity of these forms? Do people check more than one book on their census forms?
-“There has been a gradual racialization of Hispanics—-a belief that physical characteristics, particularly skin color, are involved.”
When I came across the previously quoted line in the reading, I was reminded of the Arizona Law passed to combat the problem of illegal immigration. In Arizona most Hispanics are automatically stigmatized as “illegal imposters” in this country. After a two struggle, the Arizona law enforcing agencies now require officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. Wearing the wrong clothes, speaking with the wrong accent or having the wrong skin color could land you in hot water in Arizona. However, I believe there is a better way to combat the issue of illegal immigration because assuming that all or most Hispanics are undocumented is pure discrimination.
-Ashley Haynes
