Discrimination and prejudice has always been a controversial issue in society, especially racial. It is not as obvious of a problem as it is in a country like the U.S. where millions of people from various countries reside. I found this chapter to be extremely interesting because Foner analyzed each categorized ethnic group that we Americans seem to now believe is the politically correct terms. We all have encountered applications, whether it be for college or a job, many times, there will be a question that asks you to identify your ethnic origin. The only categories that are usually present are white (Caucasian is more common now), Hispanic, Black (African-American), and Asian/Pacific Islander. Are these categories as politically correct as they seem?
Foner pointed out that West Indians are commonly associated with American blacks, which has caused harder social mobility for them since many Americans affiliate them with the negative connotations of American blacks.
What struck me the most was the discrimination the Jews and Italians encountered in the early twentieth century. Now, we categorize people by their skin color and someone with white/fair skin, we automatically assume them to be white. That was not the case a century ago for the Jews and Italians because even though they have the fair skin we consider white now, they were judged back then on other physical characteristics such as the “hooked nose” or “dark hair”. I could not believe that many people actually believed in the scientific theory of racism that people’s physical traits determined whether or not they were the inferior or superior race. It was even more shocking that this theory was so widespread that legislation actually passed the law to restrict the amount of immigrants coming from Eastern or Southern Europe. It is not surprising if there are still people in this country who still believe this, which have contributed to the continued existence of racism and discrimination.
The evidence of the belief that people with fairer skin were more successful was shown through light skinned Hispanics. Foner demonstrated that light skinned Hispanics were more likely to achieve higher social mobility because they were generally more accepted by society.
It was also interesting to see that Asians were becoming more and more associated with the white race even though Asians were very physically racially distinct. A piece of evidence that supports this theory is the fact that Asians have the highest percent to intermarry with the white ethnic group.
I am sure many of you have witnessed or even experienced some sort of racial discrimination some time in your life. There are probably also many times some of you may felt left out because you felt you had a different skin color than the people around you. Although legal racial discrimination has diminished, there is always the subconscious tendency for people to notice the skin color of a person before any other physical attributes. Racial awareness has most definitely improved since the first immigration wave to now, but will racial discrimination or even racism really truly disappear?
