Mexican American Discrimination

In summary, the differences between myself and the community of Mexican-Americans is that I am a black African from Nigeria and the community consists of white Hispanics from Mexico. Mexican Americans came, as the name implies, from Mexico. Immigration of Mexican into USA started from the gold rush in California and the copper mining in Arizona, but a large number immigration came as a result of political unrest in the early twentieth century. This immigration came in four huge waves. According to by Jie Zong and Jenna Batalova in the “Migration Information Source”, the first wave occurred before the Second World War. This wave was comprised of agricultural workers that were employed by private companies here in the US. Then came the Bracero

As we say in the video “A Class Apart”, in past times, Mexican Americans in general were segregated from restaurants, other public places, and their children were segregated by schools. Schools that were said to be separate but equal, had no plumbing in the Hispanic school and the schools lacked even the basic necessities needed to carry out an educational lesson. Furthermore, after World War II, Mexican American soldiers were not honored as they deserved and funeral housed refused to carry out ceremonies for them. Another past discrimination practice can be seen the racial distinctions made for Mexican Americans. Vilma Ortiz and Edward Telles from the NCBI stated in their research that “Race is a social construct but one that has had real consequences in the United States. Although granted de facto White racial status with the United States conquest of much of Mexico in 1848 and having sometimes been deemed as White by the courts and censuses, Mexican Americans were rarely treated as White historically and legally, Mexicans have been treated as second-class citizens. Within a few short decades after their conquest in the mid-nineteenth century, Mexican Americans, although officially granted United States citizenship with full rights, lost much of their property

They can be found in the topic of “what the typical Mexican looks like”, racial slurs, and employment discriminations. In an article civil rights attorney Sebastian Gibson gives the FBI statistics of racial discrimination against Mexican Americans when he states that “Studies have found that nearly three in every ten Hispanic workers feel they have been discriminated against in their employment. Some report being referred to with racial slurs at work while one in four feel they are paid less and have reduced career advancement prospects than their Caucasian counterparts. FBI statistics show a dramatic increase in anti-Hispanic hate crimes. And sadly, hate groups are increasing due to anti-illegal immigration concerns” (Gibson). Most of these hate comments and actions are based on believes that “the Mexicans are coming to take our jobs” where as in reality, it has been shown that these immigrants fill the abandoned slots and live on the jobs that Americans find repulsive.

Gabriel Medina Arenas of the “Mosaic News and Information for Nebraska’s New Americas” tells the story of Ruth Clayton a thirty three years old Mexican American female. Stating that she had received comments such as:

“You don’t look like a Mexican because you are not fat or short,” they’ll say. “You are beautiful.” people here think she’s from Spain rather than Mexico. Many people generalize, she said, and make false assumptions about Mexico