Race & ethnicity Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Race & ethnicity - Term Paper Example Take for instance, the African Americans, badge of identity is their black skin color. However, this characteristic does not fully identify members of a particular race because of the notion of inter-marriage. For instance, there is a high rate of inter-marriages amongst members of different races such as blacks, and whites, and this interferes with their genetic characteristics. On this basis therefore, race is a societal issue, and can compose of people who have a share dialect, and experience. In America for instance, race explains why people of African descent were forced to work as slaves, deny them some of their rights and basic freedom (Flax, 51). The federal government for instance, enacted some legislation to deny African American some benefits that citizens of the Union had. Take an example of the naturalization act, which came into existence in 1790. The aim of this law was to deny people of African descent the citizenship status of America. Other racial laws include, the national origins act of 1924, and the Chinese exclusion act of 1882 (Flax, 32). The national origins act was meant to regulate the number of immigrant coming into the United States of America. The target of the law was the Jews, the Eastern and Western Europeans, the Indians and Asians. On this basis therefore, we can argue that other racial groups were also a target of the American government, and people. Despite these aspects, African Americans are the people who suffered most under the policies of the Federal government. This is due to slavery and other discriminative tendencies from the white people and the government. Racism still continues to dominate the American social life and Bell Hook agrees with this notion. Hook (23) observes that racialism is even on the minds of the educated white people. She denotes that in a cultural conference she attended, there were arrangements denoting the supremacy of the white men (Hook, 33). This was depicted on the people who were invited t o talk in the conference; and the different manner in which the organizers of the meeting handled white and black speakers. This was a clear indication of people who came from a white race, looking down upon people of different races, and this attitude instilled fear in her. Therefore, this paper analyzes how African Americans suffered from racialism in United States of America. It starts by analyzing the impact of slavery upon African-Americans, the human rights movement that advocated for an equal opportunity, and the various laws that the Federal government enacted to solve the problem of racialism in United States of America. The conclusion of this paper is a summary of the major points found in it. African American Experiences with Racialism: African Americans began their stay in United States of America as slaves for purposes of supporting an economic system that did not benefit them in whatever circumstances. This is because they did not enjoy the benefits of a naturalized ci tizen. The naturalization act of 1790 prevented anybody who was not a white person from gaining citizenship, by naturalization. Due to their status as slaves, African Americans could not vote, could not hold any political or administrative office, could not serve on a jury, or could not own any property. Slaves were not allowed to speak before their master, or before a congregation of white people. Bell Hooks denotes, in one of her