 |
In the United States, economic competition and racial prejudice have both contributed to long-lasting racial tensions between African Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. [1] There have also been inter-racial tensions between African Americans and Asian Americans. [2] [3]
Current US policy advocates a multiculturalist discourse to acknowledge multiracial difference. Multiculturalist theorists such as Claire Jean Kim criticize this contemporary policy because it refuses to acknowledge the interminority inequalities and antagonisms generated by changing demographics. [4]
With the growth of the Latino Americans in the United States, there are areas of competition for housing, jobs and other resources with African Americans. Tensions in communities have also been reflected in racial tensions between these ethnic groups in prisons. [1] In several significant riots in California prisons, for instance, Latino and black inmates targeted each other over racial issues. [5] [6] There have been reports of racially motivated attacks by gangs against African Americans who have moved into neighborhoods occupied mostly by Hispanic Americans, and vice versa. [7] [8]
African Americans and Jewish Americans have interacted throughout much of the history of the United States. This relationship has included widely publicized cooperation and conflict, and—since the 1970s—it has been an area of significant academic research. [9] Cooperation during the Civil Rights Movement was strategic and significant, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The relationship has also featured conflicts and controversies which are related to such topics as the Black Power movement, Zionism, affirmative action, and the antisemitic trope concerning the alleged dominant role of American and Caribbean-based Jews in the Atlantic slave trade.Because of the centuries of abuses from historic slavery and its aftermath, discussions of racial tension in the United States have often focused on black-white relations. This has failed to include the perspective of Asian Americans in racial discourse. [10] Some Asian Americans feel stuck in limbo, as they have had differences and suffered discrimination from other ethnic groups. At the same time, Asian Americans have been extolled as the “model minority”, because of their record of achievement and statistically high reported educational scores and incomes. But not all are equally successful. [10]
While African Americans and Asian Americans have both faced historical and current racial discrimination from whites, the forms of discrimination have often taken different forms. In addition, these two groups (which encompass numerous ancestral backgrounds) have also competed for jobs, education and resources over the decades, and have displayed tensions toward each other.[ citation needed ]
Under the United States’ Naturalization Act of 1790, only “free white person(s)” were eligible to be naturalized as American citizens with the full rights that accompany them. [11] While the intention at the time was to avoid granting enslaved African Americans and free blacks the same privileges as European American colonists, future waves of immigrants and ethnicities from different areas, such as those from Asia and Africa, without full naturalization.
Before the 1870 Census, ethnic Asians and Asian Americans were classified as “white” in the official census. They began to be called “model minorities” because they established a societal reputation for "hard work". [12] [10] But in the West, which had such a high rate of Asian immigrants that there was white resistance to their presence, the majority passed laws and courts ruled against allowing them the same rights as European Americans. For instance, in the California court case, People v. Hall, "the court found that people of Asian descent could not testify under existing legal acts that prohibited testimony from people of African descent. According to the California Supreme Court in 1854, the court ruled“ [T]he words ‘Black person’...must be taken as contradistinguished from White, and necessarily excludes all races other than the Caucasian”. [13] As the 19th century progressed, white resistance resulted in Acts of Congress such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Geary Act of 1892, which effectively barred further immigration of Asians until the 20th century. [14]
While their numbers were few in the South, Chinese immigrants were recruited as laborers by planters in the early 20th century. They worked to get out of the fields, establishing small community groceries and similar businesses. They also worked to distinguish themselves from the restrictions of racial segregation that African Americans were forced to endure. In 1927 a Chinese family in Mississippi brought suit challenging its daughters' expulsion from a local school for white students. In the binary system of the time, the school system had classified the girls as non-white and therefore prohibited. The state Supreme Court upheld the local decision. It ruled that state law defined whites as specifically Caucasian and said that if the girls attended public school, they would have to go to one for "black" students, as all other ethnicities than white were classified (including Native Americans). Their parents knew that these schools were poorly funded and lower in quality than those provided to white students. In Lum v. Rice , the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that decision, holding that it was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment for states to classify students by race and segregate them on that basis. [15] the early 20th century Asian nationals, such as Japanese immigrants, were prohibited from owning land or businesses in some states. If their American-born children were old enough, property was put in their name.
The rate of Asian immigration and naturalization increased following the Immigration and Naturalization Law of 1952, which repealed previous limits to Asian immigration. [14] This allowed for the de jure protection of Asian immigration into the United States. But it did not protect such immigrants and their descendants from the varieties of de facto prejudice, bullying, hate crimes, and segregation faced by ethnic minorities. Certain European American immigrants also faced such discrimination.
As Asian Americans established their niches in society, they faced discrimination from white Americans who treated them like they did African Americans at the time. With members of organizations like the Ku Klux Klan intimidating, assaulting, bullying, and attacking Asian Americans (particularly Chinese Americans), the arrival of the Civil Rights Movement and its successive laws helped codify the rights and protections of ethnic minorities. [10] Despite facing similar attacks on their cultures and people, Asian Americans and African Americans found themselves divided and clashing within the 20th century.
Rather than being explained as an analysis of two ethnic groups, this tension and divide can best be explained as an analysis of the role which ethnic minorities have played within American society as a whole. As more ethnic groups began to enter the civil discourse in the United States, main media and social figures began to paint these groups as subdivisions of the white-black divide. American society views Asian Americans’ successes as successes which are lumped together with European Americans' successes. The successes of Asian Americans are frequently compared to the struggles of African Americans, who believe that attempts to lump the struggles of the two ethnic groups negate their own struggles. Comparatively, Asian Americans and African Americans are socially considered parts of the same minority culture that other non-white ethnic groups are considered parts of, in contrast to “white” culture. The divisions are even more pronounced through what has been identified as the “middle man theory". [16] [17]
This idea has been used to describe the relationship that Asian Americans often play between European Americans and African Americans. It suggests that one group acts as a linking partner to other groups, where these groups are typically divided by class or race. In terms of the Asian American-African American relationship, Asian Americans have played the role of middlemen between African Americans and European Americans. Particularly among early generations of immigrants and their children, they established niches as shopkeepers and merchants. [17]
Within this relationship, Asian Americans are seen to be profiting from their dealings with members of both ethnic groups, which can fuel the stereotype of the “model minority” among European Americans, as well as a distrust of Asian Americans among African Americans. From this viewpoint, Asian Americans from their societal privileges can be viewed as being the same as European Americans by African Americans in terms of having a larger median income as well as receiving on average lighter punishments from the American judicial system. [10] [17] Meanwhile, a significant percentage of Asian Americans share a view with European Americans that African Americans “aren't capable of getting ahead”, according to a study conducted by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. [18] This sentiment flared especially during the era of racial tension in Los Angeles surrounding the Rodney King case.
Los Angeles was inhabited by a large number of Korean Americans in the years leading up to 1992. [19] As people migrated from Korea during and after the Korean War, many moved to settle in Los Angeles, but could not work in the same traditionally white collar jobs they held back home. [17] Instead, many opened up businesses in areas where the rent was cheap in predominantly African American communities. [10] Korean American and African American community leaders soon realized that tensions existed and they were predominantly due to differences in culture as well as a language barrier. This came to a head during the era of the riots as Korean grocer Soon Ja Du shot and killed a black teenage girl in her store, and she received a remarkably light sentence compared to other sentences which were imposed on African Americans who were in the custody of the judicial system by judges at the time. [17]
Relations worsened during the Rodney King Riots, as riots and protests hit 2,200 Korean small businesses. [20] African Americans felt cheated by the judicial system, as they had faced much more stringent punishments for charges involving an armed weapon, while Korean Americans felt targeted and attacked by the African American community for having their businesses destroyed. [17] This led to Korean Americans being divided by those who felt abandoned and betrayed by the police and those who felt threatened by African Americans in their community. [10]
Various ethnic groups in the United States have perpetrated acts of racist violence against Asian Americans. The 2019 Bureau of Justice Statistics figures indicated that 27.5 percent of the perpetrators of acts of violence were Black; 24.1 percent were white; 21.4 percent were Hispanic or "other" and well under 15 percent were Asian. [21]
Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.
Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion, or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involves discrimination against minority populations and often builds on negative stereotypes of the targeted demographic. Racial profiling can involve disproportionate stop searches, traffic stops, and the use of surveillance technology for facial identification.
Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression which is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-group and an out-group and it may manifest itself in suspicion of one group's activities by members of the other group, a desire to eliminate the presence of the group which is the target of suspicion, and fear of losing a national, ethnic, or racial identity.
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry. Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau only includes people with origins or ancestry from the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent and excludes people with ethnic origins in certain parts of Asia, including West Asia who are now categorized as Middle Eastern Americans. Furthermore, Central Asians are not mentioned in any census racial category. The "Asian" census category includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Malaysian, and Other Asian". In 2020, Americans who identified as Asian alone (19,886,049) or in combination with other races (4,114,949) made up 7.2% of the U.S. population.
Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their race, ancestry, ethnicity, and/or skin color and hair texture. Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain group. Governments can discriminate explicitly in law, for example through policies of racial segregation, disparate enforcement of laws, or disproportionate allocation of resources. Some jurisdictions have anti-discrimination laws which prohibit the government or individuals from being discriminated based on race in various circumstances. Some institutions and laws use affirmative action to attempt to overcome or compensate for the effects of racial discrimination. In some cases, this is simply enhanced recruitment of members of underrepresented groups; in other cases, there are firm racial quotas. Opponents of strong remedies like quotas characterize them as reverse discrimination, where members of a dominant or majority group are discriminated against.
Racism has been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices, and actions against "racial" or ethnic groups throughout the history of the United States. Since the early colonial era, White Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights which have been denied to members of various ethnic or minority groups at various times. European Americans have enjoyed advantages in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure.
Asian immigration to the United States refers to immigration to the United States from part of the continent of Asia, which includes East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Asian-origin populations have historically been in the territory that would eventually become the United States since the 16th century. The first major wave of Asian immigration occurred in the late 19th century, primarily in Hawaii and the West Coast. Asian Americans experienced exclusion, and limitations to immigration, by the United States law between 1875 and 1965, and were largely prohibited from naturalization until the 1940s. Since the elimination of Asian exclusion laws and the reform of the immigration system in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, there has been a large increase in the number of immigrants to the United States from Asia.
The model minority myth is a sociological phenomenon that refers to the stereotype of certain minority groups, particularly Asian Americans, as successful, and well-adjusted, as demonstrating that there is little or no need for social or economic assistance for the same or different minority groups. The model minority stereotype emerged in the United States during the Cold War in the 1950s and was first explicitly used as a term in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement as an antithesis to African American claims of racial oppression and has perpetuated notions that other minority groups can achieve the same success through hard work and that discrimination and systemic barriers do not impede upward mobility. The model minority myth has been widely criticized as oversimplistic and misleading, and for being used to justify discriminatory policies and neglect of marginalized communities.
This is a list of topics related to racism:
Legislation seeking to direct relations between racial or ethnic groups in the United States has had several historical phases, developing from the European colonization of the Americas, the triangular slave trade, and the American Indian Wars. The 1776 Declaration of Independence included the statement that "all men are created equal", which has ultimately inspired actions and legislation against slavery and racial discrimination. Such actions have led to passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
Racism in North America and the state of race relations there are described in this article. Racism manifests itself in different ways and severities throughout North America depending on the country. Colonial processes shaped the continent culturally, demographically, religiously, economically, and linguistically. Racism was part of that process and is exemplified throughout North America today but varies regionally.
Nativism is the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of "native-born" or established inhabitants over those of immigrants, including the support of anti-immigration and immigration-restriction measures. Despite the name, and in the US in particular, this position is usually held by the descendants of immigrants themselves, and is not a movement led by Indigenous peoples, as opposited to Nativists in Europe who are descended from native peoples such as Celts, Anglo-Saxons or Norsemen.
The sociology of race and ethnic relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of systemic racism, like residential segregation and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups.
Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in the United Kingdom. As a sociological field, race relations attempts to explain how racial groups relate to each other. These relations vary depending on historical, social, and cultural context. The term is used in a generic way to designate race related interactions, dynamics, and issues.
Discrimination comprises "base or the basis of class or category without regard to individual merit, especially to show prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, gender, or a similar social factor". This term is used to highlight the difference in treatment between members of different groups when one group is intentionally singled out and treated worse, or not given the same opportunities. Attitudes toward minorities have been marked by discrimination in the history of the United States. Many forms of discrimination have come to be recognized in American society, particularly on the basis of national origin, race and ethnicity, non-English languages, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.
In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races and ethnicities. Asian Americans have the highest median income, followed by White Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. A variety of explanations for these differences have been proposed—such as differing access to education, two parent home family structure, high school dropout rates and experience of discrimination and deep-seated and systemic anti-Black racism—and the topic is highly controversial.
Second-generation immigrants in the United States are individuals born and raised in the United States who have at least one foreign-born parent. Although the term is an oxymoron which is often used ambiguously, this definition is cited by major research centers including the United States Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center.
Racism has a long history in the United Kingdom and includes structural discrimination and hostile attitudes against various ethnic minorities. The extent and the targets of racism in the United Kingdom have varied over time. It has resulted in cases of discrimination, riots and racially motivated murders.
Asian American activism broadly refers to the political movements and social justice activities involving Asian Americans. Since the first wave of Asian immigration to the United States, Asians have been actively engaged in social and political organizing. The early Asian American activism was mainly organized in response to the anti-Asian racism and Asian exclusion laws in the late-nineteenth century, but during this period, there was no sense of collective Asian American identity. Different ethnic groups organized in their own ways to address the discrimination and exclusion laws separately. It was not until the 1960s when the collective identity was developed from the civil rights movements and different Asian ethnic groups started to come together to fight against anti-Asian racism as a whole.
In the Western world or in non-Asian countries, terms such as "racism against Asians" or "anti-Asian racism" are typically used in reference to racist policies, discrimination against, and mistreatment of Asian people and Asian immigrants by institutions and/or non-Asian people.
