Culture And Ethnic Studies Essay To Use For Practical Writing Help

The history of immigration to the United States has had elements of racism with it from the times of ancient civilizations. The essential effects that racism brought with it to the American society as far as human relations are concerned have only gained serious significance in recent decades. Various American populations have been described with regards to their physical distinctions. It is due to this description that the nature of contemporary issues of racism has been based. Racism, as was evident during the slave trade, embodies attitude, behaviors and beliefs that render favoritism to a specific group of people over the rest. And therefore, thinking in racist context draw ideas and principles which cause preferential treatments to particular groups or ethnicities. A classical example of such racism manifestations was evident in the treatment of both Asian Americans and African Americans, though to a different degree. The justification of their domination and exploitation was drawn from the fact that they were seen as inferior to other categories of the American society such as White Americans.
As can be seen in the history of the immigration to the US, ethnicity not only offers a broad line of cultures but also the most special and diverse cultural affiliations. These memberships comprise religion, national origin, language and culture. Racial affiliations are also dominant in the present American society. The people of America are still categorized along their race such as African Americans, White Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans among other minority groups. Just like religion is a factor used for easy identification of the White Ethnic Americans, the Hispanic group is also comfortably identified by their language and culture which has a close correlation to the Spanish ones.
Discrimination and prejudice brings about actions and behavioral aspects that are subjected against people seen to be in the lower social class. The early American civilization used prejudice and discrimination as a tooling component for the exercise of control and dominance over the ethnic minority groups as far as political, social and economic rewards are concerned. For example, Asian Americans were socially prejudiced and discriminated upon as they became the targets of both social and physical abuse during their voluntary immigration into the US society. African Americans, on the other hand, had no economic and social freedom of owning wealth. Ethnic hierarchies have been used as the determinant for subsequently rewarding members depending on their ethnic group rankings. These kinds of rankings create racial inequality systems that manage the distribution of society’s valued and treasured resources. This concept explains the reason as to why the ration of wealthy blacks is lower compare to wealth holders who are whites.
Over time, the history of immigration to the US enables us to see how much things have changed in social, political and economic spheres. Wealth ownership is no longer pegged on one's color or race. The political dominance that was evident before the Movements by Civil Rights Activists is no longer existence. An example of this political change can be seen the increased gains in the political arena by African Americans especially in the past few decades. President Obama, for instance, is a living example of this political diversification and accommodation. These social, economic and political positive societal changes have been fueled by belief systems and ideologies of equality that have been employed in radicalizing the rationalization and legitimization of dominance and subordination that were practiced in prior centuries. In as much as lots of changes have been made in regards to ethnicity and racism, all forms of racism are still visible in the contemporary American society especially in areas like housing patterns, demographic trends, and institutional arrangements. Therefore, more is still reduced to further curb aspects of ethnicity and racism.