United States as a Nation of Immigrants

The United States has had immigrants from all over the world, of different races and ethnicities. Even the first "Americans" were immigrants from Europe, taking over the lands of the Native Americans and making the Anglo Saxon Protestant culture the norm. Through the course of immigration to America, people of different races and ethnicities from all over the world come to America and enter the assimilation model and fall into the melting pot myth. No matter where the immigrants immigrated from, they were forced to assimilate or risk oppression by the internal colony theory. Although a person's race cannot be changed, his or her ethnic background is still subject to the assimilation theory in hopes of creating a generic American citizen.

A person's race is not changeable, it is the physical aspects of your culture, such as skin color, eye color, etcetera; in other words, the qualities of appearance that should not matter. Race is inherited, and a person cannot choose what he or she inherits, making race also immutable, something that a person will never be able to change naturally. Ethnicity, on the other hand, is a subgroup within race and defined through culture. Such traits as living styles, food, speech, religion, clothing, and much more are all parts of classifications of Ethnicity. Though ethnicity is largely inherited from ancestry, it can be changed through a person's change of behavior over a period of time.

Through the history of America, many immigrants have come to create the American population. These immigrants come from all parts of the world ranging from many different races such as Asians, Africans, Mexicans, etcetera, and many different ethnicities within those, and even within European races such as the Irish. Since race cannot be changed, many of these immigrants suffered from internal colonization, and those that were of the same race but different ethnicity, such as the Irish, were forced to assimilate or be discriminated upon. Many unjust acts were made against these immigrants just for being different.

Although Native Americans were the first to settle in America, the pilgrims came and took over their lands, colonizing America and setting up a White normativity. This White normativity also leads to internal colonization, where the dominant race and ethnicity of Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans oppress any other race in their own lands. Through White normativity, the dominant race in America, which happens to be Anglo Saxon Protestant people, oppress other races to their benefits and subject them to changing themselves to become American.

Thus we have assimilation and the melting pot theory. In order to overcome internal colonization, peoples of other races and ethnicity must blend in with Anglo Saxon Protestant America's White normativity; being Anglo Saxon Protestant is normal. Since race is an unchangeable factor, the only are that can be worked with is ethnicity. Ethnicity can be changed, and thus we have the melting pot theory, which states that peoples of all different ethnicities can come together in America and have their "impure" ethnicities melted away to leave the pure American culture.

In addition to internal colonization, assimilation also occurred when White normativity became a reality in America. With the thought of Anglo Saxon Protestant American culture assumed as the norm, any other culture is considered foreign, strange, and should not be shown in public, unless as a traditional celebration. While a person's race is impossible to change, ethnicities are always changing, and when being Anglo Saxon Protestant is unconsciously considered "normal" non-Anglo Saxon Protestant ethnicities will also unconsciously grasp Anglo Saxon Protestant culture in small steps, losing their own in the process.

The issue with the assimilation model and melting pot is that it forces minorities of different races and ethnicities to abandon that which makes them unique just to be accepted by the white normative society. Ethnic and racial minorities should not have to tolerate oppression such as ignorance, bigotry, discrimination, scapegoating, prejudice, and/or hate crimes for not assimilating. Fortunately, instead of assimilation theory, there is no multiculturalism, a movement that recognizes diversity, heritage, and celebrating instead of discriminating against differences.

Through the course of American immigration, many different races and ethnicities immigrated to America. For a long time most were subject to oppression from internal colonization, and pushed to assimilate into a Anglo Saxon Protestant culture just to be accepted by the dominate society. Due to white normativity, having an ethnic background other than Anglo Saxon Protestant was wrong and not the norm. Even if racial and ethnic minorities could change their ethnic background over time, they could never change the race and therefore assimilation could never be fully realized. Fortunately for weaknesses in the Assimilation theory, there is now multiculturalism, where differences can be embraced and celebrated, instead of discriminated against.

Part 2

Despite many societal movements, racism and prejudice is still a prominent issue in America. Although racism may be shunned by society, prejudice of different ethnic groups and races is still an issue because of institutional inequality, white normativity, and ignorance to the fact that not everything is the same. Ignorance can also lead to a misunderstanding between racial groups and ethnic groups, causing more prejudice and maybe even racism.

With prejudice being such a difficult factor to change and institutional racism also working against ethnic and racial minorities, fixing the prejudice and racism problem is not an easy task.

A common ignorance surrounding prejudice is that of the differences and similarities of ethnicity and race. Though both are used to group people into different categories, the two terms group people based on different traits and values. Race is sometimes conceived to be actual divisions of humanity based on physical or biological traits that are often inherited and unalterable. From these differences, race is typically reflected in power differences and worth in a racial group. Since race may imply an indication of a superior/inferior relationship between the different races, "Racism is a belief that human groups can be validly grouped on the basis of their biological traits and that these identifiable groups inherit certain mental, personality and cultural characteristics... are mentally and culturally inferior" (Lowy). race is usually assigned by a group other than the racial group being assigned, when a racial identity is self-assigned, it implies less of a power relationship, and thus is born an ethnic group within a racial group. Ethnic grouping, like racial grouping, is also inherited from ancestry. Unlike racial grouping, however, ethnic grouping may originate from assignment by others or selves, may or may not reflect power relations and worth. Ethnicity can usually be categorized not by physical appearance, but by culture and heritage such as religion, food, lifestyle, music, and etcetera. In categorizing people from different areas and cultures into specific groups, prejudice and racism is already starting to manifest itself.

While many may think that prejudice and racism are one and the same, there is a difference between the two terms. Prejudice is the thoughts that people may or may not be born with differences and genetic makeup, unalterable traits, but instead are different through processes of nurturing and their surrounding environment. Prejudice, unlike stereotyping, may or may not be born from personal experience, though both are unreasonable and irrational. Because of racism, prejudice is a thought that is difficult to ration with, being immune to information against the prejudice, while at the same time absorbing information agreeing with the prejudice. Because of prejudice many people are known to reject other racial or ethnic categories based solely on their membership to that racial or ethnic group. Having a fixed image about a particular group without first testing the image leads to prejudice that is hard to break.

Racism on the other hand, can be described simply as prejudice, but with a touch of social power. Racism is just stereotype and prejudice, except that the major racial or ethnic group has power to use against minor racial and ethnic groups, casing oppressions such as slavery, genocide, assimilation, or violence. Racism, like prejudice is also highly resilient to information, and thus creates a cycle of racism with prejudice.

Racism is, simply put, prejudice realized, and it is a slow ending circle. Racism is spawned when prejudice is put into power by a major ethnic or racial group against a minor ethnic or racial group, without the power, prejudice would just be thoughts in a person's head, nearly impossible to remove, but utterly harmless. However, prejudice is also created from racism. When power is exercised, prejudice is creating, confirming that a minor ethnic or racial group may actually be inferior to the major ethnic or racial group that has the power of racism. Such examples can be found in the Native Americans, who were definitely prejudiced against by the anglo saxon protestant pilgrims of Europe. However, in times of need when the pilgrims were at their weakest, seeking Native American help, racism could not be carried out because of a lack of power. Once the pilgrims recovered themselves and gained power however, they made use of their prejudice and put it together with power to annihilate or internally colonize the Native American lands. Prejudice is then born when the pilgrims justified what they had done as right because of the view that Native Americans were inferior since they could be annihilated and stolen from.

Prejudice and racism is not only ignorance, but also stems from institutional inequality, promoting the prejudice that it came from. When a major ethnic or racial group views a minor ethnic or racial group in a way that agrees with the prejudice and stereotypes that they believe, the viewer assumes that this is the norm, that the stereotype is true and validated. However, when a major ethnic or racial group views a minor ethnic or racial group in a way that disagrees with the stereotypes and prejudices placed upon the viewed, the viewer automatically assumes from an institutional racist standpoint that the disagreement is a fluke and not normal. Regardless of the information provided to the major ethnic or racial group, the view still stays the same that a prejudice should remain true. This cycle of racism and stereotyping creates institutional inequality. Without equal opportunity, such as being born into a poorer family, a minor ethnic or racial group does not have the same chances to break out of his or her surrounding stereotyped situation, and fall continuously into the stereotypes that they were born into. This creates a cycle of prejudice that is confirmed over and over again by viewers because of an immunity to information provided.

Racism is a difficult issue to combat because of all the different approaches that must be taken to effectively fight racism. Just taking care of ignorance and false information cannot alone solve racism, institutional inequality will just set up new prejudices and stereotypes about the minority groups that are unlucky enough to fall into the institutional inequality. Just combating institutional inequality is also not enough because then a sense of socialism would arise. Even in a socialistic community, prejudices will still arise because of a lack of information creating a circle of confirmation of stereotypes and disregard of the events that may not agree with stereotypes. Therefore both approaches of combating ignorance and institutional inequality must be taken in order to effectively eliminate racism, alone, each approach cannot stop racism because the other issue will just lead racism back to its circle of prejudice.

With issues of racism and prejudice abound, ignorance and institutionalism will be big factors in stopping racism. The very idea of being able to separate different ethnicities into races already shows that there may be a power difference in the different "races". Through prejudices that stem from ignorance that is confirmed by institutional racism, given power, the prejudice will become racism. Therefore, in order to combat racism, all approaches must be taken, including institutional inequalities, and ignorance, otherwise racism will just start its circle over and over again.

Works Cited

Lowy, Richard. Introduction to Ethnic Studies. USA: Kendall/Hunt Company, 2006.

Spickard, Paul. Almost All Aliens. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2007.