Ethnic Minority And The Military

Immigration has always been an issue in the United States, which is often portrayed as harmful and as major threat to American culture. As a result, various anti immigration policies have been aimed against immigrants in order to prevent and preserve the miscegenation of American culture, such as English only policies. Among the largest minority groups in the U.S, are Latinos who currently compose of 15% of the U.S population (Delgado and Stefancic 3). Unfortunately, Latinos have been accused of taking American benefits, jobs, and have wrongfully been depicted as a result of not assimilating to American culture. Latinos are often accused of resisting assimilation, but what has failed to be acknowledged is that there are obstacles set in

Juan Gonzalez argues that the Latino population in the United States continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Americans have feel high levels or insecurity when it comes to the Latino populations and Gonzalez argues that it is due to the lack of knowledge in addition to the growing anti-immigrant rhetoric that is being created by the Republican party. The transformation of the United States is incredibly massive and by 2050 1 out of 3 will be of Latin American descent and if these numbers continue to grow by 2100 half of the population will be Latino. Juan Gonzales expresses that the central theme of his book is the huge Latino presence in the United States and the role of the United States in Latin America, therefore understanding the Latino presence in the American nation is completely due to the harvest of empire that the United States has create, which is a result of over a century of domination.

Immigration from Latin America and the growth of the nation 's Latino population are two of the most important and controversial developments in the recent history of the United States. Latinos are destined to continue to have an enormous impact

Many Latinos in the U.S. are descendants of Mexican people who lived in the Southwest when it was taken as plunders of war or acquired in a series of land sales. In many cases, their ancestors became Americans not by their own choice. Almost all other American Latinos or their ancestors migrated here from Latin America in search of a better life and opportunities. As a group, Latinos represent a combination of several ethnic backgrounds, including European,

Out of those million immigrants there are about one out of five children under the age of eighteen are either an immigrant or a child of immigrants parents. (Orozco, 2001). The majority of immigrants are from Latino or Asian origin. The United States has been experiencing a large wave of people coming into this country to start a new life from what they had before. Every region in the country is experiencing the growth of immigration every year. With this new immigration the U.S is witnessing immigrant children take over public schools. Today immigrant students are becoming the fastest population to grow in the child population in the United States (Hamilton, 2010). Many parents send their children to the United States and separate themselves from them because they want them to have a better life and live the American dream. Many kids go to school at a young age and get through high school and college and even start their careers. But many of them have to live in fear of being found out. They can’t trust many people, even the closest one to them (Vargas,

According to Amy Lutz, Ph.D, author of ?Who Joins the Military?: A look at Race, Class, and Immigration Status? states that traditional thinking of Hispanics in our military come mainly from poor families rather than affluent families and other families with higher incomes. Many and are looking for a way to obtain American citizenship and because ?immigrations reform include a path to citizenship after serving in the military? (Sanchez 2013). There are very few Hispanics that are represented in the United States Military. This last statement is true, according to, ?Lieutenant Commander Nate Christensen, A Department of Defense spokesman, Hispanics currently comprise only 11.4 percent of all active-duty military

The Armed Services has always been a microcosm of the US people. Nowhere else will you find a more diverse group living and working together in close proximity. It has been seen from history that whatever program and policies that the Army institutes within its ranks, the civilian population eventually follows suit. Racial

Currently within the United States one of the fastest growing minority population (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) is the Latinos. In 2010 Census Bureau Brief ( Ennis, Rois-Vargas, & Albert, 2011) it stated how an estimated 15 million Latino individuals were living within the United States, which is approximately about 16% of the entire U.S. population. There is one big problem with addressing the Latino population, and that is the family patterns are either misrepresented or not properly understood, due to the label of Hispanic and Latinos being placed together. These two groups may share the same spoken language of Spanish and have similar cultural ancestry but the diversity among Hispanic and Latinos (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) make generalizations about their lifestyles difficult. The term Hispanic came to be used in the 1970’s by government officials (cdc.gov, 2011) in trying to provide a diverse label on this population that had connections to speaking Spanish and the Spanish culture. Latino became more of a termed to be used when distinguishing between Mexican (Hispanics) and Latinos who descendants from Latin America such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.

For centuries African American have been struggled against racial in America. During World War II the U.S. government asked for volunteers to join the army of defense, over 2.5 million of black men registered for the draft World, around 1 million served as draftees or volunteers in the armed forces within all branches. But didn’t received the same opportunity to serve in the same manner as white soldiers. They were to segregated combat support groups. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt and civil rights organizations pressured U.S Navy to recruited blacks for service.

Through interviewing my roommate Linda Wang, I have gotten the opportunity of hearing a first-hand account of what it is like being a young immigrant living in the United States. At the age of eight, Linda, along with her father, mother, and aunt, emigrated to America. Linda’s family currently resides in Bayside, Queens and she is a student-athlete on the St. John’s women’s golf team. Linda was kind enough to share her immigration story with me so that I may use it as a manifestation of what life as an immigrant, and the immigration process itself, entails.

Scores of Latino men went off to war by the hundreds of thousands fighting in every major battle in both the European and Pacific theatres. More Mexican Americans serving in combat divisions than any other ethnic group and a high percentage volunteered for the more hazardous duties such as the paratroopers and Marines (Meier & Ribera). Mexican Americans that served gained a recognition that was not possible in civilian life, and through the military, promotion was based off of individual merit. This developed a newfound self-esteem and confidence that would not be wrestled away. They would come home with pride and a feeling of being more 'American ' than ever before. These sentiments leveled out the playing field in the minds of many

A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino

The rationale did Latinos use in signing up for military services was because for many Latinos, this was the first sample citizenship where they would be treated as equal, and even some Latinos would be able to challenge to anyone to remove this equality after the war. In my opinion, I’m totally agree with this rationale considering the treatment that Latinos endured in the United States, because what better form to demonstrate our patriotism for this country that fight for it, that all Americans citizens can see that we have the same purpose for this country that them, and overall because this is our new home and we have to defend it. I think in my case, if I were in those times I would be like Rosita a teenage girl who overcame prejudice to join the cause of the war, helping the manufacture of munitions. The war effort pushed together ethnic groups, with little contact, including Latinos with Americans. In some cases this provides for bridging of those more ethnic and racial gaps. On the other hand, it provides a lot of conflict. For example, in Los Angeles that conflict would be a new style of dress popular among young Latinos called “The

(Acuna 245). This quote sums up most of the Mexican American’s reasoning for volunteering for military service on behalf of the United States, but not completely. The Mexican American saw it as their duty to defend their families in the place where they lived as well. It also served as an opportunity to show that Mexicans were just as brave and courageous as anyone in this country with the hopes that they would be acknowledged as equals.

Descendants come from all around the globe, primarily from Europe. When you think about who is fighting for you, and who is on your side, you think of the men and women in the uniforms, chanting “Hoorah,” you don’t think about ethnicity or race, you think about who is there to protect you when you need help. In the text, it is stated that, “Over 300,000 Italian- speaking soldiers enlisted in the American Army, almost 10 percent of our total fighting force. Italians formed about 4 percent of the population of the United States and they formed 10 percent of the American military force. Their casualties were 12 percent..” (12). What the author is trying to show the audience is that, with this bill, there may or may not be an army big enough to suffice the United States. Still after the war, the men who served were still treated like garbage due to the fact that they were not born in America. In the speech, Clancy is sure to announce his final feelings on the bill when he expressed, “All that study convinces me that the racial discriminations of this bill are un-American,”(23). Those Italians fought for the country that they loved, the land of opportunity and the land of the free, still, after fighting for what they believed in, they were discriminated and still not considered an American. Clancy did an excellent job on making sure we knew that more than half of the Italian population in America fought for us to be free, and that they were more American than most of us will ever