Miguel Brown Not White Summary

Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. By David G Gutiérrez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

“Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, describes the reality of urban public schools and the isolation and segregation the students there face today. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods.

The formation of segregated barrios and the development of a wealth of community-provided services showed that Mexican-Americans were not content to be marginalized by the United States. Instead, they were embracing an empowering new sense of self-determination and referring to themselves as “Mexicanos or as members of a larger, pan-Hispanic community of La Raza.” At this time La Raza referenced individuals of the Mexican “race”, whether they were in Mexico or in the United States, and was particularly important in the United States, where race was more important than citizenship. In the late 19th and early 20th century United States, race was determined by purity of blood, and there were only two races—white and black. White meant the individual had “pure blood” (European blood); black meant that the individual’s blood included indigenous or African influences. Being white meant being able to exercise one’s constitutional rights and being treated as a normal member of society’s dominant group. Being black meant that, regardless of whether he or she was a citizen, the individual would face discrimination similar to that which I described earlier. When the Spanish conquerors mixed with the people of Latin America, forming the mestizo, or mixed race, population that now composes most of the region, they removed themselves from a “white” classification in the United States. Thus, by engaging with the concept of La Raza, which connotes a mestizo race and population, Mexican-Americans rejected the binary nature of race in the United States and embraced what made them different—their indigenous-mixed blood and the cultural heritage that accompanied it. While the abuse directed towards Mexican-Americans may have

Throughout our history as a nation, we have earned a reputation of undermining the relationships we have had with minorities and of largely neglecting their needs. Our almost hostile nature towards minorities in the United States can largely be seen in the treatment of Mexicans and Mexican American citizens in the times surrounding World War Two. Such hostilities are reflected in our treatment of Mexican Americans in the late 19th after the Civil War and early 20th centuries, the Sleepy Lagoon murder responses, and the Zoot Suit riots. My primary source reveals a feeling of inferiority in the United States by the Mexican American youth due discrimination that they faced, which can be better understood by analyzing the cultural contexts.

In Pearsall, Texas, the Anglo and Mexican communities were divided to contribute to Elva’s confusion and frustrations of being alone. The immigrant society was lumped together as their own “class” of people:

In the long history of the United States, Texas is one of the few states that demonstrated three-way segregation including white, black, and Latinos communities. Generally, segregation influenced all dimensions of the society. In specific, former segregation in Texas has left an immeasurable impact on the state’s culture, economy, geography, and education. Despite the fact that institutional desegregation occurred decades ago, segregation of minorities still exists in modern Texas. In particular, the contemporary implementation of Texas House Bill 588 – as known as the “Top 10 Percent Rule” – indicates the state’s tenacious effort to heal the scars of racial segregation in educational perspective. Practically, the law has not only fostered multiracial public institutions, but also reshaped colleges in a statewide scale.

Within the Mexican community, competing notions of racial identity has long existed. Aware to gradations of color in race and their shading of white and non white identity, Haney Lopez introduces the

The article “The Cosmic Race in Texas: Racial Fusion, White Supremacy, and Civil Rights Politics” discusses the Mexican American civil rights movement and focuses on the influences and efforts of the League of United Latin American Citizens. LULAC was key in shifting the view on racial fusion and advancing the notion of a world of mixed races. During the Jim Crow era, from the 1920s to 1940s, LULAC combated discrimination and challenged the racial hierarchy of the United States. The author, environmental and Latino historian Benjamin H. Johnson, wrote this piece to “examine the connections between Mexican American civil rights circles and [the ideas of] postrevolutionary Mexican figures (404).” In his explorations of LULAC’s beginnings, Johnson

The Chicano community has endured and overcome many struggles since the conquest by conquistador in 1491 and eviction from Atzlan. Race was used by the white community as tool to structure inequality for the Chicano community by classifying the Chicano community as white but treat them as a minority community. Chicano activist during the Mexican American generation found community self-determination by becoming actively involved in their community and taking hold of their own destiny. The Mexican American activists created a new way of seeing themselves by taking the term Chicano and making the term a symbol for who they truly are and who they want to become. The new ethos of the new identity of a Chicano is community

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

This chapter talks about the deculturalization of Hispanic Americans in education and etc. Anglo-Americans didn’t consider Hispanic/Latino Americans white, more as an inferior race. The Mexican War mark a change in Mexicans. The Mexicans lost half of its territory to the United States/Already losted half of their territory in the war; the ratification of a new treaty came about, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty stated, that Mexicans remaining in their lost territories have the right to become U.S citizens (page 90). The Mexican congress ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848; ceded the United States Mexican territory from Texas to California. Mexican leaders wanted all Mexicans living in ceded territory to be given citizenship

194). This is how Latino American felt when they attended public schools in America. This is why I believe African American and Latinos when through similar problem with American Public schools. They both had to go through segregation and figure out how to live in a cruel world. There weren’t that much difference between these two groups but one of them would be that African American had to face the world outside of school more than Latinos did. There were riots due to African Americans in white schools so they had to go through a little more. One of the groups that helped African American achieve equal education were the people that took part of Little Rock. There were nine kids selected to go to a white public school and manage to survive and get a good education. They were called bad names and even got spit on according to (Clark, p.289) but this one girl called daisy Bates made a difference because she went to that school and showed courage and one day a white girl helped her to the bus and sat next to her and that’s when she knew that there was hope in this world. Another person that was a huge part to fight for equal education opportunity was Septima

Additionally, the primary language dispite discouragement from the teachers was english. Furthermore, the children who were darker skinned latinos often played with otther darker skinned latinos or black children, while the white students played with lighter skinned latinos, the divide on the playground was based moreso on the race a student appeared to be rather than their cultur. Moreover, in the reading groups the majority of white students were in the high reading group, with the mahoirty of biracial students in the medium reading group,the majjoirty of the latino students in the low and only the african american and black students were only in the low reading group. despite th eschool trying to teach the students about race and the harmfull effects of racism, the low percentage of black and african american students made them easily identified as different, and reulted in them being labeled as such, which negetivly effected their school work. The white students are priilaged because many of their parents hold power over the school, and have been able to attend an alternative school due to their parents ability to work within the

Believe it or not, living so close to the Mexican-American border one wouldn’t think that there was racism in South Texas. Due to the racism in South Texas, some unfortunate events were the result of it. Examples of this were the Edcouch Elsa Walkouts and Pharr Riots. Segregation to Mexican-American students in school was one of the issues that created a rebellion in the Edcouch-Elsa School District. Another stressful event that arises due to racism was the Pharr riots of 1971. However, due to these unfortunate events there were some accomplishments and equality was achieved over the years.

Brown: The Last Discovery of America completes Richard Rodriguez 's three-volume work in which he explains and explores the ethnic and racial future of America. In this particular book, the author defines the color brown not as the representation of the Hispanic race but as the color of the future. Black, white, yellow, the author explains, are incorrect racial categories for it is not how nature works. Nature yearns for combination of all different colors, and brown is the final result. In the chapter "Hispanics," as seen through imagery, personification, and humor, Richard Rodriguez upsets the reader to show that racial categorization is unfit and that racial barriers are meant to be broken.