Public Spaces

The consequences of racism in the United States can affect and therefore manifest itself differently among various American communities. This essay will look at the similar affects of racism among Mexican-Americans in two different social groups.

Have you ever tried listening to everything going on at the same time at a fast food restaurant during the lunch time rush hour? Well, I did and I am going to share the results of my whirlwind encounter last week. Within my observation, I will go over the layout of the establishment in which my observation was conducted, as well as who came to the establishment, the conversations and the interactions that took place. I hope you enjoy my observation and respect my findings from this visit.

The location I chose for this outsider assignment was one of Lewis University’s Rotaract meetings. Rotaract is the collegiate level of Rotary Club, a non-profit organization whose motto is “Service above self”. The club itself, both collegiate and adult level, dedicates its time and resources towards a wide variety of charitable acts. The meeting I went to was not an informative meeting, rather it was one of the many charity events that the group hosts year round. When I went, the event was called “Purposeful Purses” and it was taking the time to fill gently used purses with toiletries and some basic necessities in order to donate them to women’s shelters. Generally, such an event would seem like an odd location to conduct this outsider assignment, however, my reason for wanting to be there to see if I would feel like an outsider was influenced by a previous event that occurred a few months before. I am actually a member of Rotaract and was inducted into the club a few months prior. At the event, I became hyper-aware of the fact that I was the only racial minority being inducted that night. I was highly conscious of the fact that all of the collegiate Rotaract inductees, their families, the adult Romeoville Rotary club, the guest speakers, and the faculty were White. The only other minority groups in the room were the staff serving the food. Despite these circumstances, I would have never really felt like an outsider until I was spoken to like one. Even then, that took a

Since prejudice is so predominant it has cause a ripple in our country. A report that got some information about their perspectives of bigotry has found the country to in any case be profoundly isolated, with larger parts of black and white Americans holding almost inverse perspectives of the effect of skin pigmentation. Roughly 4 in 10 African Americans question that the nation will ever achieve the point where they are equivalents to whites, according the Pew Research Center. Almost 4 in 10 white Americans consider that has as of now happened. Greater parts of white individuals trust blacks are dealt with the same as them when applying for a home loan, in the work environment, and at the voting stall. Police treatment of blacks, the Black

Lauri Monroe SOC 304 2/1/16 First Essay The Stigma of Race and Class When I think about riding the bus, my thoughts are; how long it will take me to get there?

As Gutierrez describes it, “There’s a certain amount of racism among Mexicans against blacks and blacks against Puerto Ricans. But I see more racism with the blacks than with the white or Latin” (1). Though ironic, it’s no surprise given the history of the Black community in this country. In Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”, she analyzes through history the transition of the ill treatment of the Black community. She argues that the idea of race is merely a social construct mostly created by European imperialism that sought to demonstrate superiority and therefore used the classification of races as a tool to justify their own agendas.

Imperialism and then colonialism opened the floodgates that are troubled race relations, racism, and misguided societal values. Race has played a vital role in how Americans view each other, and themselves, and the experiences that they have. We constantly hear about institutionalized racism, the school-to-prison pipeline and police brutality on the news. The topic of race has such an enormous presence in our society that it simply cannot be ignored. But what is rarely talked about is how these conditions are incredibly similar to those that people in Latin America have to endure as well. Racism does not end at the borders of the United States, and in fact, they only seem to get worse in countries that are less developed.

A culture’s rules of conduct are considered the norm and in the United States the accepted norm is white. “Through norms, in-group members know how to react toward the acts of outgroup members that surprise, shock, or annoy them or in any way go against the shared expectations. Anything contrary to this “normal” state is seen as negative or deviant. When minorities “act uppity” or “don’t know their place”, the majority view this as a violation and can have strong reactions because they appear to threaten the social fabric of a community” (Parillo, 2014, p. 27).

Ideas of racism and equality have been a great conflict in the U.S. during these past few years. There have been major protests saying that “Black Lives Matter,” “ White Lives Matter,” and “All Lives Matter.” The problem with these protests are that people are saying negative things about each other and it has been bringing high tension throughout the United States. I just think these protests are making us look inhumane to foreign countries and I think we as Americans all have equal rights and it’s not like one race rules the rest. It’s just really sad how America is changing this drastically. For the past two weeks, tension has been rising since Donald Trump became our newly elected president. Most people after the elections were frightened

Racial relations has taken a huge part of throughout the United States’ history from the Mayflower pilgrims and the Native Americans to now with immigration policies from prospective candidate Donald Trump for the the 2016 election. It is understandable that this statement is true due to the fact that most of this country’s citizens(illegal or not) come from an immigrant descent. Racial differences often get started due to ignorance about the opposing race.Another factor to racial difference is fear, As an immigrant myself, I have a vast amount of experience with race relations in my country of origin and in the United States. A myth about racism states that Caucasians are the only racists race.This statement itself is discriminating

Quick! A mexican is robbing a store! That is how us mexicans are thought about, as robbers, rapist, and drug dealers. This wasn’t a big issue in the past, not till now. Now all white americans consider us one of things I mentioned before. We can’t walk in a fancy store without being looked at some type of way. Why? The reason is because of our now president Donald. While trying to get in office our president insulted the mexicans. He made everyone else believe something we are not. This has impacted us greatly the insults increased, getting yelled at in public. This makes us feel not wanted and very disrespected. We can’t change their mind because our level of status, it’s our word and actions against the president

In Zeus Leonardo’s article and the video titled “The Power of the Illusion: The House We Live in,” American racism is discussed, and white racial domination is argued as the explanation for this stigma across the country. Based on both sources, I believe that this is indeed the case in American society.

The event I attended was the film screening for the movie "Gook" at the Askew Student Life Center. This film narrates the life of two Korean American brothers who have a unique friendship with an 11-year old African American named Kamila. To begin with, the title of the movie is an offensive slang that is used to describe people who are from Philippine, Korean, or Vietnamese descent. As the title appeared, and the word was explained right underneath it, it made me realize that this word holds the same offensive meaning as the N word does to African Americans. Besides that, several of the others topics that we have discussed in class came in mind, allowing me to understand that this film was created as an attempt to demonstrate the struggle and overt

even though it didn't occur overnight, i came to the understanding that instituationalization and public-reinforcement of race is very real in the United States. and that I didn't have to conform to one race because that is what society expects of me.

Observation Two. For my second immersion experience, I visited an area in Richardson, TX known as Chinatown. It is an small shopping center that is a major hub for those who want to experience authentic Asian shopping, events, and food (DFW Chinatown, 2013). Upon entering Chinatown, I decided to eat some authentic Chinese food and chose to eat at a restaurant named Jen Chi Chinese Food. Upon arrival, there was an older man and younger woman who greeted me, with the younger woman who lead me to a table. There was only one other family in the restaurant when I sat down. It was a small family of what I believe what the father, mother, and two children, who I never heard say a word. Shortly after I was seated, another group of three women and an infant came into the restaurant be seated. This is when my feeling welcomed quickly change. One of the three women turned her entire body towards me and stared at me. I just figured that she was probably wanting to get a better look of me and was trying to figure out why an African American woman was in the restaurant. I thought it was interesting that she did not try to hide the fact that she was looking at me. The only thing that broke her constant staring at me was when the baby cried or the mother of the baby spoke to her. I assume that she was the grandmother to the baby. It seemed that her role was to care for the child and the mother was very willing to let the older woman tend to the child first. It was obvious that the other two