Race And Discrimination During Twentieth Century California

The history of Mexicans in Los Angeles is a long one. The city itself was founded in 1781, by Spaniards and mixed race Latinos. As time went on, Latinos faced more and more discrimination. Certain events stand out in California’s Latino history. In the forties, Caucasian sailors would beat up Latinos who wore “Zoot Suits”, or baggy clothes, and the police let the Caucasians do it with no consequences.

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.

Racially constituted labor was commonly seen during the early 20th century. Because of the implementation of labor disparity between races, “capricious restrictions that made economic parity with whites virtually impossible” (Sides, 2006). Although there have been attempts at labor equality, racial groups were oppressed and marginalized by white hierarchy. Deliberately assigning specific races to lower labor markets resulted in hindered work mobility for all minorities.

California is the state that well known with the largest population in the United State, and it is the most culturally and racially diverse society.When walking in the street, it can see different kinds of races and hear many different languages. “Melting pot” is a good definition to explain this diverse phenomenon, which describes that the lost of different cultures living together harmoniously in a common society. Actually, numbers of these different cultural immigrants came to the California, the United State since the Gold Rush. These different cultures are melting harmoniously right now, however, they has faced discrimination and racist attacks during the Gold Rush. In this essay, it is going to discuss the development of the Gold Rush, who has been discrimination and how they has been discrimination during that period.

During the 1950’s African Americans experienced inequality and discrimination. For these reasons Armstrong received many racist reviews in the newspapers, Armstrong refused to comment on political matters or on topics such as segregation and racism. This changed however in 1957, when Armstrong saw the Little Rock Central High School crisis or the “Little Rock nine” as it is also known. When Armstrong saw the crisis on television he was furious and told a reporter, Larry Lubenow, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had "no guts" and stated, "The way they are treating my people in the South, the Government can go to hell.” When the eager reporter returned to his editor thinking he had a huge new cover story for their paper, the editor said there was no way Armstrong would have said something like that, and that they could only print the story if he had some form of proof. When the reporter returned to Armstrong he asked his permission to print the story.

When Mae Ngai stated that Asian and Latino persons are still treated as racial outsiders within the United States, she is referring to the America’s treatment of these minority groups throughout history and today. For instance, the labor of both groups of immigrants have continually exploited as they sought the rumored opportunity of our “nation of immigrants.” Historical examples would include the Asian population that played a key role in the Central Pacific Railroad and the Latino population that continues to be utilized by farmers to supplement an American lack of interest resulting in a labor shortage in the Farm labor industry (Kanstroom, p. 213). Secondly, both minority groups have had citizens imprisoned without due process during both the Japanese Internment Camps of World War II and the Mexican Repatriation of the Depression Era (Kanstroom, p.213-219).

Society in the United States has changed the way discrimination is from the 1800’s to the 2000’s and is a big impact to people all around the country. Many African-Americans have been discriminated for a long period of time and now, many athletes are taking a stand to show its physically and morally wrong and occurs in past history, sports, and even the police force. Discrimination is is immoral tell this day and is still a horrifying act.

The assigned readings offered an interesting and complex view of some of the diverse groups of people who were marginalized in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The primary sources shared detailed information on how Mexicans, Filipinos, and White Americas experienced hostility and inequality in California. In Resistance, Radicalism, and Repression on the Oxnard Plain, Frank Barajas discusses how beet sugar growers on the Oxnard Plain cut the wages of Mexican laborers working in their fields. This ignited an uproar and began a strike movement among the betaberleros (sugar beet workers), who felt it was an injustice to lower wages and face discrimination just because they were minorities (Barajaos, 29-51). As commotion was occurring within the Oxnard Plain of California, conflict between the residents of the agricultural community of Watsonville and the Filipino farm labor community emerged. Many Watsonville residents showed a strong anti-Filipino sentiment, as well as social and sexual stereotyping of Filipinos (Witt, 293). This tension between Watsonville residents and Filipinos sparked the Watsonville Riot of 1930 (Witt, 299-300).

The clashing of arms and fists are never a way to save yourself, it causes danger for someone else, with discrimination being a large role in the 1920s, it caused blacks and whites to have a new uproar of segregation ,and making the 1920s an even darker time. In the 1920s, racism was a major crime that thrived on throughout many areas, even though people thought it had subdued, it really never went away. With the riots ,and clans ,and unfair worthiness to citizens , many citizens of different races lost their lives because of it. The screeching and torture of citizens crying out for help was a dramatic time for people of opposing races.

LOS ANGELES, JUNE 1 – California Gov. Pete Wilson (R), vowing to lead a growing conservative movement to end three decades of racial and gender preferences as an antidote to discrimination, today signed an executive order abolishing a wide range of affirmative action programs affecting hiring and contracting in state agencies.

This animosity towards Mexican Americans contradicted the shared belief that the west was not only an escape to freedom but also a utopia where immigrants could turn a new page and paint a future for themselves. I argue that segregation in the 19th and 20th centuries was not only centralized in the South but also in the West as seen by the Mendez v Westminster case of 1946 and, consequently, that this incorrect notion of segregation being dominant only in the south led to the pivotal Brown v Board of Education case overshadowing the historical significance of Mendez v Westminster.

During the 1920’s the KKK displayed a strong power of continuity over the power of aberration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Black Exclusion Act of 1849 began the use of prejudice and intolerances within the Pacific Northwest. The KKK used those Acts as a step and sustained the route. Throughout time the KKK definitely exemplified the use of exclusion, nativism, xenophobia, racism, and colonization. The list of people and or traits one had often exceeded what was viewed as wholesome. The pre-existing Act’s provided an area for the KKK to flourish along with the common white mans participation in the government and guidelines. In Oregon we have quite the diverse community, however, there is a lack of cultural diversity here compared

Setting is an important feature of novels. This narration takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1960. A time that saw the segregation of black people and the dominance of white people in the southern United States. In this novel the setting of 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi exposes significant themes such as racial discrimination, social partiality. The setting also supplies decisive insight into character inspirations and views.

Thousands of migrants in the 1920’s - 1950’s envisioned Compton, California as the perfect place to settle down and ideal center for industrial workers. That vision did come true for white Americans, although it

The history of United State has shown many racial discriminations since colonists arrived America. African Americans have suffered unequal treatments and punishments in comparison to white people and European immigrants. Even when slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans were still victims of many inequalities like employment, rights, housing, and transportation. However, due to these inequalities and mistreatments like the Jim Crow Laws, many African Americans started to make a change during the 1950’s, also called the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks, that was arrested for sitting in the front of a bus in Alabama. Rosa Parks case made the supreme court to ban segregation in public transportation. The social difference during the 1950’s was very notable and obvious, and voting was a big example of the huge discrimination suffered by African Americans and minorities. In the south, white people would take away minorities’ right to vote by making them take a test that would decide if they were or not capable to make a political decision. Fortunately, big characters like Martin Luther King vouched for the end of this inequalities. Martin Luther King played a big role in the 1960’s making everyone aware about the change that was about to come.